Can’t seem to figure this out…I have a folder called MOVIES. In that folder is a separate folder for each of my movies, with no artwork. I have a picture in each folder that I want to use, and have named them Folder.jpg, but they do not show up. If you go into each folder, the cover art from IMDB is there in each folder, for all my movies, but in every case, MY art for the original folder containing the movie does not show up. I tried the settings/server/agents/media assets thing I saw on Google, but I must not be doing it right. Can anybody give me a step by step on this, or tell me another way to get it done? Maybe I need to name my pics something other than Folder? Thanks for any help you can provide.
folders cannot have artwork. if you mean you are trying to add a custom poster for a movie then you need to have Local Media Assets at the top priority of the movie agent are using for your library.
( it is generally easiest to name the file the exact same as your movie file IMO ) folder.jpg should would as well though
Movies/
Suicide Squad (2016)/
Suicide Squad (2016).mkv
Suicide Squad (2016).jpg
Which movie agent do you have set for your movie library?
Thanks for your help! Just to be sure you understand what I am looking to do, I am attaching several pictures. In pic 1, you see my Plex home screen.
When I open the Movies link, pic 2 shows my external drive, with 2 folders. It would be nice to be able to have some artwork on this screen.
Opening the Movies link from pic 2 gives me what you see in pic 3. Here is where I really want the covers to show up.
Opening one of the files seen in pic 3 (I opened 30 days of night) gives me what is seen in pic 4
Clicking the poster seen in pic 4 gives me pic 5, where everything looks good to me
Pics 6 and 7 show the screens for my media assets settings
Picture 8 shows the folder on my external drive, where you can see the artwork that I want to show up on picture 3. I hope this makes everything clear as to what I am attempting to do. This is the only thing holding me back from getting the lifetime subscription to Plex. Thanks again for your time and effort to help me out, I appreciate it!
The ‘By Folder’ view mode you chose for your library does not support artwork.
Switch it back to ‘All’
Would you know of any possibilities of this happening someday?
@jeffwolf said:
Would you know of any possibilities of this happening someday?
Unlikely.
Why do you need it?
I just think it would provide a better look. I don’t like the ALL view because most TV shows nowadays do not have the title name on the screen like they did way back in the 70’s. True, the episode title would be seen under the folder, but I prefer to have a picture there. Oh well, you can’t win them all, I guess.
You can provide Show, Season and Episode artwork as ‘sidecar’ files.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220717-Local-Media-Assets-TV-Shows
These files must be present when the episode is added the first time into your library.
If you have mp4 / m4v files with embedded cover artwork, this can be used too.
If your ‘Local Media Assets’ agent is in the topmost position under
Settings - Server - Agents - TheTVDB
then these ‘sidecar’ files / embedded cover art will be preferred over episode snapshots from the online databases.
(A side effect of having the LMA agent in the topmost position though is this: if you are using mp4 / m4v files and these files have incorrect embedded ‘Title’ tags, then proper matching is sometimes hard or even impossible.)
@OttoKerner said:
(A side effect of having the LMA agent in the topmost position though is this: if you are using mp4 / m4v files and these files have incorrect embedded ‘Title’ tags, then proper matching is sometimes hard or even impossible.)
So, the absolutely wonderful medicine that cures the illness - kills the patient deader than a dried out, flattened, road-killed squirrel.
The answer to this complex issue is to stop browsing by folders - or stop expecting to see artwork when you do.
For the life of me I just can’t detect the flaw with this view:
Unless we’re talking about one or more of the various apps, but no amount of folder viewing will ever fix that mess either.
Keep in mind that, even though you can use the web app for consuming your media, it is primarily made for administering your server and managing your libraries.
The look of a tv show is different on other ‘consume-only’ Plex apps.
Plus, in most cases you won’t be looking at a season directly, but simply use the ‘On Deck’ feature to quickly start the next upcoming episode of a show.
Exactly - even with the bug that is putting strange text in some areas of your interface - that’s way more prettiery and functional to boot.
Of course that’s not mentioning the bug wherein some posters are radiated like The Colossal Man (1957) or Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) that grows them to gargantuan proportions, but it’s odd to also note those are the only ones you can read.
JuiceWSA, I am highly intrigued by the photo you posted. It looks to me like what you have done there is very similar to what I am trying to do. It looks as though you have folders there with different shows in them, and there is an orange number on each folder, indicating that there are, for example, 127 episodes in the Star Trek Voyager folder. And the main folder has artwork. Can you please tell me how you did that?
@jeffwolf said:
Can you please tell me how you did that?
It happens automatically, if you follow the naming guide for tv shows
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220687-Naming-Series-Season-Based-TV-Shows
and there is an orange number on each folder, indicating that there are, for example, 127 episodes in the Star Trek Voyager folder.
This orange number does not indicate the total number of episodes, but the number of ‘unwatched’ episodes. Plex keeps track of which episodes you’ve already seen and which is on next.
Mine is set up where when I have it set to show all, it shows all the movies, and every separate episode of TV shows. I have thousands, so that is an unacceptable option at this point. Thank you for the tip, OttoKerner! I am looking into that right now.
@jeffwolf said:
Mine is set up where when I have it set to show all, it shows all the movies, and every separate episode of TV shows. I have thousands, so that is an unacceptable option at this point.
You need to separate your movies from your tv shows (‘tv show’ always refers to ‘series’ in the Plex world).
Different top folders on disk, different libraries in Plex.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220687-Naming-Series-Season-Based-TV-Shows
You have been a wonderful, wonderful help. It is working just exactly as I want it to. One last thing…Nightmare on Elm Street was a multi part movie series. I want them all in one folder. How should these be named? Thanks again!
@jeffwolf said:
You have been a wonderful, wonderful help. It is working just exactly as I want it to. One last thing…Nightmare on Elm Street was a multi part movie series. I want them all in one folder. How should these be named? Thanks again!
You are referring to the often-requested ‘Collections’ folder feature.
So far, this is not possible in Plex.
You need to add them all as individual movies into Plex.
Afterwards, edit each of the movies and give them a ‘Sort Title’ of
Nightmare on Elm Street (year) (with year being the release year of the movie, of course)
That way, all those Freddie Krüger movies are appearing together in your library, under N, in the right order.
For my Sci-Fi Sets I made a library and called it Sci-Fi Sets, oddly enough.
Star Treks get a Sort Title like: Star Trek ‘Release Year’ and there they are one right after the other:
BTW, the Blue 2s on those Star Wars Movies indicates I have two versions of the same Movie. I have one 720p ‘Harmy’s’ version with a whole bunch of commentary tracks and a giant gathering of Extras, then I have a 1080p version. I select the version at playback.
Thanks for the help, mine is looking really good now. Here’s an issue I am running into, though…Some movie titles are like this…Ace Ventura: Pet Detective…But when naming the movie the same as IMDB.com has it, my computer will not let me put the : mark into the name. What can I do here? Thanks again!
just don’t put it in the file name. it will know Ace Ventura Pet Detective is the same as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and will grab the right one. ( if it doesn’t you can always do a fix incorrect match )
