# Folder organisation **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735 "2018-01-31T16:28:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TomMettam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/58f4c7/32.png) [@TomMettam](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TomMettam)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/1 "2018-01-31T16:28:19Z")
Hi all! I have an issue with Plex failing to recognise my Star Trek properly. I have my files organised as such: /media/Star Trek/The Original Series/Season 1/.mkv /media/Star Trek/The Original Series/Season 2/.mkv /media/Star Trek/The Original Series/Season 3/.mkv /media/Star Trek/The Next Generation/Season 1/.mkv /media/Star Trek/The Next Generation/Season 2/.mkv /media/Star Trek/The Next Generation/Season /.mkv However, Plex appears to recognise all my The Next Generation content as The Original Series. It identifies fine if i have it as: /media/Star Trek The Original Series/Season 1/.mkv /media/Star Trek The Original Series/Season 2/.mkv /media/Star Trek The Original Series/Season 3/.mkv /media/Star Trek The Next Generation/Season 1/.mkv /media/Star Trek The Next Generation/Season 2/.mkv /media/Star Trek The Next Generation/Season /.mkv … but I’d prefer to group all my Star Trek stuff into a single folder. Is there any way around this limitation? ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/2 "2018-01-31T16:39:38Z")
> @TomMettam said: > Is there any way around this limitation? No. Arbitrary subfolders are not allowed in a tv show library. side note: use 2-digit season numbers for the names of your season folders. 1. Look up your show on [TheTVDB](http://thetvdb.com/ "TheTVDB") 2. Take the title as it is used on TheTVDB. If there is something in parentheses, take that too. If the title contains invalid characters (depends on your file system), like `§ : % *`, simply leave them out. 3. Check the [naming and the folder structure](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200220687-naming-series-season-based-tv-shows/ "naming and the folder structure") of your show. Name the top folder of the show exactly after the title on TheTVDB. No abbreviations. No additional subfolders. No aliases. 4. Name the episode files according to the above linked naming guide. Use the same title as for the top folder. `Show's Title - s01e01 - additional info.ext` (‘- additional info’ can be left out) 5. After you corrected the naming and folder structure, perform the [Plex Dance](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/908454/#Comment_908454 "Plex Dance") with all files for this show. ---
**Author:** ![nokdim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ab992/32.png) [@nokdim](https://forums.plex.tv/u/nokdim)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/3 "2018-01-31T16:40:11Z")
Maybe try and add the year to each?!?! so - /media/Star Trek/Star Trek (1966)/Season X/ /media/Star Trek/Star Trek The Next Generation (1987)/Season X/ It might be an issue cause the original is just called “Star Trek” and both are in a folder called “Star Trek” so if you wanted to change the name of the folder just after /media/ so like /media/ST/ or something like that might help. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/4 "2018-01-31T16:40:37Z")
It’s not a limitation. It’s how you’ve named it. “Star Trek The Original Series” is not the correct name. It’s “Star Trek”. A tool such as FileBot ([www.filebot.net](http://www.filebot.net)) is arguably the best tool for working with movies and series to avoid this type problem ``` tv/Star Trek tv/Star Trek Deep Space Nine tv/Star Trek Enterprise tv/Star Trek Voyager tv/Star Trek- Discovery tv/Star Trek The Animated Series tv/Star Trek The Next Generation ``` ---
**Author:** ![TomMettam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/58f4c7/32.png) [@TomMettam](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TomMettam)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 4:42pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/5 "2018-01-31T16:42:53Z")
I was under the impression that Plex performed some kind of fingerprinting, because I’ve had some VERY randomly named files before which Plex successfully identified. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 4:52pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/6 "2018-01-31T16:52:14Z")
> @TomMettam said: > I was under the impression that Plex performed some kind of fingerprinting, because I’ve had some VERY randomly named files before which Plex successfully identified. No, it just uses heuristic algorithms to determine the identity of a file from its file name and the names of the folder strcuture where it’s situated in. This tends to work less and less reliable the more your library grows and the more your organisation deviates from the recommendations . I recommend you to stick to the [naming guidelines](https://support.plex.tv/articles/#cat-media-preparation "naming guidelines") from day one. There is software to make this easier and fast. [Filebot](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/191687/plex-naming-schemes-for-filebot "Filebot") ---
**Author:** ![jjrjr1](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jjrjr1/32/10993_2.png) [@jjrjr1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jjrjr1)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/7 "2018-01-31T16:58:22Z")
Abbreviations worked for me. Star Trek TOS and Star Trek TNG worked fin for me. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/8 "2018-01-31T17:09:18Z")
> @jjrjr1 said: > Star Trek TOS > and > Star Trek TNG > worked fin for me. Probably only if you use TheMovieDatabase instead of TheTVDB I know ‘Star´Trek TOS’ is set as alternate title on TMDB, but I don’t see it on TheTVDB. ---
**Author:** ![AmazingRando24](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/amazingrando24/32/351517_2.png) [@AmazingRando24](https://forums.plex.tv/u/AmazingRando24)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/9 "2018-01-31T17:09:47Z")
Mostly, after the folder hierarchy (MainLibrary/ShowTitle/Seasons/Files), I think file naming is key: ShowName - S01E01 - EpisodeName.ext The big two being the name of the show, followed by numbered season and numbered episode. After that, I think the episode name matters very little. Experience leads me to believe: - **ShowTitle Folder** - Tells Plex that the items contained within should be grouped together as a show. Different shows (even if they’re all Star Trek) will not split individually. Plex believes they’re all the same show. - **Seasons Folders** - Do these folders even matter? I believe Plex groups seasons based on the S00 portion of the file name. - **File Name (ShowTitle - S01E01)** - Other than the Show Title folder, this is where Plex really gets the meat of the information it needs. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. Also, FileBot will become your best/Plex friend. Go get it. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 5:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/10 "2018-01-31T17:20:19Z")
My filebot renaming rules for series are: `/nas/tv/{n}/Season {s.pad(2)}/{n} - {s00e00} - {t}` This results in: ```auto [chuck@lizum Star Trek The Next Generation.132]$ ll total 96 drwxr-xr-x 9 chuck users 4096 Nov 16 23:38 ./ drwxrwxrwx 66 chuck users 4096 Jan 28 12:44 ../ drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck users 12288 Nov 12 22:36 Season 01/ drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck users 12288 Nov 12 22:36 Season 02/ drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck users 12288 Nov 12 22:36 Season 03/ drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck users 12288 Nov 12 22:36 Season 04/ drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck users 12288 Nov 12 22:36 Season 05/ drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck users 12288 Nov 12 22:36 Season 06/ drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck users 12288 Nov 12 22:36 Season 07/ [chuck@lizum Star Trek The Next Generation.133]$ ll Season\ 01/ total 104311020 drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck users 12288 Nov 12 22:36 ./ drwxr-xr-x 9 chuck users 4096 Nov 16 23:38 ../ -rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users 7271580292 Jun 23 2017 Star Trek The Next Generation - S01E01 - Encounter at Farpoint.mkv ``` Important here are the delimiters between Series name, Season/Episode identifier, and optional Episode title. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/11 "2018-01-31T17:22:51Z")
And here is a naming pattern for Filebot which adds the (year) after the show title and also cares about external subtitles > **[A couple of TV Show naming issues - Plex won't add these](http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1556111/#Comment_1556111)** > > It is of utmost importance to not only have the file names and folder structure correct, but to also take great care of where your tv show library is pointing at. taking @tom80H 's example from above, your library should be pointed at the (tv show... ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 12:32am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/folder-organisation/223735/12 "2020-01-08T00:32:41Z")