Folders Beginning with "other" Are Always Included

General Discussions
1

PMS (Plex Media Server) 1.8.1.4140 on Windows/Chrome (PlexWeb).

I am trying to exclude all folders named “Others”, so I created a .plexignore file (per https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201375253-Excluding-New-Content-with-plexignore) and placed it in the root folder of where the library points.

The .plexignore file consists of a single line: “Others/*”. I also tried “*Others/*”, “Others*/*”, “*Others*/*”, “Other*/*”, “*Other*/*”, and all-lowercase variants, with identical results.

The folder/file structure is like:
…\Test\Hitman (2007)\Hitman.mkv
…\Test\Hitman (2007)\Others\TestMedia.mp4
…\Test\.plexignore

and the Plex movie-type library (using the Plex Movie agent with Open Movie plug-in) has a single folder: …\Test

The file extensions above are example file types, but the same results occur regardless of the main movie’s and supplemental file’s extensions/types (valid Plex video formats).

With this set-up, the main movie file (Hitman.mkv) is picked up properly when scanning the library and/or updating metadata.

The issue is that folders that begin with “other” are not being excluded during the scan or metadata update, despite the .plexignore file. Media files in folders that begin with “other” get added as “extras”, and on the movie’s overview page, these extras are identified (categorized) as “Other” (similar to ones identified/categorized as “Interview”, “Behind the Scenes”, and “Trailer”).

Given the above folders/files, I would like that TestMedia.mp4 not be available to Plex users, but it appears as a Hitman extra. Changing “Others” in the .plexignore file to something else, such as “SkipFolder/*”, will skip folders named “SkipFolder” (including all media files in those folders and respective subfolders), as expected.

I could not find any information on if/how Plex specifically handles “other*” folders, including on the https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201381883-Special-Keyword-File-Folder-Exclusion and https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220677-Local-Media-Assets-Movies web pages.

As an aside, I have to concur with others who believe Plex’s dealing with extras is unnecessarily complex and over-engineered (which seems to cause unexpected and/or non-standard behavior), as discussed https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/281716/movie-extras-folders and https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/265769/extras-folder and https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/163035/how-do-extras-work.

Thanks for explaining Plex’s processing of “other*” folders (& files?) and .plexignore, and similar/related limitations or features not mentioned in the above support pages.

2

With the .plexignore file in the Test folder, and “Others/*” in the .plexignore, I believe Plex will ignore “Test\Others*”, but not “Test\Hitman\Others.”

I think you need to build the full path, with wildcards, from the location of the .plexignore file. Try this:

*/Others/*

If I’m right, the leading “*/” will represent the “Hitman (2007)” folder, and any other first-level folder.

3

Thanks for the suggestion. No dice.

Using “Others” in .plexignore and in the folder structure, as in your post, does not exclude media within the Others subfolder.

Changing “Others” to something else, like “SkipFolder”, for both .plexignore and the folder structure, does exclude media within the SkipFolder subfolder, just as it does using “SkipFolder/*” in .plexignore (without building the full path with wildcards, and as described in my initial post & on the .plexignore support page).

BTW, an interesting observation (possibly warranting a new thread) is that when the extra media is picked up (in this case, if the folder is named Others or if the media is in a folder not listed in .plexignore), the movie overview/summary page shows not only the extra media, but also the movie’s trailer (if available from Plex source).

When the extra media is ignored, as with SkipFolder, not only is the extra media not shown on the movie overview/summary page, but also the trailer (from Plex source) disappears.

This, too, is repeatable, such that the trailer appears & disappears, depending on whether there is some other extra media for the movie. Tried multiple iterations and with several movies.

I would think the trailer would show up, regardless of other media, if it is available from the Plex source, and certainly it should not disappear once it was found/included in the Plex DB just because other media is removed or otherwise no longer available.

I welcome thoughts on both of these, particularly if they are related:

  • “other” folders not excluded even though in .plexignore
  • and trailers showing / not showing depending on the presence of other extra media