Hard/Symlink to same file across two seasons results in one of them not appearing in Plex [Potential Bug]?

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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Server Version#: 1.2.1.4225 but I can update if needed
Player Version#: N/A

There are some shows where a special and an episode in a season can be considered the same exact episode. It is rare, but it does happen (ex on TheTVDB).

Example reproduction:

Notable examples:

  • Granblue Fantasy The Animation: S00E01 is the same as S01E13 (well, I thought this, it’s not apparently, but if I treat it as such it bugs out).

  • Digimon Adventure Tri- Each Special is the same as a combined episode of all the parts in a given season. Ex S00E01 is the same file for S00E01-E05

If I create a symlink or a hardlink, or a hardlink/symlink of a symlink, of the same episode across two seasons of a show, one of them (and I don’t know how it’s decided), does not appear in the Plex library after a metadata refresh.

This is not an issue if one is a symlink and another is a copy (for me, this may be because these files are linked to a network drive and thus there is a pass on matching hashes on such things. I don’t know if this would be the same if the file was on a local drive and cannot test this scenario at the moment).

If there is a copy and a symlink to something as the same in say, Season 1 in the same season folder, even though both files will be picked up in “Get Info”, the symlink will not count to the number of versions in the thumbnail (but it will show up in “Play Version”).

I cannot currently test the case if one is a hardlink and the other is a copy.

I’m assuming Plex is doing something (incorrectly) with hash matching to make this happen.

In the first scenario, the special does not appear. Screenshot of naming scheme for these two episodes:

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image882×55 5.13 KB

In the second scenario, the first episode of each season does not appear, but the specials do. Screenshot of naming scheme for these:

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image863×236 6.3 KB

Very clunky workaround:

  1. copy episode to a file SxxExx.mkv which is missing in the folder where it’s not being picked up, to get this new file picked up (keep the symlinks as is). Maybe simply touching the file and leaving it blank would be fine as well
  2. refresh metadata
  3. lock at least one field (ex, “originally aired”)
  4. erase touched file
  5. refresh metadata / scan again
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