Help fixing matches with IMDB/TVDB/TMDB numbers

Plex Media Server
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Plex is FANTASTIC. However the single biggest time waster it gives me is trying to fix incorrect matches. I can surf the web and find the exact IMDB/TVDB/TMDB number for a TV show, but when i try to search with them using the required format (ie tmdb-ID) in the Plex match search it never finds anything. Beyond frustrated…

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This format will only ever work if your library is set to use the new agents.
i.e. either “Plex Movie” (without “legacy”) or “Plex TV Series”.

Also, Fix Match won’t work if you are trying to match an item in the wrong library type. e.g. you cannot force a match of a mini-series in a library of the type “movies” (and vice versa)

3

Thanks much. I have seen several conflicting guidance also:

  • which ordering of agents to use
  • format to use when searching on ID (curly braces, ID only, XXXX-ID)

???

4

the agent sequence (Settings > [Server Name] > Agents) only applies to the legacy agents. The current generation of Plex agents is configured per library in a library’s Advanced options.

So if your library is set to use the Plex Movie agent, you don’t have to worry about the agent ordering.

The format references are for two different scenarios:

  1. Manually matching / fixing a match with an ID from within Plex
    Simply enter the IMDb ID or tmdb-+TMDb ID in the title when matching a movie.

  2. Including the ID in your folder structure for improved automatic matching results
    Add {<source>-<ID>} to the movie folder name; e.g. for Dune (2021):

    • Dune (2021) {imdb-tt1160419}
    • Dune (2021) {tmdb-438631}
5

Here is an example of what I am having a challenge with:

What i want to find:

My Folder Name:
Brothers in War (2014) {imdb-tt3595312} (I also tried with just name+year)

Filename:
National.Geographic.Brothers.in.War.S01E1-TERRA.mkv

When i search i don’t get any results?

6

Folder name is perfect, but do you below that have a folder named Season 01 below that, and in that has the episode?

Ref: Naming and Organizing Your TV Show Files | Plex Support

7

No I don’t. I was trying the S01E01 in the filename to see if it works somehow

8

I just tried doing a fix match on one of my movies that is matched and then cleared out the title and year field and put “imdb-tt3595312” (no quotes) in the title field and searched and it came up with this movie right away.

If you are putting this in a TV library, I don’t think that will work as I couldn’t find this in TheTVDB and from TheMovieDB (and IMDB) this looks to be classified as a movie (even if it is a TV Movie).

I think you are going to need to put this in your movie library in order to get it to match.
If you do that and you want to put the IMDB ID in the folder, you’ll also have to put it in the filename per the support page for movie naming.

Edit: Just did a test on my test server with the structure:

Movies\Brothers in Arms (2014) {imdb-tt3595312}\Brothers in Arms (2014) {imdb-tt3595312} [1080p].mkv

When I scanned my movie library it came up right away to the correct match.

-Shark2k

9

Interesting. Perhaps many of them are classified as movies (even though they are TV shows). I will have to try this and see if there is a workaround to organize things correctly.

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I made an edit while you were typing your last reply, just an FYI.

Regarding your comment, I am not sure how it would impact PLEX’s aggregating of the metadata sources, but I would think you would probably need to get at least TheTVDB or TheMovieDB to add it as a series.

Right now, if you go to the MovieDB link, Brothers in War (2014) — The Movie Database (TMDB), you will see that in the URL it is classified as a movie.

Maybe one of the Ninja’s or an employee would have more information and possibly a suggestion for you. The only thing I can think of is if you basically just create your own series and fill out the different metadata fields and make sure the lock is orange so the data doesn’t change on a refresh.

-Shark2k

1 Like
11

It is correct that it is classified as a movie not a TV show.

Sometimes there are documentaries that are classified as an episode of a TV show and also has a separate listing as a movie, like a bunch of the New York Times Presents ones are, but I cannot find Brothers in War as an episode of any documentary series.

TheTVDB used to only have TV shows so tv movies needed to be added as a S01E01 of a show because of it. Since their site redesign a few years ago when they added movies they reclassified most singular TV movies that are not part of a series as a movie even if they aired “on tv”.

So you either need to add it to your movie library, or if you really want it in your TV library you would need to add the metadata manually.

1 Like
12

The fact that a movie was originally aired on TV doesn’t make it a “tv show” in Plex.
Only “episodic” content is a tv show – i.e. a series.

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