I have transferred my first 300 DVDs, into MKV files, and now realise that I should have created more libraries. How do you move a TV show from an existing library to a new library and keep the metadata and poster, etc.
My first attempt was to move the folders containing the TV shows to the new library folder, this resulted in loosing all the custom data.
After searching on this forum for advice, I copied a single show that I knew was not in TVDB, although a more recent version was - Plex updated the tags etc to the latest and incorrect version. Re-naming the show folder with the year and repeating the copy has stopped Plex adding the incorrect data - but I have none of the meta data I entered manually or the poster inserted.
This must be a common requirement, so could someone please advise what I need to do, to correctly link moved media to the Plex database
Graham
Thanks for the quick response - not what I was hoping for, I was expecting a simple way to re-organise the library structure and move meta data along with the media.
Having looked at your suggestions and added another 100 films, I have decide to live with the problem (as only a few items are problematic, if named correctly). I would rather spend my time watching my media than creating .nfo files, especially as it appears Plex does not even officially support them.
Graham
I have 10s of thousands of items in my Plexiverse. Of those I used Fix Incorrect Match maybe 5 or 6 times and at least 2 of those times was due to me not naming a file properly. Since I started using FileBot (link in my signature) I haven’t had to Fix Incorrect Match once.
Users that stubbornly hang on to their own Naming Scheme are constantly using Fix Incorrect Match when Plex can’t deal with their naming - then when they want to move a library or items as their Plexiverse grows they always want to know how to move stuff without losing any of their ‘Custom Edits’.
For me, moving stuff is made easy - I just copy it to the new spot first, let Plex see it in both spots and share (the only thing that matters) it’s ‘preview thumbnails’. It matches the same in the new spot as it did in the old spot BECAUSE IT’S NAME IS 100% COMPLIANT, but if something horrible happens Plex just has to match it again - it’s no big deal.
I have better things to do than constantly futz around with my media. I futz around with it BEFORE it goes in a library, name it right once then do something else.
There are a LOT of things about Plex I don’t care for, but the file naming and structuring requirements are not among them.
Well, I’m not sure I would need the filebot utility. Most Newsgroup and Torrents now using the Plex naming conventions (S01E01 format in the filename). To ensure that you have to proper/correct series one needs to verify that in the TVDB or the MOVIEDB web site. Once that is done, no more problems. In some cases the date is required in the series folder name. A good example of this is the TV series Last Man Standing. On TVDB there are several of them. The 2011 version is the Tim Allen comedy series. So the folder name should be ‘Last Man Standing (2011)’. Simple.
/TV Shows
/Grey’s Anatomy
/Season 01
Grey’s Anatomy - s01e01.avi
Grey’s Anatomy - s01e02 - The First Cut is the Deepest.avi
Grey’s Anatomy - s01e03.mp4
/Season 02
Grey’s Anatomy - s02e01.avi
Grey’s Anatomy - s02e02.mkv
Grey’s Anatomy - s02e03.m4v
In the above example, using ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ at the episode level is redundant. Plex uses the series name from the folder. So doing the following will work OK also.
/TV Shows
/Grey’s Anatomy
/Season 01
s01e01.avi
s01e02 - The First Cut is the Deepest.avi
s01e03.mp4
/Season 02
s02e01.avi
s02e02.mkv
s02e03.m4v
In fact, one could also do the following with identical results. (notice the season folders now missing) This works OK.
/TV Shows
/Grey’s Anatomy
s01e01.avi
s01e02 - The First Cut is the Deepest.avi
s01e03.mp4
s02e01.avi
s02e02.mkv
s02e03.m4v
As for cropping/resizing, I find Wondershare’'s Video Converter Ultimate the best general purpose conversion utility. Pay the $50 or whatever. It can crop and resize any video, and a very convenient PANSCAN option can center and resize to fit your custom resolution.
We prove every day that anything less than full compliance with TV Shows is a road leading to Castle Franken-Fail. You are welcome to play around with your media, but I prefer doing it right once - then watching it.
