I don’t want to take away from any of the advice given here, but I would try moving the Local Media Assets (TV) down to the bottom for the TVDB. It’s at the top in your screenshot. M4V’s and MP4’s are always grief if they contain any bad metadada. The Window file properties doesn’t show all of the metadata that might be included, and even MP3tag doesn’t unless you get it to show the extended tags.
You can still leave it activated, but it will use info from the TVDB first, then supplement with any embedded tags. But do drag it to the bottom.
You will probably have to Plex Dance again once you have changed the priority of the agents.
I don’t have as many Looney Tunes as you, but they load metadata almost instantly when I add them, including the title and summary. I always make sure there is absolutely no metadata (not even a title) They are named identically to the way you have them named.
EDIT: actually, the no embedded metadata is not true, I always make sure that audio languages are set.
Me too. @Danny_DeLoach
Infact your whole goal is to get metadata(online if possible & most preferable) so I would clear out all embedded metadata and plexdance the files. I have local media assets on top of my agent list and it’s been that way for many years now. The only difference is I ALWAYS remove all metadata from MP4/M4V files before adding to plex. I would not rely on LMA as an absolute solution for populating metadata.
I notice that Plex still remembers that I partially watched this video. At least I think that is what the partial circle means. Even though I did the Plex dance and even though I actually created a new library since the last time I watched part of the video, Plex still remembers this information about the file. Does that mean Plex is somehow ‘remembering’ incomplete information about the file, which is why it isn’t showing the episode name?
Also, Plex does recognize this video is from Looney Tunes. I assume this because Plex provides some information about the video. For example, “Looney Tunes is an American animated series…”:
Is the lack of episode titles possibly due to me not having a Plex Pass? In the Agents setting, there is a gear icon next to TheTVDB. When I click the gear icon, I see this (with defaults left unchanged):
The fact that I need a Plex Pass to get “trailers and extras…” makes me wonder if I also need a Plex Pass to get episode titles.
The single episode with not metadata tags has now been in my library for about 20 minutes (as shown above). There are still no episode titles. I’ll leave Plex open in my browser all night and check it in the morning to see if it has updated the video with an episode title.
BTW, do I have to leave Plex open in my browser in order to give it time to pull down metadata for my videos? Or, can Plex still process my files and pull metadata for the files, even when my browser is closed and my computer is off?
Your server needs to be running for plex to be able to update it’s database.
I use the TVDB and all my looney tunes shows show proper naming.
I do have a plexpass but I doub’t that’s it.
My naming is probably parsed through filebot. It seems to be pretty solid as it uses the TVDB for its naming - Duh.
Example file name: Looney Tunes - 1953x02 - Snow Business.mkv
Wrong Plex Dance order… You must remove the problem files out, scan for changes, empty trash, clean bundles, then edit what’s wrong with the files, then add back into plex.
That’s a issue. That tells me the plex dance was not done completely. You must complete each step in it’s entirety. Do not skip any steps and be sure every step is fully completed before going to the next step, in the correct order.
To tell you the truth. As much trouble you are having, I would plex dance the whole series, not just one or two episodes.
Absolutely not. Plex Pass has nothing to do with it. That’s one thing you can be sure of.
Maybe, but you did not use the “PLEX” template cause you are using the letter “x” for episode and you don’t have the letter “s” in front of 1953.
And you got MKV files which PLEX don’t look at(and tries to use) embedded metadata.
That is not correct.
If the file was “matched” to an ID number from TheTVDB, the watched/unwatched/‘playback progress’ info will survive the Plex Dance.
L:\Video\Family TV >> library points to this folder
Looney Tunes >> sub-folder for TV series
Season 1930
Looney Tunes - S1930E02 - Congo Jazz.m4v
I made sure there was no embedded metadata in the file.
I’m probably confused, but it looks like from a couple of screen shots you have tried creating a new library just for “Looney Tunes” (probably out of frustration) Can you show us exactly how your folders and sub-folders are set up, and exactly where your TV library is pointed to. I’m sure it’s something simple, because it does seem to work on my system automatically and quickly.
I completed this process about twenty minutes ago. Currently there is still no episode title showing. I’ll keep an eye on the library over the next hour or so to see if Plex pulls down the title.
Hmm… everything appears to be set up correctly. I’m hardly an expert, though. Odd that a similar structure on mine works perfectly. I’ve never had to wait for metadata to be downloaded, unless the TVDB was down, and since I just added the file a few minutes ago, it must be up and running.
I’ve never used MP3Tag to edit meta-data for videos, but I see it has extended tags for episodes and seasons, etc. Also for chapters, so if the file has even one chapter, maybe metadata is applied to that. anyways…
Just for fun, why don’t you try re-muxing it as an MKV with MKVToolnix GUI? Maybe the files have got mixed up with all of the adding and deleting and changing meta-data with various methods. If we can get it to work with an MKV file, we can probably assume there’s something messed up with the M4V file confusing Plex, and we know where to start looking.
I would create a whole new test library, even if it just has the one MKV in it, so there’s no confusion by Mr. Plex.
Maybe the XML for the file, or if you have MediaInfo installed, the output from that would give us a clue.
Here is a text file with all of the data from MediaInfo.
What is the best way to strip all metadata from the file? I have ffmpeg, and I know a little bit about how to use it. Is there a command I can use with ffmpeg to strip all the metadata? Or, is there a an easier/better way?
If you modify the script from this HowTo a bit, you’ll get a way to treat all MKV files in the current folder at once.
So careful where you store it.
The modified command line is C:\Program Files\MKVToolNix\mkvpropedit" --tags all:"" --delete title "%%~nf.mkv"
It will only strip out the movie title tag and additional external metatags from the file. It will leave the language tags and the title and ‘forced’ properties of the streams unchanged.
You could use this ffmpeg command on the m4v file. I just tried it on a couple of files and it seemed to strip all of the metadata excpt the tag for the audio language:
In both cases, it’s only copying the video and audio. The original MKV had vobsub subtitles, and I don’t think they are officially allowed inside the m4v container. We can worry about subtitles later if these files at least match properly.
@leelynds, thanks for the tips on using ffmpeg to create new m4v files with empty tags. For the sake of trying to force Plex to see my new tag-free file as different from the original file, I followed @OttoKerner’s instructions.
I took the mkv file which I originally created using MakeMKV.
I used the modified command line:
C:\Program Files\MKVToolNix\mkvpropedit" --tags all:“” --delete title “%%~nf.mkv”
to remove the title tag.
Here’s the MediaInfo data (as a text file) after deleting the title tag.
I put the mkv file in a whole new file structure.
The file structure for my previous library was:
D:__Media for Plex\TV\Looney Tunes\Season 1930\Looney Tunes - S1930E02 - Congo Jazz.m4v
The file structure for my new library is:
D:__Media for Plex (MKV)\TV\Looney Tunes\Season 1930\Looney Tunes - S1930E02 - Congo Jazz.mkv
I created a new library and pointed it to the new directory and new file.
There still is no episode title. Plex also seems to still recognize the file as being the same file previously in my Plex library. I assume this, because Plex shows the file as partially played.
When I first imported all of my Looney Tune files into Plex, I followed the process described in the post: Easy Guide to Looney Tunes Golden Collection. At the end of that process I imported all 356 files into Plex. The title tag of each of those files was populated with the volume and disc number, like this: “LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION VOLUME 6 DISC 3”. I wonder if the problem is that when I first imported all the files into Plex, it saw the information in the title tag, and that information is preventing it from pulling down the correct metadata. And the further problem is that Plex keeps associating new versions of the file with the original versions, no matter if I do the Plex dance or even if I create a whole new library.
It looks like you only have 2 TV libraries from your screen shots, both are for Looney Tunes.
Since it ain’t working, and I don’t think waiting for metadata is going to happen, delete both libraries. Empty trash, Clean bundles and optimize the database. Then start over. I noticed you first folder has a name with underscores – it shouldn’t make a difference, but just create a “TV Shows” folder. Maybe Plex is stalling with the underscores.
Then, under “TV Shows” create your “Looney Tunes” folder, with a “Season 30” and finally a file inside that folder with the actual episode with all of the metadata removed.
Create a new library pointed to “TV Shows” and let’s hope it all works.
That has never happen to me. and I’ve had the opposite of what you are saying.I know this cause I download a copy watch for a few minutes then go no way. crappy copy. remove it and when I do get a better copy there is no “continue” anything.
Always remembers the continue watching. About 3 years ago I had “Sons of Anarchy” on my server, but deleted them when I found out no-one was interested in watching the series (including me) Last week my daughter dropped off the first 3 seasons on DVD and asked if I could put them on Plex for her to watch. I did, and the first 6 episodes are all marked as “watched” and the 7th episode has bumped into my on deck with a “half-way thru” indicator.
