Triggered my OCD.
A search for issues naming episodes in my Doctor Who library just now led me here. 
How odd. None of my files are multi-episodes.
I donât know if this has been posted yet but this thread is old and far too long for me to read through all the posts. But I have found a workaround for this issue, if you take the letter âEâ out before the second episode number it will only show one entry in the library for both files. For example instead of having âShow Title - S01E01-E02 - Episode Nameâ Instead change the filename too âShow Title - S01E01-02 - Episode Nameâ. By doing this Plex will only recognize it as one long episode not two and thus no double entry. It will simply show episode 1 and then 3 after it.
I found this out by mistake when renaming episodes for Plex and I forgot to put the âEâ before â02â and I couldnât figure out why I wasnât getting the double entry, until I saw the filename. This was a happy accident because the double entry is completely useless and now I have changed all of my double episode files to this style, try it out itâs much better than what Plex does if you follow the filename pattern exactly.
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Though you are âbreakingâ the naming convention but hey, that might be slightly better than @Elijah_Baley method. Assuming Plex is cool with itâŠ
That way you will know you are not missing an episode when looking at it from Explorer.
My rip of Shada from my Blu-Ray is all six episodes in one file. Havenât re-watched since I got it a few months ago, but I donât think there was a way to split in episode-by-episode format.
Perhaps I got a old DVD rip cause each episode ends with closing credits and the next starts with the âintroâ, âa previous onâŠâ, then displays "Part Two, Three, Four,etcâŠ)
I think purposely breaking the plex convention does do one really useful thing-- it can let your media download managers (like sonarr) know you have both episodes. Iâve never preferred the âjust leave off the other episode numbersâ method because it means I have to manually edit the metadata for an episode in Plex (if I want the description to be accurate) AND I have to make sure my downloader(s) know not to redownload the episode. This way, my downloaders know whatâs going on, and all I have to do is edit plex metadata if I so choose.
Plus, if a user has any question as to whether the episode is a two parter, the file info details, which are available from many players, will display the file name which will contain both episode numbers as E01-02. Plex doesnât recognize it as a two parter but a human will.
You can have sonarr rename episodes this way by choosing âExtendâ in the Multi-Episode Style dropdown box in the Media Management -> Episode Naming area of settings.
I hate that this is still a problem, and I hate having the UI not show me episode 2⊠but I think itâs a decent compromise until they implement a better solution⊠assuming they ever do.
As other have said, please, just mirror the playing status of all episodes pointing to the same file.
Thanks.
This is a good solution until plex fixes how they handle the multi episode files!
I think this is how I have in my head it should work, as mentioned by others the problem is with my daughters Paw Patrol that has 2 episodes in each file, I am not bothered about being able to go directly to the second half of the file directly, but if the file has been played through I would like plex to mark both episodes as played, the way plex handles it at the moment means she ends up watching episode 1 then episode 2 then episode 1 again then episode 2 again then episode 3 and so on its very frustrating!
Thanks
Just do as has been suggested several times in this thread. Name the file with only one episode number. That is you would have s01e01 followed by s01e03, problem solved for your daughter.
Or you can number them s01e01-02 s01e03-04 and so on as has just been suggested. I use the former as I really do not care if there are apparently skipped episodes showing up in the file system.
I have done this, this afternoon but itâs a bit if a crude hack rather than a solution. Would be much better to keep the file names as is and plex mark both episodes as played when the file is watched. Seems simple and logical enough
Better? Sure. But Plex has had this bug for several years and appears to have no interest in fixing or even acknowledging it so the work around is what makes sense if you want to use Plex.
If you desire a system that does it right you can switch to EMBY. They have it designed so that if you watch s01e01e02 both get marked watched and âNext Upâ is s01e03.
@Elijah_Baley is right, this âbugâ has been there since the beginning, so putting up with the usability issues while waiting for a fix isnât worth your sanity.
I do the same thing that he does, I just name them E01 -> E03 -> E05, etc. Since this mostly affects kids shows itâs not that much of an annoyance because kids donât care if thereâs episodes visually missing from the interface. Whereas they HATE when every episode repeats after playing.
For grown up shows, like two part SXXE01E02 season openers, I just live with it since I know whatâs happening and I can just skip to episode 3 by hand.
Bear in mind, this is not a âgoodâ solution, but itâs what passes for working until Plex eventually gets around to adding it properly.
Thanks for the feedback guys, seems awful that this has gone on for so long with no fix for something that to a lame man like me doesnât sound too difficult to resolve.
More worryingly âswitch to EMBYâ seems to be becoming almost a default answer on the forum. I have never tried it mainly because I invested in a lifetime pass for Plex so seemed daft to switch, but like many others I am starting to doubt if Plex is really listening to is core customers anymore. I never thought I would say this but I am honestly thinking of trying EMBY
As a recent Plex convert (coming from Emby), I can easily recommend trying Emby if the current situation is getting on your nerves. The reality is that we as customers have a right and responsibility to vote with our legs and move to different solutions if the current ones arenât suitable.
Emby does handle multi episodes better than Plex, there is no attempt to seek into any particular point in the multi episode file and marks both episodes as watched once you watch the file. On the other hand Emby suffers from the same neglect with some feature requests as Plex does, so itâs not a perfect solution (did I mention Iâm a convert from Emby?). But I still recommend trying and seeing if it is a more suitable solution.
Personally, while I see this as an important feature, itâs not a deal breaker for me. I just want it resolved in the future.
voted +1
I canât believe in 2019, this still isnât implemented. Such a simple fix in the watched algorithm, nothing else needs to be changed hereâŠ
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I tried this and naming the file âShow Title - S01E01-02 - Episode Nameâ gave me the exact same result in Plex as naming the file âShow Title - S01E01 - Episode Nameâ. Either way shows up in Plex as âS1 - E1 â Episode Name (1)â and shows the total length of the combined episode. I just stick with âShow Title - S01E01 - Episode Name" for multi-part episodes in one file and explain to other members of my household that if an episode has a (1), it includes both parts if there isnât also an episode with a (2). I donât bother splitting episodes unless the episodes in the file are unrelated, stand alone episodes which you mostly find with cartoons.
It would be nice if we could name the file âShow Title - S01E01-E02 - Episode Nameâ and have Plex show it as âS1 - E1 & 2 â Episode Name (Parts 1 & 2)â and then include the descriptions of both parts. For now I will just keep naming with the E01 and totally skip the 2.
you think that thread was old? Multiple episodes, one file - #60 by raphattack
