Issues with plex detecting files

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
,
1

Server Version#: 1.19.4.2935
Player Version#: 4.30.2

I am attempting to add some non TV or movies video files to Plex And am having issues getting Plex to recognize the files and put them in the library. I followed thsi guide https://support.plex.tv/articles/200265256-naming-home-series-media/ to name the files correctly and then made a tv show library, after that didn’t work I tried both a movie and other video library and they did not work as well. I’ve also tried the normal stuff like restarting plex and still have yet to get the files to show up.

2

I had a similar experience. Movies were added fine to the library. Some non-movies files (e.g. film of gigs, interviews ripped from DVDs I own etc.) didn’t show up and some did. I couldn’t work out the distinction.

What solved it was to set the scanner of the library in question to ‘Plex Video Files Scanner’ (under ‘Advanced’ tab). After the resulting scan, all video files were added regardless. In my case, I also set ‘Agents’ under server setting to prefer ‘local media assets’ - as I populate the metadata tags in my video and music files.

Just another point, my ‘Movies’ library is defined as library type of ‘Other videos’ rather than ‘Films’.

3
4

So I was able to get the Videos to show up in Other videos by changing the scanner Plex Video Files instead of Plex Video Files Scanner. But reading the support site I should be able to set it up as a tv series and that will allow for better organization. I read though the linked post and my file structure and naming seems to be right but ill put it down below in case i’m missing something.

my_videos/
....show/
........Season 01/
............show - s01e01 - title.mp4
........Season 02
.............show - s01e02 - title.mp4
5

That’s perfectly fine, but it will only work in a library of the type “TV show”.

6

I’m guessing that line has a typo… should be s02e01 or s02e02 not s01

7

???
I can’t see any errors.

8

Ya im sorry that was an issue with me typing it here, this is what it actually is in my file structure I double checked just be be sure

my_videos/
....show/
........Season 01/
............show - s01e01 - title.mp4
........Season 02
.............show - s02e01 - title.mp4
9

Ugh, now I noticed :man_facepalming:
Wrong season number in folder.

Apart from that, everything is fine. But as I said…

10

Just to be clear as I dont believe I made it clear I tried setting it up as a library type tv show and none of the file would show up

11 
my_videos/
....show/
........Season 01/
............show - s01e01 - title.mp4 <---- mp4
........Season 02
.............show - s02e01 - title.mp4 <----mp4
12

So I went in and moved the the Local media aseets from the top of the list to the bottom on all my agents including the agent used for tv show scanning. After re-scanning im still getting the same result of none of them showing up. I also tried un-checking local media assets I know it’s not recommended but I wanted to try anyway and it didnt work.

13

Show your file names and structures like this - all the way back to the root:

A Merry Go Round Broke Down-112
A Merry Go Round Broke Down-112755×329 71.7 KB

Will NOT accept ‘your word for it’ - or you’re on your own.

14

image
image1205×135 7.44 KB

image
image1168×128 10.5 KB

Note that the folder that I use for the library is /courses and is the equivalent to my_videos in my example

I’ve also tried taking the numbers out of the AZ900 and that did not seem to help either

15

A Merry Go Round Broke Down-115
A Merry Go Round Broke Down-115872×573 83.4 KB

F:/MCEB-TV <----TV Show Library Folder - TV Show Library aimed here ONLY
......AZ900/
........Season 01/
...........AZ900 - S01E01 - What is Cloud Computing 1.mp4

A Merry Go Round Broke Down-113
A Merry Go Round Broke Down-1131015×451 48.2 KB

Fix Match/Search Options/Agent/Personal Media

A Merry Go Round Broke Down-114
A Merry Go Round Broke Down-114952×525 80.6 KB

Got a ‘poster’ from Google Images Search - my test file shows Ingrid - yours should show a grab from the video.

MUST go in TV Show Library Type.

If that doesn’t work - you need NAS help - permissions - or something else I don’t know about…

16

Is the library of the type “TV show”?
File names like these don’t work in a “movie” or “other videos” library.

17

The library is of type tv shows. I also tried using a library of type other videos to test and the files show up when I change the scanner to Plex video files from Plex video files scanner. This is why I don’t think it is to do with something like the permission of the file (they are also 777) or anything like that. Although I’m not that experienced with Plex so I could be wrong.

18

could it be that the media is owned by root and Plex cant access them?

19

Is the library aimed solely on the folder my_videos
and not one folder level above, nor below it?

20

Yes so the library is pointed directly at the my_videos/ which in my case is actually named courses, and are not pointed at any other directories. As for daves question every user can read write and execute the files as the permissions are set to 777, unless Plex requires ownership which I doubt thats the issue, as I’m able to get Plex to recognize the files when put In an Other Videos library.