I got a boxed set of a series that I liked when I was a kid. only 27 of them show up in my PLEX lib, but all 114 are in the PLEX folder. This hasn’t happened to me before, so im sort of at a loss. Is there some naming format that some of the episodes violate that PLEX doesn’t like? Is there any way to bulk repair a whole folder’s names with a PLEX command? “like fix all poorly named files in my PLEX folder”? (its Miami Vice. I can watch it by doing to the folder, etc, but the PLEX experience with metadata is why I use PLEX)./. Thanks A…, R.
How are they currently named? The naming guidelines are here: Naming and Organizing Your TV Show Files | Plex Support, so you’d want something like:
/TV/
Miami Vice (1984)/
Season 01/
Miami Vice - S01E01 - Brother's Keeper.mp4
Miami Vice - S01E02.mkv
...
Season 02/
Miami Vice - S02E01.ext
...
No, Plex can’t rename/reorganize your files, but there are other programs (FileBot, Sonarr, Bulk Rename Utility) that can bulk rename files.
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hmm. are . and , not allowed in the names (unless the . at the end, of course).
Please show how the files are named and organized.
Include which folder is added to the Plex TV Show library.
For best results, follow the Plex documentation.
You may need to Plex Dance the show after renaming and reorganizing.
Additional Info: Unable to recognize Anime file for Demon Slayer - #2 by FordGuy61
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its a real mess. I never separated TV and movies. and now I realise that the naming is prob
wrong. here are the 1st 2 pages of Miami vice on my PLEX server 1.
That is not even close to proper naming. If you try to shoehorn files with poor naming into Plex you might have success but, more likely, you will end up with the hot mess you have.
Fix your naming and structure and Plex will be happy with your library.
TV Shows <–The TV library points here
_______ShowName (year)
____________Season 01
__________________ShowName (year) - s01e01 - Optional Name.ext
_________________ShowName (year) - s01e02 - Optional Name.ext
__________________and so on for the shows in season 01
____________Season 02 ? just like Season 01
____________Season 03 ? and so on for each season
____________Season 00 ? or “Specials”
__________________ShowName (year) - s00e01 - Optional name
__________________ShowName (year) - s00e02 - Optional name
__________________and so on for each special
Note 1: the eXX part of the specials must match EXACTLY what is found in TheTVDB
Note 2: The (year) may be omitted for shows that do not have more than one occurrence throughout the years.
There are many other structures and naming systems that work but this is the one I use and it just works.
For a mass rename I use FileBot with this format string {n.replaceTrailingBrackets()} - {s00e00.lower()} - {t}
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Yep. Time to get to work straightening things out.
- Follow Plex naming & organization requirements.
- No mixing movies & TV shows in the same library.
- The tools such as Filebot & Tiny Media Manager will help.
Suggestion:
- Delete current library from Plex. It is too messed up to try and save.
- Consider the place where the files are currently located a “working directory.”
- Create locations on your server for movies and shows once thy are named correctly.
For example,/media/moviesand/media/tv_shows(orM:\...etc if using Windows). - Create a Movie and TV Show library in Plex that point to those locations.
- Fix the naming & organization for a movie/show while it is still in the working directory.
- Once fixed, move the movie/show to the new location, then Plex will scan it and add it to the system.
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Alternatively, if you JUST wish to have a folder view of your content, make an “Other Videos” type library and point to this folder. All files will then be listed if you choose “Folder View”.
- Enter the library, click “Library” at the top to get out of “Recommended”
- In the top-left, you should see something like
[ALL] [MOVIES] [BY TITLE]. - Click on
[MOVIES]and choose[FOLDERS]
Unfortunately, you must view this list of items in List View, not thumbnail.
I highly recommend you modify your movies and shows content to become organized. Plex has a particular way of identifying all files and episodes, and if you don’t conform to it Plex will fail to identify it and things will go BADLY. TV Show files (files that have a SxxExx in them) must be in a TV SHOWS library, not a MOVIES library and swap that for the other way around.
If you have any Miami Vice movies, you CAN include them in with the shows (in a way), but they are likely to be listed in the “Specials” season. Follow the article linked above on how to organize your TV Show files.
Lastly, keep in mind that TV Shows use the numbering system for episodes on either TMDB (default) or TVDB. If your episodes DO NOT MATCH the numbering system in use by your library, Plex will mis-identify your episodes.
BTW, it’s not fully automatic, but Rename My TV Files 2 is a free fairly quick file renaming program. You will need to match up your files with the ones in the TVDB database, but once you do and hit submit, it will quickly rename the files for you. Then, organize the files according to Plex’s standard, and you have a setup to rival that of most streaming services.
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thanks to all. I worked on my small PCIe folder and used Filebot and it really helped. im going to scrape all the TV shows apart from the movies and make new folders as suggested. thanks again for all the help! I should have done this 1500 movies+TV episodes ago…
thanks to all. I worked on my small PCIe folder and used Filebot and it really helped. im going to scrape all the TV shows apart from the movies and make new folders as suggested. thanks again for all the help! I should have done this 1500 movies+TV episodes ago…
I think that the issue with MV in particular is that it was a boxed set that …obviously wasnt from NBC. the names on the DVDs all varied. it was 25$ on Amazon, so buyer beware, right? and thanks to all again.
It should be ok namewise, actually. Most box sets have the same content from the shows (sometimes modified, like censorship of certain things or controversial episodes missing entirely), but the episode numbers are likely to be wildly wrong. The names of an episode will match the original name and content, but the number of the episode might be wrong. Which is why it’s important to verify the content of the file matches the episode number for the database that Plex uses to match shows.
In some cases, DVD sets I got had every episode the wrong episode number, so I had to double check that - for example - That the Miami Vice episode titled “The Home Invaders” had episode number S01E20, as it is on TVDB, and NOT what it was on the DVD, S01E19. In fact, checking now, it looks like almost all the episodes of the show on the DVD set are different from the “Aired” order, which you should probably use instead.
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while I have you experts on, hey, how do I search my lib only? PLEX seems to want to search everywhere now, and not just my PLEX lib. many thanks, R
Yeah, a kind of obscure place. Click the search bar. When you do, a new “Menu” button appears on the right side (See below). Uncheck both of the options under “On Plex”, and search should only search your server.
I like “More Ways to Watch”, which lets me search for items I do not own myself. Keeps me from having to run off to IMDB when I want to quickly look something up.
“Free to Watch on Plex” will include items on Plex’s own free streaming service. I didn’t know I could turn that off, must be a new option separate from the “More Ways” option…
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perfect, thanks. didnt even think to try that.
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