That is the way I have been using PLEX for years with no issues… individual folders reminds me of iTunes managing my music - I wasn’t a fan of that… Let me see if renaming the HD works, it is reloading all files now…
Thank You Elijah!
To use folders or not probably has more to do with support files. If you like to have nfos, bifs, xml, subtitles (this is a big one) then it makes sense to keep them all tidy in a directory.
But to me it’s no big deal as I don’t have to do the work. 
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Cayars/Elijah - Do you do a backup/archive of your media files? If so, what do you use and how…? I am currently using BackUP Pro and I am doing individual archives of each category (Movies, TV, Music etc…) using compression…
NFOs - No
bifs - No. I just let Plex build their own files for indexes
XML - No, again I let Plex do the work
Subtitles - The movies I have that need subs are all MKVs with embedded subs or during the conversion process I burn the subs into the video. Usually I do the latter as the only person I need to please is me.
I also use Rokus and I dislike having the Roku subs turned on all the time as that makes apps like the NHL, ESPN and MLS show subs all the time and I have to turn them off and then remember to turn them on if I need them so it is easier just to burn them in as needed during the encoding process.
Therefore, for me, cluttering up the OS’s file display screen is just not worth it and I can perform mass file operations without hassle when I need to.
The problem for me is that I have to “assist” Plex with meta-data storage as I can’t have it all in the normal spot as it becomes bigger then my 2 TB SSD drives (2 1TB SSD) So I move the bif files to the movie folder and then symlink it back to the meta-directory. I use NFOs for everything and both Emby and Plex will read them. I use external SRT subs as they have the most flexibility.
Not only do I not use Movies and dump everything there but I do this:
\Movies#
\Movies\A
\Movies\B
\Movies\C
etc
Makes navigation much faster and the OS is faster this way as well.
To answer a question a post or two up about backup I use SnapRaid for parity (multiple discs) and that’s all I require for backup.
I do that as well. But what we were discussing is having a folder for each movie.
Having my library broken down by letter makes sense for me and I even have some sub folders under the letters like I have a folder called “Indiana Jones” under “I” where I have all the “Indiana Jones” movies. But I have no use for having each movie in its own folder.
Elijah, you’r just weird. LOL
Actually for me the folders for each move and for each TV show works best for all the different media servers I run and play with. It’s the overall best method I’ve found. for organization, speed and folder navigation.
I prefer it this way for “folder views” as well. But there is no right or wrong way and just what works best for each of us. As long as we follow the guidelines we should be ok.
I do separate my TV Shows into separate folders and then into sub folders per season. I keep all my movies on the HD as single files - no folders at all. This is what made me think that I exceeded the number of files PLEX allows - but since learned that is not the case. You two have been a wealth of info…
By The way, after renaming the HD and adding that as a new Movies folder/library seemed to correct my issue…
Thanks again… for the enlightenment and knowledge! Happy New Year to you BOTH!
Kevin
Nice,
Plex is pretty flexible in file names and directories. If it can figure out what the movie is by the name it’s usually good enough.
I would do a once over of the file naming guidelines however, just to make sure you’re in the ballpark.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/media-preparation/
I have read that - I am curious if it is easy to “comply” with these guidelines if my files are stored as shown:
I use iVI Pro to convert and obtain metadata info - I do have the ability to change the way files are stored - is it really worth all that effort to change? All my movie files are ‘classified’ as stand alone according to this guideline… iVI stores the movie poster and all info at the time of conversion…
Am I headed towards a problem if I just store and watch at will? Maybe share a category with a relative?
Personally, I’d say it’s better to standardize on something a bit better. The longer you wait, the worse the job becomes. The key to doing is easily is with a util such as FileBot that with the correct settings does all this for you.
One thing to keep in mind is how different server platforms will use the files. If you do the nested movie folder it will work with the top media servers such as Plex, Emby & Media Portal. So you could switch easier OR run them all on the same server (I do). Emby has plugins that can pull down subtitles for shows/movies in other languages and place them in the same directory as your media. Then Plex can use them. Same with NFO generation. I add files to Emby and have it match them by watching the file system. Then after I confirm I’ve got the posters and the correct movies and whatnot (all written to disk in the same directory as the movie/show) I do a manual Plex library scan and it will use the NFO files and posters.
If I ever have to rebuild a library all the artwork and identity sits with the media! But as has been said, this is just one way to layout the files on disk, but it does work well with multiple different media serves.
Thanks for that! I am thinking that my biggest future dilemma will be that I rely entirely on PLEX and not prepared to easily move to another platform…
Keep in mind if things are basically working ok now but you do want to change to using folders you can do this is stages. Going forward use the folders and every few days just do 25 or so movies. This is pretty easy is some utils like the one I mentioned as you just highlight a bunch of movies then drag them into the UI, validate it’s going to rename correctly the rename.
The key IMHO is to do them in stages and have Plex rescan the libs as you go. Let Plex catch up and then do more or do some later in the week.
FWIW: A naming/structure that is designed for Plex also works well for Emby and Kodi and probably other media systems as well.
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You using filbot on OSX or windows?
I use Filebot on Windows 10.
This is how iVI renames my TV files - I have them segregated in folders by season
My movie files on the other hand just have Name… I do not see any need to save the year - jmo
That naming is wrong and Plex will choke on it at some point TV shows need to be named exactly like this: The year is optional for series that are not duplicated in another year)
“ShowName (Year) - SxxEyy - Optional data that Plex ignores.ext”
Plex wants two digit season numbers and no dots in the SxxEyy part. The dashes are deliminators where everything before the first dash is consider the show name and everything between the first and second dash is for season and episode numbers and everything after the second dash is ignored.
Other namings might work at times but it will fail at some point. Just because it works now is no guarantee it will work in the future.
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You should consider adding the year in the file name for your movies, as there are a lot of remakes…
Can’t agree more with what Elijah said.
Get in the habit of using the year for both movies and TV Shows. Otherwise you have no idea if Plex will match it correctly when there are others with different years.
There seems to be a lot of “reboot” TV shows these days and the date is the only way to differentiate between them. If you use the DVR feature it’s even more important or episodes can get deleted/overwritten by the wrong show or episodes not recorded because it thinks they are already present.
Personally I wouldn’t use .m4v but instead would save them to the mp4 package as it’s essentially the same thing but mp4 is supported by more devices. If you have a specific need to use m4v then ignore this comment.
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