LIbrary scan doesn't find movies

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

I added a library for Movies, choosing the V:/Video directory on my Synology NAS, but the scan doesn’t find anything. It runs for just a couple seconds. What am I doing wrong?

2

Does user plex have access to the Movies share ?

3 Likes
3

Figured it out accidentally. It doesn’t like sub-folders. When I moved everything to the top folder, it saw the movies.

4

proper PMS structure is:

Videos/
   Movie1 (Year)/
    Movie1 (Year).ext

Notice the folder name and the movie name are the same.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200381023-Naming-Movie-files

Tools like FileBot and TheRenamer will make the structure painless

6

I have this very same problem with plex not finding movies. There is no way in hell that I will or would ever trust some robot to rename or re-title my years worth of labor in building my collections. Just the thought of such a thing sounds like pure insanity! In fact, I don’t want anything (1st - 3rd party) to ever mess with or control the source material, quite the opposite! My system is proper, Plex is in question here.

-Movie Name Folder/Movie (ISO, video_ts, mp4, mkv, BDMV, etc)
-Movie Name Folder/Movie/Special Features
-Movie Name Folder/Movie/disk 1/disk 2/disk 3 Special Features

The above is all logical and typical ways of sorting and titling a thing on a PC, and that is exactly what I do but plex can only find 1 out of 200+ movies on my 8TB drive? Really, it’s not me, it’s plex!

Kodi can do it, PowerDVD 18 can do it, but Plex can’t? What am I missing?

Thanks.

2 Likes
7

Apologies if you’ve run into this with some wrong expectations:

  1. Plex does not deal with disk images (e.g. ISO)
    https://support.plex.tv/articles/201426506-why-are-iso-video-ts-and-other-disk-image-formats-not-supported/
  2. Plex derives key information for proper matching from your file names / folder structures… there’s an entire section explaining how files/folders should be structured for each media type or in order to support local extras
    https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/media-preparation/
    • This is also linked in the Basic Setup Wizard support article:

      Before you Begin

      Before you begin the Setup Wizard, it is important that you check how your media has been named and organized. There is a detailed guide here that explains how to organize your media for the best detection and matching.
      Related Page: Media Preparation

8

Thanks for saving me anymore frustration. Quality is first on my list of things a media player/server must have and nowhere on the plex main page could I find a list of things it likes to play and things it don’t! The world seems to like Plex so I thought I’d give it a try and learn along the way. But the world also likes .mp3 and so I should have known better. If the info isn’t listed then don’t install, I seem to keep learning this basic truth the hard way.

Most of what I have are 1:1 ISO movies, because, quality, 1:1 in every way, nothing is missing. If it’s on disk then it’s on file, and that’s what I expect a media server to handle.

Thanks for the quick help.

9

Understood… Plex is however taking a different, more content focused approach. Instead of “blindly” keeping the disc image with all the mandatory prerolls, trailers and calling-home, Plex will focus on keeping the actual movie and only the extras/specials you want.

This does not need to mean a loss of quality.

10

When I play a movie (specifically me) I want to see exactly what it was/is on the optical disk. If It Looks like a DVD and smells like a DVD then it must absolutely play like a DVD.!? I want the trailers, it tells me how old I am. Also, it shows me what I might have missed in my younger years!

I’m hard cored in this regard, I want it one way 1:1 only! Plex can’t do it, I’m sorry for that because it looked like fun everywhere else. If it cannot do ISO then it cannot meet my demands for all or nothing, whole disk or no disk, meat and potatoes with gravy! No, what this thing does ‘instead of’ is show and tell with only gravy for subsistence, no meat, no taters!

I want this to be better, and yet I’m still in the dark as to who does it better. Kodi is damn close to proper, you guys should take notes! But still so far away from what I want/need. I am ISO (in search of) something better, paid for or not!

I thank you Tom80H and please, if you have answers or ideas, send them! Until then, I have uninstalled Plex and moved back to Kodi and onto Jriver.

11

I have to add, that the renaming format does not make any sense of sorting. YYYY_Movie.extension would sort the files by year. Plex was good, its gone now. It worked for me, until I had to make an update to the newest version. Nothing works anymore. I bought the Lifetime Plex Pass. Lifetime seems to mean “until the devs decide a new approach”.

1 Like
13

So I’ve been reading about people having issues with structure and file types and so on. I, on the other hand, have had my 500+ movies colection running on plex for a loooong time, until one day I made the mistake to update plex server. Ever since then my movies library is emply although I have made zero changes to files or structure… all I did is an UPDATE! I am paying the montly fee which I will stop very soon and uninstall because this is getting stupid. I waited for a fix from plex I have done another update then a fresh install hoping this will get sorted but nothing. If anyone from Plex has got an actual solution for this please I am all ears. Thank you.

1 Like
14

I have the same problem, though I’m not sure of the actual cause. I’ve uninstalled and installed the latest Plex server. I sign into my account. I get choices on the sidebar of “Plex”, “Tidal”, “News”, “Podcasts”, and “Web Shows”. I don’t get any options to add a Library (i.e., a folder of video files on my hard drive). After installing, I “Launch” the Plex application and do NOT get the screen that indicates a server was found, which should also allow me to name it. Everything used to work really well, for years, now I can’t get Plex to connect with my media. If you have a PC, Windows 10 Media Player allows you to “cast” a movie to a device, which can include a smart TV on your home network. I’ve used this as a work-around and it works every time!

15

Right, so I got it working again. You have to go into Synology web interface go on File Explorer and go onto properties for the movies folder, then edit permissions and add plex user for read right. And thats all. Hope it solves your problems. This would have easily been sorted by a Plex employee but hey… do they care? Not really…

17

This was my issue. Went to Synology NAS and plex user was installed there but had no file permissions. Gave read only access and voila!

18

Fixed it for me. Thanks!

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