Plex server Version 1.11.0.4666 (latest version)
Win10 client Version 3.31.1
I just ran across an issue where I was looking for the TV show “LA to Vegas” in the Program Guide.
My display settings were : Shows _ All _ TV Shows_ By Name.
I knew it was on tonight. I refreshed the Program Guide and checked again where I expected to find it in alphabetical order. No change. But then I saw it listed under “New Episodes Tonight”. Then I scanned thru the entire Program Guide, and found it listed - between the shows “To the Contrary” and “Today” under the “T” section?
My question is, do I need to do anything on my side, or are others seeing the same incorrect placement of shows in their directory? I searched this forum and found several hits of some similar issues, but they were very dated and on much older versions.
One suggestion that another Ninja made was to change the ArticleStrings under the Advanced Plex Preferences. I actually had to add the ArticleStrings preference. The “LA” is being treated as the Spanish/French “The.” I set my preference to a,an,the. I’m running on Windows so the image below is a screenshot of the registry entry I created on my computer. I did reboot my computer after adding the entry.
This setting also only takes effect after the next Program Guide update. Image below shows the “LA to Vegas” is now showing in with the other shows that start with L.
Just had this exact problem. Why, oh why would the Plex server sort shows based on French or Spanish when the locale of the machine the server runs on is American English (US_EN)?
Thank you, johnm_ColaSC for the solution.
I really like the idea of using my Plex server as a DVR, but there are so many of these little glitches that I am frequently frustrated trying to use it.
That seems to make sense, however I added the registry key entry, rebooted my pc, rebooted my Plex media server (running on a QNAP NAS) and refreshed the directory and it had no effect. I’m wondering if it is because the server is running on the NAS? I am also using an HDHR Connect Quatro.
What is the purpose of using “a,an,the”?
I am noticing other sort issues now too that I take a closer look, dealing with numbers and “The”. For example, “The 60’s” and “The 3rd Annual Howie Mandel Stand-Up Gala” sorting in with the numeric programs? Getting stranger now.
That’s normal plex sorting behaviour. It ignores “A,an,the”, etc when sorting alphabetically.
So “The Big Bang Theory” is sorted with B’s, not with T’s.
In your example, “The '60s” is normal to be first because it starts with an apostrophe ', then “The 3rd annual” is being sorted because it drops the “The” and sorts by the first character of the first word, which is a 3.
What is weird is that I am not seeing it sorted that way in my standard TV/Movies folders with all of my recorded content, just in the Live TV/DVR search? In those folders everything is sorted based on the first character of the movie/TV show name. I have tried the change to the “ArtiicleStrings” preference in the Windows Registry as noted above but that had no effect.
@PaceCarGuy if your Plex server is on your NAS you would need to follow the instructions in the article linked above based on the OS of your NAS. Adding the setting on your Windows PC would have no effect on how the server displays the information.
So that is the confusing part. The Live TV or DVR functionality only works with one or two interfaces, for instance Windows browser to the server. I can’t see the Directory entries from other platforms, like the Roku interface for example accessing the nas server. My understanding was that it needed to be added to the Windows Registry since that is where the sorting is occurring for this functionality on the Windows interface? I just found the library link in the doc above so I will try that approach. Thanks.
Sorting happens on your Plex server. I would assume that QNAP is some form of Linux install but don’t have one personally to confirm. Look for the preferences file as outlined in the Linux section of the referenced page.
