Lost metadata when moving files into subdirectories

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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1

My Plex Movies directory is starting to get uncomfortably long, so to make management easier I thought I would subdivide that directory into 26 directories, one for each letter of the alphabet.

I did a test on the titles beginning with A, and it appeared to go OK. Plex showed the titles as they were already with metadata intact.

Then I started moving more directories. And now Plex is seeing some of those moves as completely new titles, losing all the metadata I had customized for them.

Am I missing something or is this an unreliable way to move files?

2

Yes, you’re missing two steps in the process.

  1. ADD the new directories first. Let PMS scan them to know they are empty
  2. TURN OFF “Empty Trash”
  3. TURN OFF “Automatically detect” (you want scanning control right now)
  4. Move a block of media.
  5. Scan Files
  6. Examine one. Notice PMS has two locations for it – expected
  7. Complete moving of data
  8. Scan Files again – Let PMS update paths to the new location
  9. EDIT the library section again – REMOVE the old directory
  10. Scan
  11. Empty Trash
  12. Clean Bundles
  13. Enable automatic
  14. Enable Empty Trash

This is for Synology but works everywhere

3

Regarding step 9, “remove the old directory” … there is no old directory. I am moving into subdirectories of an existing directory.

4

“Remove Old Directory” … from where PMS is looking.

If you have Movies/

and change to Movies/90s , Movies/00s, etc

then, when done, remove Movies/ from the top level list.
If you don’t, you will get “Movies” as part of the title when it tries to match – MESS :slight_smile:

The "Old Directory’ in this case is where you’re moving FROM .

Rethink this as :

ADD new structure to list of directories PMS monitors
SCAN
Turn off Empty Trash & Automatic functions
Move files
SCAN
REMOVE old monitored directory IF appropriate.

5

Is there a way I can restore the metadata from the files that were moved already? Should I move them back to where they were and restore a backup version of the database and start over?

6

If the metadata already got removed (empty trash & clean bundles) then it’s gone.

  • Custom metadata / posters / etc are stored in the bundles.

–OR–

  • Yes, you can move the files back and restore backups of the whole directory structure. Just restoring the database is of no help.
7

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