Many shows not linking correctly to plex metadata

[matthardwick]

I have an issue where a lot of shows are showing up twice in search, once as what I would call the “official” show record in plex (it has deep links to disney/amazon/netflix, rotten tomatos ratings, trailers. etc.) and once on the server. The one on the server doesn’t have a add to watchlist icon when I go to it, and items in my watchlist that I know are on the server are showing no sources available (or only showing deeplinked sources).

For example:

There’s loads of shows like this.

Now the show on the server is getting correct episode metadata, thumbnails etc. from tvdb - but clearly something is wrong.

Any ideas on what I can do to sort this? It’s making my watchlist useless.

[OttoKerner]

Which agent is set on the library, that has your version of the show?
The Watchlist only accepts items which ave been matched with the new agents. The legacy agents (or even 3rd-party agents) are not supported.

[matthardwick]

So the person who has server admin said “the libraries are on the latest agents as Plex recommends”. Is there something specific I should tell them to look for?

[OttoKerner]

@matthardwick

“the libraries are on the latest agents as Plex recommends”.

Sorry, I cannot tell anything from this. I don’t know how current the user’s information are and whether they even have the right information source.

Let this user contact us directly. Support per relay is almost impossible.

[matthardwick]

yeh thought it was a long shot - he aint gonna do that cos he doesn’t see it as an issue - just says it’s the default agent, and it’s a me issue.

[OttoKerner]

The user will have to get active anyway, when the old agents are going to be removed for good. Which may happen this year or in 2025.

[Divideby0]

If it wasn’t for the “Agatha All Along” show, I’d say that maybe the server owner has to do a metadata refresh. See, when Plex introduced the “online” video source, they had to add id numbers to every single person’s server entry in the Plex metadata agent. If they didn’t, a search might show two results like that, and wouldn’t allow adding an item to the watchlist since a movie/show has to have this new id number to be added.

But since Agatha is one of the problem shows, that is WELL after this metadata requirement. Quite likely, they might be using one of the old agents? Clearly, the server owner has no desire to troubleshoot/fix this issue, so I suppose there’s no point in discussing it further.

[matthardwick]

Sever admin said “we’re using the new agents and libraries have been upgraded”.

[OttoKerner]

@matthardwick

libraries have been upgraded”.

Even if they did that, they need to Refresh Metadata on the whole library, or the actual upgrade doesn’t happen.

Ask them for the first ~20 lines from the Plex XML info of an affected episode.

[matthardwick]

@OttoKerner

Even if they did that, they need to Refresh Metadata on the whole library, or the actual upgrade doesn’t happen.

Ask them for the first ~20 lines from the Plex XML info of an affected episode.

He did said he did the refresh but will ask for the XML file.

[matthardwick]

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="3" librarySectionTitle="TV shows" librarySectionUUID="d9012971-c02e-4592-b0a8-94ec87341a25" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1727086331">
<Video ratingKey="147913" key="/library/metadata/147913" parentRatingKey="147912" grandparentRatingKey="147911" guid="plex://episode/6190f198f4da835fbefaade9" parentGuid="plex://season/62c88f69339fa149c5caa5fa" grandparentGuid="plex://show/618fc471f4da835fbeee158d" grandparentSlug="agatha-all-along" type="episode" title="Seekest Thou the Road" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/147911" parentKey="/library/metadata/147912" librarySectionTitle="TV shows" librarySectionID="3" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/3" grandparentTitle="Agatha All Along" parentTitle="Season 1" contentRating="TV-14" summary="In small town Westview, Detective Agnes' murder case sends her down a road that changes everything." index="1" parentIndex="1" audienceRating="7.0" year="2024" thumb="/library/metadata/147913/thumb/1729520670" art="/library/metadata/147911/art/1729520670" parentThumb="/library/metadata/147912/thumb/1729520670" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/147911/thumb/1729520670" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/147911/art/1729520670" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/147911/theme/1729520670" duration="2389792" originallyAvailableAt="2024-09-18" addedAt="1726709393" updatedAt="1729520670" audienceRatingImage="themoviedb://image.rating">
<Media id="224192" duration="2389792" bitrate="6019" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="eac3" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="high" hasVoiceActivity="0">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="224342" key="/library/parts/224342/1726709339/file.mkv" duration="2389792" file="/mnt/local/Media/TV/TV/Agatha All Along (2024)/Season 01/Agatha All Along - S01E01.mkv" size="1798888056" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="6" requiredBandwidths="9074,7097,6898,6898,6898,6898,6898,6898" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="904889" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="5250" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="1088" codedWidth="1920" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="24.000" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="4" requiredBandwidths="8304,6329,6161,6161,6161,6161,6161,6161" scanType="progressive" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="1080p (H.264)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="904890" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="eac3" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="768" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" requiredBandwidths="767,767,767,767,767,767,767,767" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="English (EAC3 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (EAC3 5.1)"> </Stream>

[matthardwick]

Awaiting another example also.

[OttoKerner]

And you are saying that there is simply no icon to add this series to your watchlist?
Do you have access to a second server where this is all working?

[matthardwick]

So wierdly - Agatha has started working since I posted (but short answer yes).
However, Joan (also a new show) continues to have the issue so hoping to get the XML for that. No icons on the version on the server…
Search Results:

Option 1, on the server - no watch list icon (or ratings/deeplinks etc.):

Option 2, with watch list icon etc. but no way to watch the version on the server.

[OttoKerner]

Tell the server owner to trigger “Refresh Metadata” on the context menu of the library, then go to bed. (It can take quite a while for a large library.)
During this, the server needs to have access to its media files and Internet of course.

[matthardwick]

I suspect they’ve done that, as shows have started fixing themselves. Maybe the first time they did it it didn’t complete or just didn’t run properly- or it tooks many many days. Joan is now fixed for example.

Thanks!