Media compatibility - what could cause a movie to not appear on plex ...?

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

so far, plex server has been working flawlessly on my qnap. but i encountered a piece of media that it refuses to include in the movie library. typically when i add media to the designated movie folder it almost immediately appears on pms …

this one particular movie however refuses to appear, is there anything in the file or filename that’s preventing pms from recognizing it ?

General
Complete name                            : /Volumes/Public/Shared Videos/Movies/Dr Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID                                 : mp42 (isom/iso2/mp41)
File size                                : 4.53 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 44 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 6 186 kb/s
Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main@L4@Main
Codec ID                                 : hvc1
Codec ID/Info                            : High Efficiency Video Coding
Duration                                 : 1 h 44 min
Bit rate                                 : 5 785 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.116
Stream size                              : 4.24 GiB (94%)
Writing library                          : x265 2.8hy:[Linux][GCC 7.5.0][64 bit] 8bit
Encoding settings                        : cpuid=1111039 / frame-threads=5 / wpp / no-pmode / no-pme / no-psnr / no-ssim / log-level=2 / input-csp=1 / input-res=1920x1080 / interlace=0 / total-frames=0 / level-idc=0 / high-tier=1 / uhd-bd=0 / ref=4 / no-allow-non-conformance / no-repeat-headers / annexb / no-aud / no-hrd / info / hash=0 / no-temporal-layers / no-open-gop / min-keyint=96 / keyint=96 / gop-lookahead=0 / bframes=3 / b-adapt=2 / b-pyramid / bframe-bias=0 / rc-lookahead=20 / lookahead-slices=6 / scenecut=40 / radl=0 / no-intra-refresh / ctu=64 / min-cu-size=8 / no-rect / no-amp / max-tu-size=32 / tu-inter-depth=1 / tu-intra-depth=1 / limit-tu=0 / rdoq-level=0 / dynamic-rd=0.00 / no-ssim-rd / signhide / no-tskip / nr-intra=0 / nr-inter=0 / no-constrained-intra / strong-intra-smoothing / max-merge=2 / limit-refs=3 / no-limit-modes / me=1 / subme=2 / merange=57 / temporal-mvp / weightp / no-weightb / no-analyze-src-pics / deblock=0:0 / sao / no-sao-non-deblock / rd=3 / no-early-skip / rskip / no-fast-intra / no-tskip-fast / no-cu-lossless / no-b-intra / no-splitrd-skip / rdpenalty=0 / psy-rd=2.00 / psy-rdoq=0.00 / no-rd-refine / no-lossless / cbqpoffs=0 / crqpoffs=0 / rc=abr / bitrate=5800 / qcomp=0.60 / qpstep=4 / stats-write=0 / stats-read=2 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv-maxrate=8700 / vbv-bufsize=8700 / vbv-init=0.9 / ipratio=1.40 / pbratio=1.30 / aq-mode=1 / aq-strength=1.00 / cutree / zone-count=0 / no-strict-cbr / qg-size=32 / no-rc-grain / qpmax=69 / qpmin=0 / no-const-vbv / sar=1 / overscan=0 / videoformat=5 / range=0 / colorprim=1 / transfer=1 / colormatrix=1 / chromaloc=0 / display-window=0 / max-cll=0,0 / min-luma=0 / max-luma=255 / log2-max-poc-lsb=8 / vui-timing-info / vui-hrd-info / no-concatenation / slices=1 / no-opt-qp-pps / no-opt-ref-list-length-pps / no-multi-pass-opt-rps / scenecut-bias=0.05 / no-opt-cu-delta-qp / no-aq-motion / no-hdr / no-hdr-opt / no-dhdr10-opt / no-idr-recovery-sei / analysis-reuse-level=5 / scale-factor=0 / refine-intra=0 / refine-inter=0 / refine-mv=0 / no-limit-sao / ctu-info=0 / no-lowpass-dct / refine-mv-type=0 / copy-pic=1 / max-ausize-factor=1.0 / no-dynamic-refine / no-single-sei
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709
Codec configuration box                  : hvcC

Audio
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : ac-3
Duration                                 : 1 h 44 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 384 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 288 MiB (6%)
Title                                    : English - Original
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : Yes
Alternate group                          : 1
tagc                                     : public.main-program-content

Text
ID                                       : 4
Format                                   : Timed Text
Muxing mode                              : sbtl
Codec ID                                 : tx3g
Duration                                 : 1 h 44 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 74 b/s
Frame rate                               : 0.593 FPS
Stream size                              : 56.8 KiB (0%)
Title                                    : English CC
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Alternate group                          : 2
tagc                                     : public.main-program-content
2

What’s the folder linked to your library?
Have you already filtered your library for duplicates to verify the file hasn’t been accidentally merged with another entry in your library? Alternatively… do you see any odd entries at the top of your library if you sort it by date-added, that might be mismatches of this file?

3

Plex Documentation → Your Media
→ Naming & Organizing Your Movie Files
→ Naming & Organizing Your TV Show Files

There are multiple Grinch movies.

  • Use the name as listed at IMDB.com or TMDB.
  • Add the year to help Plex recognize which movie to match.
  • Add the IMDB or TMDB ID to tell Plex exactly which movie to match.

Then Plex Dance the movie to remove any incorrect information from the Plex Media Server database.

Example:

/Volumes/Public/Shared Videos/Movies/  <-- Folder added to movie library

   /How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) {imdb-tt0060345} <-- movie_name (year) {ID}
      /How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) {imdb-tt0060345}.mp4 <-- movie_name (year) {ID}.ext

   /How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) {imdb-tt0170016}
      /How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) {imdb-tt0170016}.ext <-- ext = mp4/mkv/etc

   /The Grinch (2018) {imdb-tt2709692}
      /The Grinch (2018) {imdb-tt2709692}.ext

   /Dr. Seuss' the Grinch Musical (2020) {imdb-tt13437728}
      /Dr. Seuss' the Grinch Musical (2020) {imdb-tt13437728}.ext
4

after looking for like-named files in the Library’s Movies folder, I just cannot locate it. I’ve seen that ‘clever’ function before in my library and have to go combing around to locate the item with the duplicate attached in order to separate them.
also tried sorting, the default view i prefer is ‘date added’

5

have tried your suggestions, thanks for posting them.

i first tried adding the year (i did not at first because i felt this was a one of a kind) - that did not do anything.

i next tried adding the imdb ID - that did not do anything either

i moved the file out of my library completely. then i moved it back in the library.
i saw plex thinking (as it usually does) the moment i add a file to a folder monitored by plex, but in this instance it did not do anything, the movie does not appear in the library

is there a way within pms to show only merged items within the library ? if not, maybe i can use webtools-NG … that might reveal something but any suggestion on which options to select in webtoos-NG to be able to spot that ?

problem is the file itself - is playable, and it is present in the folder that the media library is linked to.

6

Top left of your library
Screenshot (671)

If you’ve changed something in Plex and it’s not showing up sometimes you have to plex dance it.

Click → plex dance

7

i must apologize …

it actually was merged with another movie i have called “The Grinch”. added the year to each file name, unmerged and now it appears.

i didn’t expect plex to merge those since they were both different run times and different file names.

8

That is not always sufficient. Perform all the steps of the Plex Dance, in order, as written.

Please show how you have the file named.

9

the file names that were combined/merged in plex are:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas
The Grinch

plex also combined these 2 files:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
The Grinch

both files have the same file extension. this is what threw me off at first, because i was not expecting it to combine that movie with “The Grinch”.

i’ve made sure both media have the years added to the filenames and unmerged them in plex and now How the Grinch Stole Christmas appears.

Thanks for all the help, I appreciate it …

10

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