why does the media server change my file names and how do i stop it from happening? Thanks
Plex Media Server does not change file names - the name of the file on the hard drive, SSD, etc.
The name displayed will most likely be different than the file name. For movies and TV shows, Plex displays the movie / show / episode name, not the file name.
Anything in a TV Shows library or a Movies library will be automatically detected and your server will attempt to match these files to movies found on online databases, most likely TheMovieDB (There is a whole world about EXACTLY happens, but TMDB is good enough for now).
If you do not wish to have ANY of your media automatically matched against an online database, consider making an “Other Videos” library instead. It should display your file names as-is (unless you have some metadata and possibly only in an MP4 container…).
If you use unconventional filenames (such as prefixing numbers to the start of a long running movie series, like the James Bond universe), Plex may fail to match at all, and display your filename. If it matches, but to the wrong movie (can easily happen if you do not include years in your filename), Plex will rename the “entry” in your library to match what it THINKS it should be. You can use a triple dot menu on the movie to “Fix Match…” and correct the server to pick the correct movie.
If you wish to use the standard libraries, rework your filenames ahead of time to match that of the name on TMDB for both TV Shows and Movies libraries. The links are to the official documentation on how to title or name your files to get a high (99.99% accuracy) rate for all your media the first time, leaving no more work than dropping them into the folder watched by Plex.
thank you
Do I have to delete my current files/folders and reupload them as ‘other videos’? Or is there a way to change current folders/files? thank you
Don’t delete any files or folder.
Do delete the library you don’t want.
When making the new Other library just point it to the folders that you want included.
@MarkV1320 is correct. If you wish to make an “Other Videos” library, make one now. For the source of your media, select the root folder of your Media. Let it scan. If it works to your satisfaction, go to your old library and delete the LIBRARY.
A Library, in Plex, is really just a… front?.. Face?.. for your actual media in the backend. You could - for example - heavily folderize your movies into categories, like genres, or even put all movies that start with “A” into a “/Movies/A” folder, and all movies starting with “B” into a “/Movies/B” folder, and so on. Once you do this in your file structure, you return to Plex, and can make any library of your own name. Then, for the source folders, you can specify only particular folders for Plex to look at and scan through.
Personally, I sort out Animated vs Non-Animated movies into separate folders on my hard drive, and create one library for each. I could, however, create a THIRD library pointing to both, and let Plex detect both of these folders twice. So for a friend that may not care for a separate library for animation vs live, I can have one single movie library for them to browse through instead of having to swap back and forth.
Some people age-gate their media into folders. So movies appropriate for their children might make it into one folder, while adult movies go into another. They make a child-friendly library, and share that library with their kids account. Meanwhile, for themselves, they have the “family friendly” movies and “adult friendly” movies both scanned by Plex in a library only accessible to themselves.
