# Meta data not being picked up automatically

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/meta-data-not-being-picked-up-automatically/676124>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Tags:** server-mac\
**Created:** [January 9, 2021, 4:26am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/meta-data-not-being-picked-up-automatically/676124 "2021-01-09T04:26:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MoreSpinach220](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e79b87/32.png) [@MoreSpinach220](https://forums.plex.tv/u/MoreSpinach220)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 4:26am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/meta-data-not-being-picked-up-automatically/676124/1 "2021-01-09T04:26:23Z")

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Hi. Plex Media Server on Mac OSX latest. Somehow after recent updates my Plex is not automatically picking up the poster / summary / etc of shows and movies. Even if I manually “Refresh Metadata”. Anything I should be looking at?

I found [this old thread](https://forums.plex.tv/t/automatic-retrieval-of-meta-data-not-working-for-tv-shows-in-latest-release/109429/6), but it doesn’t have any useful info other than to publish logs. One comment suggested this has to do with poor naming conventions. Why? Have they changed in the last two months? I have meticulously named all my files:

```auto
 Game of Thrones - 01x01.mkv
 Game of Thrones - 01x02.mkv
 Game of Thrones - 01x03.mkv
...etc

```

This is not some obscure show. Logs zip file attached.

[Plex Media Server Logs\_2021-01-08\_23-34-43.zip](https://forums.plex.tv/uploads/short-url/ujwZpRzcNPWpgiVzpVQY31G0DKs.zip) (1.2 MB)

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**Author:** ![MoreSpinach220](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e79b87/32.png) [@MoreSpinach220](https://forums.plex.tv/u/MoreSpinach220)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 5:42am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/meta-data-not-being-picked-up-automatically/676124/2 "2021-01-09T05:42:50Z")

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I did a manual “Match” search on this show. The default was the stupid website TheTVDB. Couldn’t find such a massive show. So I changed it to IMDB and it worked.

Question: how can I change the default website to check to be IMDB?

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**Author:** ![FordGuy61](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/22d042/32.png) [@FordGuy61](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FordGuy61)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 8:14am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/meta-data-not-being-picked-up-automatically/676124/3 "2021-01-09T08:14:36Z")

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> [@MoreSpinach220](#):
>
> I have meticulously named all my files:

Incorrectly.

/TV Shows/Game of Thrones/Season 01/Game of Thrones - s01e01.mkv

Plex is very picky with [TV show naming](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200220687-naming-series-season-based-tv-shows/) and organization. For best results, follow the documentation.

See `Naming and Organizing Your TV Show Files` in the Your Media support documentation. Rename the show accordingly and then [Plex Dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064) the entire show.

[https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/your-media/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/your-media/)

> [@The Plex Dance ™](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064):
>
> The purpose of this is to remove all cached metadata and xml data for an item that Plex usually keeps. This helps when you want to “start from scratch” for particular item move all files for the media item out of the directory your Library is looking at, so Plex will not “see” it anymore scan the library library (to detect changes) empty trash clean bundles (in menu next to server name, when accessed under ‘More’) double check naming schema and move files back scan the library Support articl…

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**Author:** ![FordGuy61](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/22d042/32.png) [@FordGuy61](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FordGuy61)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 10:14am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/meta-data-not-being-picked-up-automatically/676124/4 "2021-01-09T10:14:12Z")

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FYI, looks like there was a problem with Game of Thrones. Unclear if it is resolved yet.

> [@"Game of Thrones" TV series no longer matching](https://forums.plex.tv/t/game-of-thrones-tv-series-no-longer-matching/674460/1):
>
> Server Version#: Windows Version 1.21.1.3842 Player Version#: Web Interface My copy of “Game of Thrones (2011)” TV series matched correctly when it was initially added to the server. Starting a couple of days ago (approximately 01/01/2021), there is no match (the poster and textual information has disappeared). When I manually try to match, there is a single response (“Game of Thrones: Cartoon Parody” (2011)). I do not understand how such a well known series cannot be matched correctly. …

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**Author:** ![Dan\_Bev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dan_bev/32/226338_2.png) [@Dan\_Bev](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Dan_Bev)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 12:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/meta-data-not-being-picked-up-automatically/676124/5 "2021-01-09T12:30:59Z")

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> [@MoreSpinach220](#):
>
> Plex is not automatically picking up the poster / summary / etc of shows and movies.

Is this problem with more than Game of Thrones?

> [@MoreSpinach220](#):
>
> So I changed it to IMDB and it worked.

IMDB isn’t an option. Was it The Movie Database maybe?

> [@MoreSpinach220](#):
>
> Question: how can I change the default website to check to be IMDB?

Go to Server settings \> Agents \> Show. You can set the agent prioity by dragging the one you want to the top of the list.  
As I said, IMDB isn’t an option though.

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**Author:** ![michelfrancisb](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/michelfrancisb/32/223350_2.png) [@michelfrancisb](https://forums.plex.tv/u/michelfrancisb)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 3:45am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/meta-data-not-being-picked-up-automatically/676124/6 "2021-01-10T03:45:28Z")

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I am having the same issue on this. Did the Plex dance, cleared cache, reorganized agents…basically everything suggested on all of the other posts on this topic. Has anyone actually come up with a concrete solution to this?

Note: I am sure my naming, etc is correct since this issue only started after a Plex reinstall/update.

EDIT: Manually matching also only seems to work if I manually choose The Movie Database when searching.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2021, 3:45am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/meta-data-not-being-picked-up-automatically/676124/7 "2021-04-10T03:45:32Z")

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