Metadata won't update for TV shows.

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
121

I have noticed that with this bugfix the posters are downloading, but they are not downloading the top rated ones. I am either getting old ones or poor quality ones that have very low ratings on thetvdb. Before everything broke, PMS would always default to the poster with the highest star rank. Could this get added back?

122

@changelin said:
I have noticed that with this bugfix the posters are downloading, but they are not downloading the top rated ones. I am either getting old ones or poor quality ones that have very low ratings on thetvdb. Before everything broke, PMS would always default to the poster with the highest star rank. Could this get added back?

I 2nd this, I totally messed up my appdata folder on accident and don’t feel like manually changing all of them :frowning:

But I will add, all your hard work is much appreciated!!! I was losing my mind trying to figure out why it was not downloading then I found this thread.

123

We made a one line change. Detailing the code change:

  1. Download TVDB’s main image.
  2. If this fails, look in Plex’s cache for the old one. (this is where it was broken)

This said,

  1. Stop PMS
  2. Clear the HTTP agent caches (Plug-in Support/Caches)
  3. Start PMS
  4. Refresh All Metadata for the library section in question.
124

@ChuckPA said:
We made a one line change. Detailing the code change:

  1. Download TVDB’s main image.
  2. If this fails, look in Plex’s cache for the old one. (this is where it was broken)

This said,

  1. Stop PMS
  2. Clear the HTTP agent caches (Plug-in Support/Caches)
  3. Start PMS
  4. Refresh All Metadata for the library section in question.

I just tried the steps listed above and also the Plex Dance on The Daily Show and I am still getting old art with Jon Stewart. The poster art that Plex is currently downloading from thetvdb has a star rating of 6.93. The poster that I had been getting before the changes was the poster with Trevor Noah and has a star rating of 8.47 and also is listed as the first/top poster on thetvdb. I genuinely appreciate all the hard work (and late nights) your team has put into this fix.

125

I checked with the metadata team so I can understand it.

The way to see it is “Look at the XML”. You’ll see the original full size.
You will also see the thumbnail file referenced. Track down the files (from the path) and look at the sizes.

This one-line change took PMS TV Series back to the way it was.

If it’s not correct, and we can see the actual file names & sizes, then I can take it and ask further.

126

So wait. Is this a Plex issue or a TVDB issue?

And why is it only a fix available for subscribers? The rest of us I guess aren’t important?

Not exactly a great way to gain subscribers. “Our system is broken, pay us for the fix”

I’m just confused here.

127
  1. TheTVDB changed their API
  2. PMS had to change its agent to talk to the final deployed version of that API
  3. The problem was finally identified and fixed within 24 hours and submitted to engineering for next-day deployment at 3am
  4. It is in normal PlexPass beta as is the case with all bug fixes.

We didn’t break it. They changed.

128

Thank you @ChuckPA
The update works!
Braz.

129

It’s become apparent to me that some don’t understand the benefits of subscribing (PlexPass).

Here’s the TL;DR and link to the page.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200288566-what-is-plex-pass

130

@ChuckPA said:

  1. TheTVDB changed their API
  2. PMS had to change its agent to talk to the final deployed version of that API
  3. The problem was finally identified and fixed within 24 hours and submitted to engineering for next-day deployment at 3am
  4. It is in normal PlexPass beta as is the case with all bug fixes.

We didn’t break it. They changed.

Chuck, just wanted to say thanks to you and your team’s work in catching this. Based on the behavior I had assumed it was an API issue, but figured I’d wait for your dev team to do an RCA.

I also working in a software development company as a support engineer, so I can relate. Keep up the good fight!

131

Thanks for the support. RCA was the tough part. I have been looking at it for several days. I didn’t realize I was analyzing a moving target in the act of deploying. <UGH>

Once we saw stability and the needed repeatability, it was a 1 line change. Comparing pre to post source, we changed an AND to an OR condition. It was that insultingly small but those are the worst to find.

132

Hooray, its live for us plebes.

Ran the update, exited PMS, emptied caches, restarted PMS, sorted TV Shows by All>TV Shows>By Last Episode Date Added. Scroll down to wherever this started, select that one, scroll back up, shift+click the most recent thing added, and then in the upper right, the three dots, select ‘Refresh Metadata’. Still chugging through it all since i had the poor timing of adding a lot this week, but half of its pretty again.

And no Plex dance needed thank god! That wouldve sucked


133

Like many others I would like to thank you guys for getting this issue fixed.

A couple of problems I have had with it though

I had to do the plex dance with a few tv shows. Refreshing or unmatching, then clearing bundles and then rematching was not working.
So I moved the files, deleted them from the library, cleaned the bundles, restarted the server and then added them all back.
It has pulled the meta data for most of those shows that it did not before, but there are still a couple that I can just not get it to download.
They seem to be shows with a large number of seasons.
One is The Simpsons with 27 seasons, another is Power Rangers with 18 seasons, and the last is Who’s Line is it Anyways (US) with 9 seasons.

Do you think it is related to this issue, or is it something else?

134

For those with a lot of episodes,

  1. Move them out again and start the Dance (Scan, Empty, Clean)
  2. Move a couple seasons back and let them get all the data
  3. Optimize the database (important step)
  4. Move a couple more seasons back and let them do the same, optimizing after each ‘block’
  5. Repeat until done.

We always suggest adding media in smaller quantities. When you’re building a library all at once, that’s a big load on the DB. If you have a lot of episodes, that’s a lot of fragmentation in it. Keeping it optimized so the agents don’t time out (which does happen when the DB is fragmented due to “SLOW QUERY” you see in your logs) is the best way to handle it

135

@ChuckPA said:
For those with a lot of episodes,

  1. Move them out again and start the Dance (Scan, Empty, Clean)
  2. Move a couple seasons back and let them get all the data
  3. Optimize the database (important step)
  4. Move a couple more seasons back and let them do the same, optimizing after each ‘block’
  5. Repeat until done.

We always suggest adding media in smaller quantities. When you’re building a library all at once, that’s a big load on the DB. If you have a lot of episodes, that’s a lot of fragmentation in it. Keeping it optimized so the agents don’t time out (which does happen when the DB is fragmented due to “SLOW QUERY” you see in your logs) is the best way to handle it

Thanx Chuck. I will give that a go.
What does optimizing a library do? I have never done it before.
And does it use more space? Cause I am running low on my OS drive as it is.

Lastly can you please have a look at my post we talked about the other day please and pass it onto whomever if it needs to be? The one that was ‘lost’ in approval eventually popped up and has been closed as I asked since it had bee reposted.
The new one has has a few views, but no joy from any plex employees or ninjas.
It would be greatly appreciated - https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/323487/h264-to-h264-transcode-issue-files-will-not-play-and-keep-crashing-plex-player-app#latest

Cheers

136

Optimizing the database takes all the data, which was originally added in random order and puts it back in sequential order (makes searching the database faster) . It’s important to understand by “Database” I literally mean the com.plexapp.library.db file stored under Plex Media Server. It is what stores all pathnames to where everything is; poster, file, XML, as well as the identification numbers about which library it’s in and all that ‘fun’ stuff needed.

I will look at the other thread but be advised, I do not own that model television nor am I an App developer. I am on the server team. All I can do is to do my best.

137

@ChuckPA said:
I checked with the metadata team so I can understand it.

The way to see it is “Look at the XML”. You’ll see the original full size.
You will also see the thumbnail file referenced. Track down the files (from the path) and look at the sizes.

This one-line change took PMS TV Series back to the way it was.

If it’s not correct, and we can see the actual file names & sizes, then I can take it and ask further.

I was able to track down the following file names and sizes for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on my drive

4776acf8655db34864c55e0f2401238949960728.jpg 238 KB
d5ffdf23dd317be0c80b316451062b8dd367236e.jpg 20 KB
Which corresponds to https://www.thetvdb.com/banners/posters/82918-1.jpg
And has a thetvdb rating of 1 star

The (correct) poster it was pulling before the all of the changes was https://www.thetvdb.com/banners/posters/82918-3.jpg
And has a thetvdb rating of 9.25 stars

Thank you for your time.

138

@ChuckPA said:
Optimizing the database takes all the data, which was originally added in random order and puts it back in sequential order (makes searching the database faster) . It’s important to understand by “Database” I literally mean the com.plexapp.library.db file stored under Plex Media Server. It is what stores all pathnames to where everything is; poster, file, XML, as well as the identification numbers about which library it’s in and all that ‘fun’ stuff needed.

I will look at the other thread but be advised, I do not own that model television nor am I an App developer. I am on the server team. All I can do is to do my best.

Ahhh kool. That makes more sense. I though it optimized each individual file and created an new optimized version of it.

Thanx Chuck. I understand that you are in a different part of the Plex Team, but if you could point them in the direction of the post, it would be greatly appreciated. It is a pretty big break down in my Plex Server (as I have alot of anime encoded this way) and I am hoping it is only the file and not Plex itself.

139

Regarding the previous issue obtaining posters for Television Series, the issue with TheTVDB API has been resolved.

This correction is available to all plex users. You can identify it as 1.12.3.5154. All future versions will now correctly access the updated TVDB poster library

140

@ChuckPA said:
Regarding the previous issue obtaining posters for Television Series, the issue with TheTVDB API has been resolved.

This correction is available to all plex users. You can identify it as 1.12.3.5154. All future versions will now correctly access the updated TVDB poster library

There may have been a bit of miscommunication and I apologize for that. I have version 1.13.2.5154 installed and it does not fix the issue of Plex pulling the wrong posters. While I am getting posters, I am getting the wrong ones. This is affecting shows that have multiple posters like “The Daily Show”, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” and “The Opposition with Jordan Klepper”.

The DDD one is especially bad since the one that Plex now pulls has a 1 star rating and the one that it used to pull has a 9.25 star rating.

I have copied the relevant conversation with your information request below:

@changelin said:

@ChuckPA said:
I checked with the metadata team so I can understand it.

The way to see it is “Look at the XML”. You’ll see the original full size.
You will also see the thumbnail file referenced. Track down the files (from the path) and look at the sizes.

This one-line change took PMS TV Series back to the way it was.

If it’s not correct, and we can see the actual file names & sizes, then I can take it and ask further.

I was able to track down the following file names and sizes for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on my drive

4776acf8655db34864c55e0f2401238949960728.jpg 238 KB
d5ffdf23dd317be0c80b316451062b8dd367236e.jpg 20 KB
Which corresponds to https://www.thetvdb.com/banners/posters/82918-1.jpg
And has a thetvdb rating of 1 star

The (correct) poster it was pulling before the all of the changes was https://www.thetvdb.com/banners/posters/82918-3.jpg
And has a thetvdb rating of 9.25 stars

Thank you for your time.