Hello,
I cannot seem to get these to match up, either by manually refreshing or waiting for Plex to do it automatically. I have a Plex Lifetime sub and am using Google Chrome on a 2015 iMac Retina with a Synology ds215j NAS.
Kind regards,
Ben Ward
What cant you get to match up? really vague post here!
Basically, Plex doesn’t reflect the media that exists on my NAS. So a folder listing on my NAS, which I can see on my desktop, appears as something different on the Plex web app. I have attached 2 screenshots to illustrate what I mean.
Items are either incorrectly identified or don’t exist at all (as far as Plex is concerned.) I am logged into my Plex Pass account so I would expect the ‘Plex view’ to match the ‘NAS view’.
The view of my media, as seen in the web app of my NAS:
The view in the Plex web app of the same thing:
As you can see, they’re quite a bit different and I have no idea why. The show detail in the second image (‘Twats’ etc.) are actually for a different show altogether, which foxes me even more.
Your folder name is not correct. It should be simply I'm Alan Partridge (1997)
Plex is expecting the english name for the season folders Season 01 (do it with a “padding” 0 )
You probably have embedded metadata from your files interfering here as well, since your files are in mp4/m4v format.
Go to Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheTVDB
In there, grab the line ‘Local Media Assets’ with your mouse and drag it downwards, so it ends up being at the bottom of the stack of active agents.
Afterwards, perform the Plex Dance with all files.
It looks like Plex mismatched your show. (See The Armando Iannucci Shows at thetvdb)
Check your naming convention and after that go to the tv show and click “Fix Match”.
Thank you for your helpful replies, folks. I will make those corrections and apply what has been suggested to the numerous other errors I have with my TV shows. I am realising how crucial naming is with Plex!
As I am in the UK - is it ok ever to use the word ‘Series’ rather than ‘Season’, or must it always be the latter?
@baward said:
Thank you for your helpful replies, folks. I will make those corrections and apply what has been suggested to the numerous other errors I have with my TV shows. I am realising how crucial naming is with Plex!
It sure is.
File naming for tv shows in Plex for fun & profit:
- Look up your show on TheTVDB
- Take the title as it is used on TheTVDB. If there is something in parentheses, take that too. If the title contains invalid characters (depends on your file system), like
§ : % *, simply leave them out. - Check the naming and the folder structure of your show. Name the top folder of the show exactly after the title on TheTVDB. No abbreviations. No additional subfolders. No aliases.
- Name the episode files according to the above linked naming guide. Use the same title as for the top folder.
Show's Title - s01e01 - additional info.ext(‘- additional info’ can be left out) - After you corrected the naming and folder structure, perform the Plex Dance with all files for this show.
As I am in the UK - is it ok ever to use the word ‘Series’ rather than ‘Season’, or must it always be the latter?
I recommend to use the latter. While it doesn’t make a difference in most situations, there may be some tv show titles where it suddenly matters.
Plex is employing ‘heuristic algorithms’ to recognise the files. It is a matter of “likeliness”. Sticking to the recommended naming is the best way to make sure the ‘likeliness’ is always high enough for your files to get recognised correctly.
@OttoKerner said:
Your folder name is not correct. It should be simplyI'm Alan Partridge (1997)
Thank you. What if a series is broadcast over several years? I maybe looking in the wrong place, but I can’t find out where I can find this out.
Regards.
@baward said:
What if a series is broadcast over several years? I maybe looking in the wrong place, but I can’t find out where I can find this out.
As long as it’s still the same show and not a “remake”, the year stays the same.
(Usually the year when the first episode of the first season was broadcast.)
Regarding my missing files and such, I have done the Plex Dance but still shows/movies are ‘Unavailable’; is there some period of time before things show up as it were? As mentioned, I have done all 6 stages of the Plex Dance, and there are definitely no folders on my NAS with both TV Shows and Movies in. I have attached the latest log.
Many thanks
Sorry, this log file doesn’t contain a clue.
If the media file is at the same location where it was when you added it first into your Plex library, it should lose the ‘unavailable’ badge after a library update.
Inspect the Plex media info of such an ‘unavailable’ item. It’ll show you the exact folder path to where it expects to find the file.
Is the file really at this location? (I am no expert on the MacOS platform, I seem to remember however, that a simple renaming of a volume will already make paths invalid. Did you rename hard disks or folders lately?)
@OttoKerner said:
Sorry, this log file doesn’t contain a clue.
If the media file is at the same location where it was when you added it first into your Plex library, it should lose the ‘unavailable’ badge after a library update.
Thank you for your reply. I hope you can understand my replies and comments.
Inspect the Plex media info of such an ‘unavailable’ item. It’ll show you the exact folder path to where it expects to find the file.
Is the file really at this location?
No, I don’t think so! The show info tells me the path is /volume1/video/Television/Rome (2005 - 2007)/Series 1/1. The Stolen Eagle.m4v whereas the file in question is in my Plex folder /volume1/video/TV Shows.
Update since I started writing this post: I renamed the folder in question on the NAS to ‘Television’ from ‘TV Shows’ to try and make the path (as described above) correspond to what the file info told me, but the server went offline. I am trying without success to re-connect.
Additionally, I am aware that the file (1. The Stolen Eagle.m4v) seems to be named wrongly. This is despite me spending the afternoon batch naming all my TV shows with a renaming application, then following the Plex Dance procedure.
(I am no expert on the MacOS platform, I seem to remember however, that a simple renaming of a volume will already make paths invalid. Did you rename hard disks or folders lately?)
No actually.
Now I understand the whole procedure a lot better than when I originally set Plex up, do you think I could or should just delete my Plex libraries, and start over again from the beginning? Or does it not work that way?
@baward said:
Now I understand the whole procedure a lot better than when I originally set Plex up, do you think I could or should just delete my Plex libraries, and start over again from the beginning? Or does it not work that way?
Since you also have a large task of renaming ahead of you, it is probably better to just erase the library and start from scratch.
Thank you for your response.
After I last posted I managed the next day to get Plex to recognize my NAS server back. Once I did, I logged out of Plex, gave it a few hours and logged back in again. To my surprise and delight, everything is now back, including ‘lost’ shows and films complete with all their associated posters. So I don’t now need to start again, much to my good cheer.
Thanks again for your input, everybody who responded. Don’t give up, those who seem to think that Plex sometimes doesn’t work.
