Seems to be a lot of back and forth on the forum relating to this issue, so I’m just looking for specific confirmation:
My files are stored on an external hard drive (WD My Book Duo), connected to my Plex Media Server (Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019), and it will not recognize/add/display/play any mkv files. They will not even appear in my library, so this isn’t a playback issue (yet).
SO, my question is…has everyone else been able to add mkv files successfully to their library using Plex Server on Nvidia Shield? Should I keep tring and troubleshooting, or should I bag it and just convert the files to mp4?
Not sure what back and forth you’ve seen.
Plex is dealing just fine with MKV files. There is however a number of reasons that could cause Plex to ignore certain files; among those are:
files added to a tv-show type library that don’t match a tv-show naming schema
files added to a movie type library that match a tv-show naming schema
I am experiencing a similar problem.
I have a Synology 920+ as a Plex server.
I have a several folders, including a folder “Documentaries”. I added 4 documentaries UHD with .mkv format. All other UHD and .mkv files are visible, but not these 4.
I tried restarting the Plex Media Server.
I tried scanning the plex server several times.
These files are not visible. I mapped the drive on my computer and VLC sees them without problem. BSPlayer, however, does not start them.
I don’t think the files are corrupt, but I don’t know what could be wrong.
Bitrate is 56860kbps.
What version of Synology’s DSM do you have installed?
Latest version
What version of Plex Media Server do you have installed?
1.21.1.3830
How are those files organized / named?
There is a folder named Documentare and files have names such as Name.Name.year.2080p.uhd.dolby.atmos.text
Text.mkv
What type of library is this folder associated with (movie, tv-show, other video)?
Movies
Other
Did you already check if any of the scenarios where Plex might ignore those files apply to your setup (see support article linked above)?
Not the case here. I checked
Any special permissions on the folder containing the files that don’t show?
No. Other files in the same folder are visible. I have around 200 movies, clips and other videos in all resolutions and these 4 movies are not visible.
Re/ DSM version:
Latest doesn’t tell if you’re on DSM 6.x or if you’re on the beta of DSM 7…
Have you checked your library for duplicates? You can filter the library view by Duplicates to see if there’s any files with multiple versions stacked in a single library item. Mostly this should be different quality versions of the same movie… given your naming this could also be Plex mismatching your file and incorrectly associating it with an existing video.
If you have your documentaries organized in individual folders per movie you could also use folder mode to verify where those missing ones have ended up (in case they have ended up in your library).
e.g. following the official naming schema:
Documentare <- the folder linked to your documentary movie library
Title (year)
Title (year).mkv
Title 2 (year)
Title 2 (year) [blah blah].mkv
I am up-to-date on my DSM: DSM 6.2.3-25426 Update 3. I don’t have the beta version.
I don;t have duplicates because these documentaries are with different name, different producer, different metadata, etc.
I can’t sort them by year because some of them are not so known in order to find the release year.
Warning! : Plex will do its best to appropriately find and match content. However, a failure to separate content such as movies and TV shows may result in unexpected or incorrect behavior.
The scanners and metadata agents used by Plex will work best when your major types of content are separated from each other. We strongly recommend separating movie and television content into separate main directories.
Translation:
TV Shows won’t work in Movie Libraries.
Movies won’t work in TV Show Libraries.
Your file naming and structuring habits are an epic failure.
I don’t work for Plex so I can give you the bad news and the whole truth…lol
Done. Changing to TV shows worked. However, the other documentaries are not visible anymore. I guess they are seen as movies by the Plex server.
So I have the same Folder in Plex two times: Documentaries as movies and Documentaries as tv-shows. And Each folder shows the specific files.
LOL. Thanks for the epic failure comment. I just posted the names of 4 TV-shows I thought aired as movies and took the name from the torrent file.
I did not know this is an epic failure. But never mind! It worked eventually.
