For example, the first 3 files in Rugrats are named as such:
s01e1.mp4
s01e2-e3.mp4
s01e4-e5.mp4
Then Plex shows it like this:
Episode 1 - Tommy’s First Birthday
Episode 2 - Barbeque Story (contains episode 2 and 3)
Episode 3 - Waiter, There’s a Baby in My Soup (contains episode 2 and 3)
Episode 4 - At the Movies (contains episode 4 and 5)
Episode 5 - Slumber Party (contains episode 4 and 5)
Plex SHOULD name it like this:
Episode 1 - Tommy’s First Birthday
Episode 2-3 - Barbeque Story/Waiter, There’s a Baby in My Soup
Episode 4-5- At the Movies/Slumber Party
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Given your file names and the information in the online databases it uses for metadata, Plex is displaying the episodes exactly as it should. That is, given the input, you’re getting the correct output.
Plex uses the filenames to determine which episodes each file contains. Given your naming, Plex knows that you have episodes 1-5 available. By naming the files as you have, you’re telling Plex that you have five separate episodes and that they should be displayed as such.
In this case, it just so happens that the online metadata databases which Plex uses to determine episode ordering agree with this; and Plex is able to pull accurate metadata for the individual episodes. That is, both The Movie Database and TheTVDB list each episode individually, not as combined, multi-story episodes.
(Interestingly, what IMDB has for episode ordering is more consistent with your desired listing; that is, they have the episodes combined (though they’re episodes 1, 2, and 3). However, Plex does not use IMDB to determine ordering, only TMDB or TheTVDB.)
You can get close to your desired episode display by renaming the files to be single episodes (for example, S01E01, S01E02, S01E03) and then manually editing each episode’s data.
Although, since these are MP4’s, you could edit the files’ title metadata to reflect your desired names and configure the library to prefer local metadata. That would ease the process a bit for you. However, that has broader implications than just this one series.
