I recently rebuilt my entire Plex server from scratch, and, after importing my media to the new server, none of my multi-episode files are showing as documented. Specifically, a file named like this:
Home Movies - s2019e01-e04 - etc.mkv
This should show four (4) episodes in the UI numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 for Season 2019 (and yes, I’m aware Plex now supports date filenames… slowly migrating, but using this file for this example). Anyway, this is how my Plex functioned before the rebuild.
Currently, only the last episode now shows (in the case above, only “Episode 4” will appear in the UI). This has sent my alerts and monitors wild thinking I have missing data.
Is it possible this is a bug in the UI? If so, it may only apply to newly-imported, multi-episode files, given my scenario. I’d appreciate if anyone could try to replicate and let me know, and would doubly appreciate any advice to fix, if it’s user error. Thanks!
That is not the server version.
Take a look at the left side bar.
“4.132.3” appears under Plex Web - General
Plex Web is the client you are using, not the server.
In order to see the server version, you need to go down to the name of your server, then Settings - General
I moved all of my files onto a directory not even mounted in my container - zero visibility to Plex now.
Following the Plex Dance completely (including emptying trash and bundles) I can’t find a combination that actually removes the media from my libraries. I suppose I can completely rebuild each library from scratch, but that has a ton of other sharing/etc issues that would be time intensive (and I’m sure this isn’t intended functionality for Plex).
I’ve tried scanning the libraries individually and on the entire server, both from the Manage Server hamburger dropdown and in the “Libraries” administration option. Nothing is picking up on the fact that the files are now gone.
I’m positive this is user error, but just in case, here is what I’ve tried doing:
Completely removed all files from each media directory (confirmed with ls -alh * showing all folders now empty.
Scanned each library independently, through the “More → Server Hamburger → Manager Server → Scan Libraries” option (which showed a deprecation warning in the logs, FYI), and also in the Admin → Server → Libraries → Scan Libraries
Emptied the server Trash via “More → Server Hamburger → Manage Server → Empty Trash”
Cleaned all bundles through the same path.
I even Optimized Database just to see if that might trigger an update.
Nothing is recognizing the files are now missing. I’ve tried this with the checkbox “Empty trash after scan” both checked and unchecked, just as a last-ditch effort.
if all the media files are missing, Plex will not remove anything from the library, because it considers the total absence as a hardware fault. By not removing anything from the library it does preserve the metadata in case of a unmounted, switched off, unconnected drive.
Only remove the files which have actually multiple episodes in them.
If, without exception, all files in your library happen to have multiple episodes in them, then leave at least the root folder of the library in place and put a small .txt file into it. (it doesn’t matter what’s actually in it, it just needs to be present.)
You got here while I was typing, thanks. In my case, I have TONS of media that is impacted by this, so an individual sort was infeasible.
As a workaround, I simply added a single “known good” file back into each library to trigger a comprehensive rebuild. Just a hack if anyone stumbles upon this! I’d definitely recommend adding a note about the library protection to the Dance post, if possible.
If you really want to “treat” all files in a library, there is a faster way than performing the dance.
Remove the library, wait until the database activity has finished, then recreate the library.
The Plex Dance is intended to preserve the rest of the library and affect only the necessary files.
Thanks for the advice. That was my backup method, but I wanted to avoid having to redo all my sharing/etc that were tied to the libraries themselves.
For anyone else finding this, I actually discovered an even faster way to do this for the entire library:
After moving your files out of your library, create a single, empty file (any file, I just happened to use the command touch .empty) in the folder. This tells Plex the folder is purposefully empty and allows the Plex Dance to work.
By creating something like a .empty file, you won’t impact any imports down the road if you forget to remove it.
