Multiple File Names for 1 Episode

General Discussions
1

Hello all,

This is my first ever post, please be kind if I have put this in the wrong place. I am not sure how to navigate at this stage.
I have a two part episode that according to TVDB and IMBD were single episodes. The problem with this is plex is only showing me 1 of the two episodes. I have tried looking through everything here and I have not found a solution even though it appeared there was. I have tried about 10 different things without success.
[
It is the 1972 TV series Mash. - [

S7.E4 āˆ™ Our Finest Hour
("M*A*S*H" Our Finest Hour (TV Episode 1978) - IMDb)

I have the 2 episodes as

S07E04 - Our Finest Hour (Part 1) & S07E04 - Our Finest Hour (Part 2)

I found this page - https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/#:~:text=Episodes%20that%20are%20split%20into,ShowName%20ā€“%20s02e17%20ā€“%20Split_Name.ext

I have then tried to change it to

Mash-s07e04-Our Finest Hour-Part1 and Mash-s07e04-Our Finest Hour-Part2

That has not worked

I would really appreciate it if anyone can provide a solution for me.

Thank you in advance

2

If youā€™re trying to apply such ā€žstructural changesā€œ to episodes which have already been catalogued, it can be helpful/necessary to do a full Plex Dance with those files. This way, Plex is made to forget it had already allocated the files as something else.

Another option could be to append the two files using MKVToolNix. This way you wonā€™t depend on the client appā€˜s capability to play stacked files.

3

Your situation is better described as ā€œmultiple episodes within one fileā€.
There is a clearly-defined file name syntax for this: https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files#toc-5

1 Like
4

Iā€™m not sure if that is correct for this issue. I was about to explain how to do a multi-episode file, but on reviewing the OPs claim and the episode itself in TVDB, I suspect the user has two files for one episode, or a split episode. Thus the use of ā€œ(Part x)ā€ in the filename. However, placing both on the same line in their post and skipping the extension it makes it look like a user is doing a multi-episode single-file.

To the OP, the episodes need the syntax in this link: https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/#toc-6
That goes to the ā€œEpisodes Split Across Multiple Filesā€ section. Your episode names were so close, and it might even have worked, but there are two possible issues:

  1. You placed the ā€œ(Part x)ā€ in parentheses (). The Plex convention is to not use them for the part numbers. Including them can possibly cause plex to ignore the text and see the two files as ā€œcopiesā€ of the same. You can check if this is the case by seeing if Plex thinks they are ā€œduplicatesā€. Look for the ā€œand moreā€ text under ā€œVersionsā€ on the episode in question. If you see this, then Plex failed to combine them properly.
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  2. Maybe it actually worked! When Plex merges a two-file episode, it will only show up in Plex as a single entry. Selecting the entry, Plex will play through one file, then instantly load up the second one. If this happens, I believe Plex will show the overall duration of the episode as a combination of both durations, meaning you may see it as a 45 minute episode, rather than two 22 episodes. Just try watching the file, and see if it plays both episodes back-to-back.

In my opinion, it would be infinitely better to combine both episodes. If they are encoded identically, you can use MKVToolNix to concatenate the two files into one single file, which you can then drop into Plex.

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