Multiple TV shows in one library

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
1

Server Version#: 1.19.1.2645
Player Version#: 4.31.1

I have several TV shows currently added as distinct libraries: Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, etc. This works fine and each library indicates the correct number of seasons and episodes. My list of libraries was getting too long and cumbersome so I created a library “Superhero TV” which includes the various shows. The number of episodes show up differently in this new library than they do when it is a library per series and a series is not listed. What I have that works:

Library “Black Lightning” -> folder F:\My Media\TV Shows\Superhero TV\Black Lightning When I select the library it correctly shows 3 seasons and the correct number of eps.

What doesn’t work:

Combined library “Superhero TV” -> folders
F:\My Media\TV Shows\Superhero TV\Black Lightning
F:\My Media\TV Shows\Superhero TV\Batwoman

When I select the library “Superhero TV” it does not show Batwoman at all and for Black Lightning season 1 it seems as if its eps have been replaced by the Batwoman season 1 episodes. The common file structure below the series name is \Season x<ShowName> - sxx-exx - episode name.

I assume that I have something structured wrong, Suggestions welcome. Thanks!

2

I suppose this is because of how you added the different folders.
Plex expects 1 top-level folder that contains a folder per show

Example:

TV Shows  <- the folder linked to your library
  Black Lightning
    Season 01
      Black Lightning - s01e01 - The Resurrection.ext
      Black Lightning - s01e02.ext  <- the episode title is optional and will be ignored by Plex
      Black Lightning - s01e03.ext
      ...
      Black Lightning - s01e13.ext

If you point directly to the folder Black Lightning or have other layers of folders added between the parent and show folders, Plex can get confused and might end up mixing up the shows.

Edit:
Why not have a single TV Show library and group the different shows by genre (via filtering) or have them grouped by collections?

3

I did some experimenting. Only when I named the top level folder “TV Shows” did Plex correctly find and assign the seasons/episodes. Any other folder name (Ex: “Superhero TV” with “Black Lightning” and “Batwoman” below it) had the same result as when I specified the individual show folders in the library. I am quite aware of the need to separate movies and TV shows but I was unaware that “TV Shows” was a unique/reserved/specially handled folder name. I was unaware of the Collections feature but will explore it - it looks promising - thanks. I had (apparently incorrectly) assumed that a Library could be comprised of an arbitrary set of folders, all of the same type (Movies, TV Shows).

4

It’s not.
I have 2 folders linked to my tv show library named tv-shows (de) and tv-shows (en) – works like a charm.

I suspect you first changed the folder structure / naming while Plex still “knew” your files. Performing a “Plex Dance” to make it drop those files from its cache should have done the same job for you.

5

Thanks. I had seen reference to the “Plex Dance” but had not dug into when it might be needed. Re: Collections - they seem to work well for Movies and Series. Do you have any suggestions for working with/tagging single episodes of a series? For example - the Christmas episodes of various series. It does not seem like there is a Collections feature for single episodes. Thanks again!

6

There’s no collections for episodes.
I’ve used a static playlist for that purpose, adding all episodes with X-Mas references to it. I suppose it’s worth a shot to check if this also works with smart playlists (e.g. title contains X-Mas or description contains X-Mas) to make it a little bit more dynamic :wink:

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