I am so frustrated, I have been looking through articles and support posts for a couple of days and trying everything. I don’t know my server version or player version, because among other things I cannot find is where to get that information either. They are the latest though, I just got a new computer and I am re-setting up all my stuff.
I have a My Cloud Home and I activated Plex on there. I moved my media and scanned the library. Movies went in fine, but TV shows all scanned under one show name even though they were in separate folders. The ‘unmatch’ button was missing and I could not fix it that way, so I started looking up articles.
Naming seems to be the number one issue with this problem so I renamed ALL the files in the Plex preferred naming scheme. I kept trying to get the library to rescan or refresh metadata and it would not work. I deleted the library, cleared my cashe, restarted my computer, and added it again. It did the same thing except scanned them all in under ‘Tv shows’. It seems to be picking up on seasons because they’re organized into different seasons but all the shows are mixed together.
After an extremely frustrating two days, I thought “at least I have movies right? I’ll just go watch one of those!” When I left my computer to play a movie through the firestick app on my tv none of the server media was shown there.
I don’t know how else to fix this and I have gone through all the tier one support articles for this, so please don’t suggest I turn it off and on again. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
Please provide a directory listing / screenshot / etc, showing how you have the TV shows named and organized, including file extension (mp4/mkv/etc).
Plex is very picky with TV show naming and organization. It is best to follow the Plex guidelines as closely as possible.
Make sure you are using a TV Show library, not Movies/Other Videos/etc. Also, no mixing TV Shows and Movies in the same library. That is not supported by Plex.
After renaming and/or reorganizing, you will need to Plex Dance the TV show. This removes incorrect metadata from the Plex database.
Web Player Version: 4.68.0
Player Version for TV: 8.25.0.28665(1181ac3)
I can see and play movies through the web app for mac.
MyCloud Home server version is 1.18.6.2350
I have already looked at the media naming scheme and have renamed my files accordingly. Maybe there is something I did wrong there that I don’t see. I downloaded filebot and renamed them with the {plex.id} script, which seems to be in line with the naming scheme noted in that article.
TV shows are separate from Movies and I am using the folders initially created by WD in the plex section of the server.
I have done the Plex Dance and it did not change anything. I’m going to try the other link for the old version running on WD servers, but it looks like that would only solve my issue connecting on the TV rather than the problem with the TV shows.
Let me know if you need any other information. Thanks!
Correct. Disabling secure communications allows the FireTV and other Android based clients to connect to your Plex server.
Note that after making the changes, when using Plex Web, you will have to connect to your Plex server using http, not https (http://nas_ip_address:32400/web).
The server setting is global, so it affects all clients. If you’ve any mobile apps, other streaming sticks, etc they will have to be configured for insecure communications as well.
FYI, I saw in another thread Plex is working with WD to update the version of PMS for WD MyCloud users. Both WD & Plex have to make some changes, it is not as simple as just loading another set of binaries. No word when the new version will be available, but at least they’re working on it.
Naming and organization looks good.
Plex Media Server 1.18 x is too old to take advantage of adding the tvdb IDs to the folder name. I don’t believe having the IDs in the folder names will cause problems (but I’ve never tested it).
Some things to check:
You are using a TV Show library, correct? Using a Movie library for TV shows will not work. It can lead to problems such as those you describe.
You’re adding the “TV Shows” folder to the library, not the individual show folders, correct?
Check Agents settings for Local Media Assets. Plex can read metadata embedded in MP4 files. If the metadata is incorrect, it can cause problems such as those you are seeing.
In the subsections for TheTVDB and The Movie Database, drag Local Media Assets (TV) to the bottom of the list. This tells Plex to use the other sources before relying on embedded metadata.
Refresh the metadata (don’t just rescan) for the TV Show library.
Yes, I have already added a movie folder and have only tried to add this library as TV Shows
Yes I am trying to add the folder, I haven’t seen how to add things individually or manually or else I would try that. Even when I edit and change the data manually in Plex it doesn’t change everything or separate out the TV Shows
I have played with this setting as well. I tried moving it to the bottom of the list or unselecting it all together. It hasn’t made a difference yet.
Move one of the shows out of the TV Shows folder to a location not seen by the Plex scanners.
Perform Plex Dance steps 2, 3, & 4, to clear information out of the Plex database.
If the show folder has the TMDB/TVDB ID in the folder name, remove it from the folder name.
Return the show to the TV Shows folder. Scan the library to pick up changes, if Plex does not do so automatically.
Wait for the Plex server to finish adding the show, downloading metadata, etc.
Pull the log files (Settings → Troubleshooting).
Attach the entire zip file to the thread.
Your naming, organization, etc all seem correct. Not sure why Plex is not recognizing your files correctly. Hopefully the log files will show what is happening.
You have some DRM protected media, both movies and TV shows. Plex cannot play such media, as it has no way to unlock it.
Start by removing the DRM protected media from your libraries. It will have video type of drmi.
Then re-scan the libraries, empty trash, and clean the bundles.
Plex should still correctly organize media even if it has DRM protection (it just cannot play it). Still, let’s get it out of your system and see if it helps things.
Here’s two I noticed in the log files:
Harry Potter Nov 03, 2021 00:13:32.755 [27820] DEBUG - MDE: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001): no direct play video profile exists for http/mp4/drmi
Friends: Nov 04, 2021 02:41:36.353 [22214] DEBUG - [MI] * 9438be65181988440733516778b32e3014f82297 [mp4 drmi/drms] Duration: 1366422ms, 720x478 (1.785216) 23.976fps, bitrate=2036kbps, audio channels=6, optimizedForStreaming=1 ("/data/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb/auth0|60785229ff8b3b00671645de/Plex/Shared TV Shows/TV Shows/Friends {tvdb-79168}/Season 01/Friends - S01E08 - The One Where Nana Dies Twice.m4v")
Please verify the folder path added to your TV Show library.
It looks like you added /Plex/Shared TV Shows.
Nov 04, 2021 11:38:17.063 [30898] DEBUG - LibraryUpdateManager will start watching /data/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb/auth0|60785229ff8b3b00671645de/Plex/Shared TV Shows
Your TV shows are in /Plex/Shared TV Shows/TV Shows.
Nov 04, 2021 11:38:20.079 [22240] DEBUG - [Notify] Now watching "/data/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb/auth0|60785229ff8b3b00671645de/Plex/Shared TV Shows/TV Shows/A Discovery of Witches {tvdb-351291}"
Plex does not support such subfolder structures. It will cause problems with proper recognition, grouping, etc.
If the library path is /Plex/Shared TV Shows:
Delete the current library
Re-add the library with the folder path /Plex/Shared TV Shows/TV Shows
or
Plex Dance all your TV Shows, but place them in /Plex/Shared TV Shows instead of /Plex/Shared TV Shows/TV Shows when moving them back to the TV Show library.
Yes, I realized this only after I tried to play one of them. It is most of the movies. I got them during that time when you bought the blu ray and received a digital copy for free! Only now it’s difficult to play them on a TV. I’ll have to remove them and just air play them.
Oddly enough, those were the files that did not have an issue finding meta data and sorting!
I think that was it!!! I deleted the library, moved the tv show folders into ‘Shared Tv Shows’, emptied trash, cleaned bundles, and then re-added the library. It appears to be working all the shows are separated out.