Since the last time that I updated Plex Media Server on my Windows machine (few days ago) the file name pattern for all of my tv shows has stopped working, and now when I update my library Plex just deletes all my tv shows because it does not “find” any episodes…
This is the name pattern that I was using before the last server update:
but I would like to preserve my previous name pattern.
I would like to know if this change in Plex Media Server is arbitrary or it was a mistake?. And if it is arbitrary then why?, why now the developers does not allow users from still using these brackets [ ] in name pattern as I was using few days ago?.
PS: please avoid pointing me to this link, the important thing is that these chars [] were working by default, and now it does not work anymore. It should exist a specific reason for it.
Also now files that I have with names like “Magic Knight Rayearth [Opening] 01.mkv” now are recognized as a kind of episode 01…
“But officer, I’ve always travelled at 5 MPH over the posted speed limit here; I’ve never received a ticket, why am I know?”
“Because, sir, it’s always been illegal.”
My suspicion is that Plex is more formally enforcing the idea that information in square brackets be ignored by the scanner(s). Doing so allows folks to do dumb things, like leave their “scene” naming scheme intact (inside the brackets).
The above is pure supposition on my part. But, per the documentation, all the TV series scanner really cares about seeing in a filename is the SxxEyy bit anyway. The rest is just for us, for readability.
I have also gleaned from reading the forums that Plex was more strictly enforcing the rules as the new Agents were being developed. It’s become more strict to the “Plex Way” referenced in the Support Articles. On the other hand the new Agents are more accurate and way faster. And I haven’t had to see or use the “Fix Match” system at all.
I have changed my library naming over the years as I’ve changed software. Started with a simple DLNA server and the names were kept very short. Now I’ve drank the Plex kool-aid and embed the TVDB ID in the TV Show folders and the TMDB-ID in the movie filenames. And I use the square brackets for ‘hiding’ stuff from the Agents like movie cuts and “AKA” names for movies.
Chris
P.S. Plex seems to use the curly brackets for the TVDB/TMDB/IMDB Id’s. May not want to substitute those even though they work now.
I stumbled upon this change recently when a show stopped scraping. I’ve been using Plex since just after it stopped being OSXBMC. A large portion of those years I used the default naming convention of tvnamer. This uses the bracketed format [SSxEE], not exactly what OP used, but close.
After a fair amount of screwing around, then suspecting the issue was with file names, and then referencing the official naming article (which has changed a few times since 2008, being a longtime user doesn’t help here), I modded tvnamer’s default naming convention to employ SxxExx format. Show matched, no problem. I then applied that to the entirety of my TV library to avoid issues down the line.
If the plan is for the scanner to enforce sXXeXX as the standard and other formats will (rightly) be dropped as non-matches, this should be added to PMS release notes somewhere. I didn’t see things noted at all, just a few recent references for .plexmatch file support. The documentation is clear as to the preferred format, but the scanner over its long life has supported many conventions. When changes are made to better support/enforce the official, adopted standard, it’s still worth noting when that breaks things for legacy users. In my case the format I used ([SSxEE]) just needed to be brought in line with the updated standard, but it’s easier to proactively tackle that prior to an update vs updating and finding things won’t work.
I’m sorry, but fail to find the word preferred in the tech article
For season based shows it says: To name season-based shows create files with the season and episode notation sXXeXX
For sure, there are a ton of different aspects to Plex and I absolutely don’t keep abreast with all the changes by any means. I do scan the forums every few days for updates in particular sections (clients I use, release announcements, Windows PMS, etc) and I remember back when the updated series scanner came out. Things migrated over smoothly and kept humming along from early 2021 until about last month when the scanner behavior changed.
And that’s more or less my critique–why not enforce the official naming schema at launch and announce it then? There was never an instruction to rename your entire library to be compliant with the official format, just a reference to check the naming guide if your files didn’t scan in at all (which wasn’t a problem). This could be something I missed if it was posted on the blog or elsewhere. It’s just not something I saw and knew to do. A tidbit/warning in a PMS release note would’ve been sufficient.
Fair enough. When you break it down that far though, let’s take a dive into semantics and look at what preferred means. Per Merriam Webster: “liked better or best”, “used or wanted in preference to others”.
Up until a recent update the scanner kept referencing other naming formats (and may still, I didn’t test). How would you reasonably have described the official one? Official but not exclusive? Mandated but not enforced? Preferred seemed to fit the bill.
It’s just tidier and a better overall experience if a breaking change is coupled alongside a feature release. More people pay attention to feature releases and thus have a better chance of noting and accounting for those breaking changes.
At the end of the day, the scanner itself is great–performant and fast. I thank Plex for improving upon its predecessor. I just wish someone had considered that implementing a standard naming schema involves enforcement and communication. The former is ongoing, while the latter is yet to be seen really.
To OP, I didn’t mean to hijack your thread, I know you have objections to the naming format itself. I just wanted to share that I had a similar experience with bracketed names no longer working. I’ll stop de-railing here though.
