I have a friend! (no seriously, its for a friend), who has this naming convention. He doesn’t care for the Series\Season X\Series-SXXYXX.ext naming convention, prefering series\season x\yy - Showname.ext
Is there any way to get plex to index those cleanly ?
@rdurdle said:
I have a friend! (no seriously, its for a friend), who has this naming convention. He doesn’t care for the Series\Season X\Series-SXXYXX.ext naming convention, prefering series\season x\yy - Showname.extIs there any way to get plex to index those cleanly ?
Yes. All that must be done is to name those files and directories according to Plex standards then Plex will index them just fine. If your friend does not want to do that then he/she should not expect Plex to work correctly.
The other alternative would be to use a “Home movies” library and the Plex would do nothing except display the files as they are and most clients have a folder view and that can be used to browse and play the wonky named files.
Personally I see zero advantage in your friend’s preference. Plex’s naming works in every program I know of and I see no valid reason to not use it. Use Filebot to rename everything and then be done with it.
Hi, I’m the friend. The main reason I don’t like the naming convention, is that I have many friends that want to borrow shows from me, and the standard “Series\Season X\Series-SXXYXX.ext” doesn’t work for them when they download from me. They simply prefer the “series/season/xx-NAME.ext”. These people don’t have reliable/very slow internet, yet enjoy the programs I provide them with on a memstick, or can download at a very reduced rate.
Yeah, it’s more for that ability to tailor the naming convention, and scraping.
He’s got them all in plex now and the streaming is working great, but not having the metadata prevents the proper indexing (which is my personal fav feature)
Plex really doesn’t care that ‘the friends’ can’t embrace change in the free media they’re receiving.
Personally, I’d inform everyone that along with Trump there are other changes in everyone’s life that are going to be mandatory.
If you want to use Plex then you must adhere to Plex’s standards. Those are not going to change just for one fringe desire.
I do not see any advantage to “series/season/xx-NAME.ext” over “Series\Season X\Series - sXXeXX - optional title.ext.” The “name” certainly makes no difference in the ability or speed of download nor the ability to have the files on a USB stick.
But each to their own. If you want to use Plex the way it is designed to be used then rename you files if you do not want to use Plex then the file names do not matter. It is your choice not anyone else’s.
Personally I had a quite different structure to my TV shows when I discovered Plex (I thought nothing could be better than what I had) but I liked the way Plex worked better than any alternative so I renamed and restructured my entire library and I have never regretted doing that. The Plex naming and structure works fine for every other program I have tested and I have tested many because I am always looking for “better” but, to this point, Plex has continued to prove to be the “best.”
First, I embrace better then any Trumpit ever will, so no need to get insulting. I restructured things to make it easier for my friends, who don’t understand much beyond “01 Pilot.MP4”. It would cause some of them issues to try and understand Rick.and.Morty.s01e01.Pilot.mp4.
@bw.bjorndahl@gmail.com said:
First, I embrace better then any Trumpit ever will, so no need to get insulting. I restructured things to make it easier for my friends, who don’t understand much beyond “01 Pilot.MP4”. It would cause some of them issues to try and understand Rick.and.Morty.s01e01.Pilot.mp4.
That I REALLY fail to understand! “Rick and Morty - s01e01 - Pilot.mp4” (To change what you wrote into correct Plex format) is MUCH more clear (at least to me) than “01 Pilot.MP4.” the latter contains no information about what the file really is while the former identifies the file completely.
I really doubt that correct naming would give anyone problems. Even non-native English speakers should have no problem with correct naming.
Until now I have never heard of the scheme you are using and I strongly recommend adopting the standard going forward. It will mitigate many problems down the road.
Of course you are free to do as you wish but you should not expect Plex or any other program to work correctly with that naming. If you want to use Plex then that naming will not work! Fighting the great Plexosaurus is doomed to failure and simply not worth the effort at all.
I have no issues with how my setup works. I never cared about the metadata uploads, nor do the people I really care about.
Thanks guys, I wasnt really looking to bash on my friends or their friends. I was looking for a legitimate answer to a question.
Is there a way to alter the naming convention that plex uses?
Between the insults, I think I read that the answer is no.
Thanks for your time, have a great day!
It is not possible to get PMS to reliably recognize “01 Pilot.MP4”. Basically because the 01 can mean anything and since we don’t yet have Plex AI, it has no way to know that it is an episode number. You basically have 2 options.
1 - Set your episodes up as a home video library, then the episode numbers won’t matter.
2 - rename your files
Although SxxEyy is the recommended method, it is not the only naming convention, it’s just the recommended method to ensure things get matched properly. The closest alternative to the naming you already have would be to just add an E at the front of the number, “E01 Pilot.MP4”. It would be better if you also added a “-” after the number, "“E01 - Pilot.MP4”, but it might be ok without it.
@MovieFan.Plex said:
It is not possible to get PMS to reliably recognize “01 Pilot.MP4”. Basically because the 01 can mean anything and since we don’t yet have Plex AI, it has no way to know that it is an episode number. You basically have 2 options.1 - Set your episodes up as a home video library, then the episode numbers won’t matter.
2 - rename your filesAlthough SxxEyy is the recommended method, it is not the only naming convention, it’s just the recommended method to ensure things get matched properly. The closest alternative to the naming you already have would be to just add an
Eat the front of the number, “E01 Pilot.MP4”. It would be better if you also added a “-” after the number, "“E01 - Pilot.MP4”, but it might be ok without it.
Oh Really? Wow, Thats a really great idea. So it’d pick up the show name from the folder name?
BTW, thank you for a solid answer 
The scanner will try with the filename first. It must at least be able to identify the episode number. It then needs the season. If it can’t find it in the filename, it checks the folder. Then for the show name, filename first, then folder, then the highest level folder.
There is some flexibility in the scheme but since it’s impossible to handle all cases, we can’t guarantee they will work, which is why there is a recommended method. Anything outside of that may work, but if it doesn’t, it’s probably unlikely any changes would be made to make it work.
