Naming Movies that start with "The"

General Discussions
1

I searched around a bit, but cannot seem to find an answer to my question: If I remove the word “The” from a start of a movie title, will Plex Media Server be able to identify the file correctly and get the pic, genre, etc.?

1 Like
2

It would be quick & easier to rename your file to find out rather than post on this forum. Perhaps when you have done it you could report back?

3

Leave ‘The’ in the movie’s file name and folder name.
At the beginning, where it belongs.
The ‘the’ is a part of the movie’s official title, which is used by Plex to identify the movie. This process is called ‘matching’.
The further a movie’s file name is different from its official title, the smaller is the chance of Plex actually identifying it successfully or correctly.

There are easier and faster methods to find a movie’s file quickly, if that’s what caused you to leave off the ‘the’.

See https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/categories/200028098-Media-Preparation

4

And if you’re worried about Plex sorting your movies by name, Plex automatically drops the “The” for sorting purposes.

5

for example, the attachment tells the story

6

Thanks for tips - just what I needed.

7

I DO wan’t my movies to start with “The”. Is there a way to make it do that?

8

@Szyphoid said:
I DO wan’t my movies to start with “The”. Is there a way to make it do that?

This is the default in Plex.

Please provide some more info what you are seeing (screen shot?) and how it is different from what you want to see.
Please also add the Plex XML info of one affected movie.

9

sorry to try and revive this old thread but I am searching for the opposite of OP wanted. Plex lists movies under T. Like THE Crow or THE Ladykillers. I want to look under L for Ladykillers not T. I included a screenshot, I thought Plex did what I wanted by default. any help is appreciated

10

I prefer the way Plex sorts movies by dropping “The”. The display name still displays “The”, But sorts it by the next word in the title. If Plex didnt do this, I’d have like 60% of my library under “T” section…

11

sorry figured it out, didn’t look at Gdr56’s attachment first time reading

12

Leave the file name as it is, then look at the Plex Media Server web interface to see it in your library, if it hasn’t identified it correctly, you can click Menu/Edit (the three-dot thing) and choose “Fix Match” then you can enter whatever search term just for the purpose of finding the correct film, then select the correct search result.

Whether you let Plex identify it by itself or if you go through the Fix Match process, PMS will remove “The” from the Sorting Title but leave it in the Film Title by default. Normally though, it’s pretty good at identifying files whether “The” is in there or not