Last few weeks, most new movies added to my library always match to a small set of old movies.
I haven’t changed the naming scheme of anything. If I “split” the items, and do a manual “fix match”, the incorrect match comes in at 100%, and the correct movie comes in at >90%.
Which makes zero sense, since the movies have nothing to do with each other. Some examples:
“Black and Blue” matched as “The Fifth Element”
“Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone” matched as “The Fifth Element”
“The Informer” matched as “Gemini Man”
“Zombieland: Double Tap” matched as “Gemini Man”
Well… your naming is not necessarily particularly matching the naming conventions
At least we can rule out Plex pulling a wrong title from the file as it’s a MKV and no MP4/M4V.
How have you structured those movies of yours in the underlying folders? That screenshot is only showing a small subset of the file name…
Disable Verbose Logging - unless specifically instructed to turn it on. Verbose Logs are so littered with useless info they’re of little use - unless looking for something specific.
Movie Folders - and the Movie therein - need to be the same ‘Correct’ Name. One Movie per folder - unless you have a specific use case (and you don’t).
The Correct Name and Structure:
Zombieland Double Tap (2019)/
.......Zombieland Double Tap (2019) [Put Crap Here].mkv
(Plex ignores Crap in [Brackets])
Since you may have had movies of different names in the same folder, for some time, you need to remove all movies and folders that even remotely look like the movie in question, rename your files correctly, restructure them correctly and Plex Dance the entire shebang:
ALL Steps, in Order, or it simply won’t work.
‘Named The Same as They’ve Always Been’ means nothing to us. Eventually, like right about now in your case, Poor Naming and Structuring comes home to roost. It’s home.
‘Named Correctly’ is a completely different animal and the one that’ll work when the other one won’t.
You can Plex Dance a movie at a time, if you don’t have many, but I really would investigate software that would help bring your naming and structuring into a more ‘standard and correct’ configuration or things like this will go on, and on, and… on.
As for the Harry Potters - hunt down and destroy every Harry Potter anything and Plex Dance new ones, named and structured correctly. See what that does.
I cleared all the logs beforehand, and performed exactly one action with verbose logging for debug purposes. The server logs have 3k lines of logs, everything else has a few dozen. Yes there’s a bit of cruft, the logs I posted however are not “useless”. I went through them before posting. This is the server log without the verbose logging, it’s just over 1k lines still: Plex Media Server.log (183.7 KB)
I only ever have 1 movie per folder, never had more. And the specific directory structure I used has worked with Plex for years, I’ve been a Plex Pass member for 7 years, and been using Plex for much longer than that. Always with the same structure. Only had this issue this past month.
I think you mean the “preferred” name and structure. My issue isn’t that Plex is failing to match metadata or 3D type or anything like that, I manage with those issues on a case-by-case basis. My issue is that Plex is completely failing to land on an even remotely similar movie name. The main reason I use Plex is because it can handle this naming structure.
Again, I’ve have not. And I wouldn’t call “The Fifth Element” even remotely similar to “Harry Potter”.
This has happened with both adding a new version of the same movie to an existing folder (as was the case with Harry Potter, I simply removed the old file and added a new version, plex matched the new file in the same old folder as “The Fifth Element”, when the old file in that exact same folder matched as “Harry Potter”), or with brand new movies (as with Zombieland, matching “Gemini Man” (again, wouldn’t call that even remotely similar).
I object to your assessment of poor naming structure being at fault. 1700+ movies automatically matched correctly so far would demonstrate otherwise. I’ve gone to great lengths to keep the database and file structure clean, without the need to ever “Plex Dance” until now, when the issue crops up with the majority of new files added over the last few weeks.
Maybe something which is cached is interfering with a natural match. A couple other suggestions:
Try creating a test library with just a couple of problematic movies. For example, create a new path on your drive (/mnt/Drobo/Movies2), move 2-3 movies there, create a new library of type Movies, and add your new folder as the path.
Try correcting your naming and then perform the Plex Dance on the affected movies as requested. It can only help, and will not hurt anything. The naming guidelines for files are documented and very clear.
This is odd. I tried just that (clearing the caches had no effect). Adding the fifth element first, then the harry potter movie, had the same issue. I renamed the harry potter movie, re-scanned, and it was picked up correctly.
Then, I deleted the movie entirely. Renamed it back to its original name, cleared the database, cleared the caches, and added it back (so a repeat of the first attempt). It’s now picked up correctly…
Unfortunately that’s not an option for me, at least not as a permanent solution. Have to use the original filenames.
Can you elaborate on that? Unless I’ve misunderstood what you’ve written, changing the naming to match the guidelines helped it match correctly. If it’s a matter of keeping arbitrary information in the filename, you can still do so; just enclose the extraneous stuff in square brackets [ ] and Plex will ignore it:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) [Theatrical.Cut.REPACK.1080p.UHD.BluRay.DTS.5.1.HDR.x265-JM].mkv
Changing the filename fixed the issue. After I did that, i changed the filename back, and the issue did not reoccur, meaning the original filename started working.
I can’t change the filenames at all. Only the folder names. The contents of the folders need to be served as a package.
I still fail to understand how the exact filename I posted above would result in such an incorrect match. I could buy matching the wrong harry potter movie, but not such a wild difference. And I’ve had multiple random movies match the same completely unrelated one, which is just completely odd…
