Seems I always struggle with this:
Have Plex on my smart TV, library is on a Windows 10 PC. Works fine.
Every couple months I will add a movie or series as a folder of files using Windows (copy folder, paste folder). Don’t do this often enough to have the update/scan process memorized.
Doesn’t show up on Smart TV
Select library in the Web Client, and use the 3 dots
Yep, tried that, no joy.
Connectivity is fine. I can “Cast to Device” to my Smartv with Windows 10. But new movies don’t appear in Plex ap in smartv
So you are saying it shows in the Web-Client, but not on your TV ?
Then more details are needed.
- What Smart TV vendor?
- What App version?
- Is the TV logged in as the same user as the Web-Client?
Hi Dane,
the Auto detect is not working, reported in a few discussions.
I believe the issue is the file type, .mkv. I can drop a .mp4 into the folder with the other episodes (.mkv) and it shows up in library view folder. But the other .mkv files do not.
Will research .mkv files in Plex, seems there’s much to know?
My bad. Seems the issue is .mkv files. I just realized none of the .mkv files/folders are being picked up. And don’t appear on the SmarTV of Web Ap.
Have you tried rebooting the SmarTV app? If it’s anything like the Shield android app, it doesn’t tend to look for recently added content if you opened the library recently. I have to force close the app on my Nvidia Shield and open it to see newly added files.
Next time this happens, can you confirm whether the server itself found it, by opening the web app at app.plex.tv
Not relevant, if showing in the Web-Client, or?
I Still need you to answer my questions!
Is not just a smartv issue. Same thing with the web ap on windows 10 and my android phone
“https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/”
Folders with .mkv files, content is not displayed. And the desktop ap view folder is empty
Alright. That’s a humdinger. 99% of my files are MKV files and are detected without incident.
Only thoughts I have are that they might be labeled badly, and are mis-matched as duplicates. That, or we can examine your folder/library source locations to make sure you aren’t making an easy rookie mistake.
I don’t know the ins and outs of Plex. Where are the metadata stored? In my case the physical file is in a file share on our network. Plex is working for a variety of movies, displays titles, cast, etc. And I can double click the file and it will play on my PC or laptop using Windows.
I have a couple episodic folders with multiple .mkv files. Folder display is empty but does list the folder name. Maybe multi-part, multi-file folders don’t work? I see most of my library consists of one folder with several files but only one video file. One library contains a single .mkv which does display.
Let’s look at the file name of these show files. Unless it is in a format as laid out in this article, Plex will kind of ignore the files.
SPECULATION PARAGRAPH: It’s possible that MP4 files have metadata in them, allowing Plex to detect the files regardless of a bad naming scheme, but I’ll worry about this later.
For now, can you copy the entire filename of one of these invisible episodes? Or, even better, would be a screenshot of your folder structure like this:
(Contents redacted for my privacy)
FYI, metadata is stored in the plex install’s /Config folder. I don’t think it’s relevant to go snooping around in that right now though.
Looking good… Um, can you show me the folder path just above in your screenshot (you cut it out). On mine, its the part that says Network > REDACTED > media > Videos > TV Shows. Then, a pic of your library source. That is, point at the triple dot next to the library name, Point at Manage Library and click Edit… Go to the Add folders option and show me that path.
That is mostly the things I wanted to see. I saw the folder that contains Schmigadoon, as well as the path above that, and the other folders in that Videos folder. For my second request, you started the process of creating a NEW library, rather than show me what your TV Shows library you currently have looks like. You had already made a TV Shows library, right?
(Looking at your libraries, you do not appear to have a “TV Shows” library, only a film and music library.)
Note, read and follow the Naming and Organizing your TV Show Files article I linked above. Most of what I am describing is laid out much better than I can do.
Ok, we’re going to need to re-organize things. To start, I’m going to tell you how Plex looks for shows and episodes. Plex expects you to have one folder for your TV Shows. You are expected to point a “TV Shows” type Plex library at that one folder. Then, within that, there should be one folder per show.
- You may not put multiple shows into one folder within “Shows”. I’m sorry, but Plex will not handle that. I myself have a lot of scooby doo shows all with different names. I want them to be together, but Plex does not like that.
I recommend you make a new folder within Videos, called TV Shows. Then, put all your TV shows into that. Schmigadoon!, Only Murders in the Building, etc.
(oh yeah, and fix the folder name of Only Murders in the Building. Plex figures out what the show is by taking your folder name and doing a search on TheTVDB.com. If you have the original name for the folder as you downlaoded it, Plex may not identify it correctly).
- Do not place any of your folders containing MOVIES into this TV Shows folder (such as "Song of the South and “Spencer”), as Plex will ignore those. Any file that does not have the standard “SxxExx” format in the file, Plex ignores.
Once you did all that, start making a new TV Shows library, and for the folder to add, use "C:\Users\jeffrey\Videos\Shows"
That should be it. Plex will scan your TV Shows folder, and should automatically detect them if they are organized well.
- If you use the wrong library type (Movies libraries ignore files with “SxxExx” in them, while TV Shows ignore all files that DON’T have this), your library will appear empty.
- Read and follow the Naming and Organizing your TV Show Files article. I cannot stress this enough.
Fixed it. Renamed the folder to ‘Only Murders in the Building’ then added a TV Shows library and scanned
Both it and Schmigadoon appear under TV Shows.
Creating the TV Shows library did the trick!!
-Jeff
