New TV Shows series not added (for last 2 months or more)

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
1

Server Version#: 1.30.0.6486 on Windows 11
Player Version#: Plex for Windows 1.60.1.3413-533a7645

I can no longer get new TV series to add to my Plex server TV library. The server is correctly scanning the directory, counting the videos (files) but says “database had 0 files”. I’ve tried various renaming and TVDB/TMDB IDs. It sees the changes promptly. Movies and Music work fine for additions. All prior TV series that I haven’t messed with remain correctly available. Here’s a sample from the Plex Media Server log.

Dec 29, 2022 14:43:30.313 [10384] DEBUG - [MediaProviderManager] loading cloud provider details (Music) (alive: 1)
Dec 29, 2022 14:43:30.313 [10384] DEBUG - [MediaProviderManager] loading cloud provider details (Movies & TV) (alive: 1)
Dec 29, 2022 14:43:30.313 [10384] DEBUG - [MediaProviderManager] we had 3 cloud providers online, we now have 3
Dec 29, 2022 14:43:30.313 [10384] DEBUG - [MediaProviderManager] cloud provider (Metadata) is online and available
Dec 29, 2022 14:43:30.313 [10384] DEBUG - [MediaProviderManager] cloud provider (Music) is online and available
Dec 29, 2022 14:43:30.313 [10384] DEBUG - [MediaProviderManager] cloud provider (Movies & TV) is online and available
Dec 29, 2022 14:43:31.333 [10392] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#3c] HTTP/2.0 (1.0s) 200 response from GET https://plex.tv/api/v2/server/users/subscriptions?auth_token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (reused)
Dec 29, 2022 14:43:31.335 [10592] DEBUG - MyPlex: using cached data for request for https://plex.tv/api/v2/server/users/services?auth_token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.369 [11716] DEBUG - Library Updater: Requested that section 3 be updated, force=0, deep=0, subdir=D:\series\Initial-D iTunes=0
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.369 [11716] DEBUG - Library Updater: Queueing section 3
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.370 [10448] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 831aa4d4-00d0-4cad-8e33-8c110a53ab5a - "Scanning"
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.370 [10448] INFO - Notification: Scanning the "TV Shows" section - 
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.370 [10448] DEBUG - Scanning section 3
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.370 [10448] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 831aa4d4-00d0-4cad-8e33-8c110a53ab5a - completed 0.0% - Scanning TV Shows
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.378 [10448] DEBUG - Asked to cull library timeline before time 1672352659, we're starting with 0 items.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.378 [10448] DEBUG - Library timeline cull complete with 0 items left.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.378 [10448] DEBUG - Scanning TV Shows using en-US(Plex TV Series) with 0 current media items and 1 section locations in the database.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.378 [10448] DEBUG - Performing a scan with 'Plex TV Series' (language: en-US virtual: 0).
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.378 [10448] DEBUG -   * Scanning D:\series\Initial-D
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.379 [10448] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory D:\series\Initial-D (parent: yes)
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.384 [11716] DEBUG - Library Updater: Requested that section 3 be updated, force=0, deep=0, subdir=D:\series iTunes=0
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.384 [11716] DEBUG - Library Updater: Queueing section 3
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.422 [10448] DEBUG - Directory had 42 files, database had 0 files, can't skip.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.424 [10448] DEBUG - [PlexMatch] Using 'tvdb://70900' for show_guid
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.428 [10448] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 831aa4d4-00d0-4cad-8e33-8c110a53ab5a - completed 0.0% - Scanning TV Shows
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.428 [10448] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 831aa4d4-00d0-4cad-8e33-8c110a53ab5a - completed 99.0% - Scanning TV Shows
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.428 [10448] DEBUG - Scanner [Plex TV Series]: Idle and left with 0 media items.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.428 [10448] DEBUG - Removing 0 media items that were left.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.428 [10448] DEBUG - Removing 0 directories that were left.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.428 [10448] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Initial-D' (ID 846) to time 2022-12-29 12:33:32.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.441 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: Found 0 collections tags in section 3.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.441 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: We had 0 collections in the library already.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.441 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: Synced tags in section 3 in 0ms.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.441 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: Found 0 collections tags in section 3.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.441 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: We had 0 collections in the library already.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.441 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: Synced tags in section 3 in 0ms.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.441 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: Found 0 collections tags in section 3.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.441 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: We had 0 collections in the library already.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.441 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: Synced tags in section 3 in 0ms.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.441 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: Refreshed attributes for 0 collections in section 3 in 0ms.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.442 [10448] DEBUG - Collection: Refreshed visibility in section 3 in 0ms.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.443 [10448] DEBUG - Collections: Refreshed attributes for 0 collections in section 3 in 1ms.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.443 [10448] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 831aa4d4-00d0-4cad-8e33-8c110a53ab5a - completed 100.0% - Scanning TV Shows
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.443 [10448] DEBUG - Refreshing section 3 of type: 2
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.514 [10408] DEBUG - Refreshing 0 IDs.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.515 [10448] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 7d8182c1-1b05-4272-8726-2b9dd7d1e2d2 - "Processing subscriptions"
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.515 [11716] DEBUG - Grabber: Cleaning up orphaned grabs.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.515 [10448] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 831aa4d4-00d0-4cad-8e33-8c110a53ab5a.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [10448] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 9f2d2acf-4ed2-4e6c-9562-4693c8b887dd - "Scanning"
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [10448] INFO - Notification: Scanning the "TV Shows" section - 
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [10448] DEBUG - Scanning section 3
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [10448] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 9f2d2acf-4ed2-4e6c-9562-4693c8b887dd - completed 0.0% - Scanning TV Shows
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [10448] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [11716] DEBUG - Grabber: Cleaned up 0 decrepit directories in 0.0 sec.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [11716] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 16e48ce0-b5a6-4771-9f26-7c181b408a2a - "Processing subscriptions"
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [11716] DEBUG - Subscription: Scheduling subscriptions.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [11716] DEBUG - Subscription: Initialized 0 schedulers.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [11716] DEBUG - Subscription: Starting with 0 grabs, scheduled 0 active ones preemptively.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.516 [11716] DEBUG - Subscription: Scheduled all subscriptions in 0 ms.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.517 [11716] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 16e48ce0-b5a6-4771-9f26-7c181b408a2a.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.517 [11716] DEBUG - Subscription: There are 0 active grabs at the end.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.517 [11716] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 7d8182c1-1b05-4272-8726-2b9dd7d1e2d2.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.517 [11716] DEBUG - Subscription: Refreshed all content in 2 ms.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.571 [10448] DEBUG - Asked to cull library timeline before time 1672352659, we're starting with 0 items.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.571 [10448] DEBUG - Library timeline cull complete with 0 items left.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.571 [10448] DEBUG - Scanning TV Shows using en-US(Plex TV Series) with 1938 current media items and 1 section locations in the database.
Dec 29, 2022 14:44:19.571 [10448] DEBUG - Performing a scan with 'Plex TV Series' (language: en-US virtual: 0).
2

Please do us a favor and upload a copy of your server logs. Trying to copy/paste excerpts, odds are the data we need isnt in what you are selecting.

Please also include the exact filename and path of one of the missing episodes

3

Plex Media Server Logs_2022-12-29_15-39-30.zip (4.3 MB)

4

@ludwigsr can you provide an exact filename and path for one of the affected files?

5

preferably also the .plexmatch file you’ve placed in the show’s folder

D:\series\Initial-D {tmdb-40424}\.plexmatch
1 Like
6

Looking at the logs its fairly obvious a naming issue:
You have: D:\series\Rick-Morty\Rick Morty-[S3E07 The Ricklantis Mixup].mp4

However plex ignores anything in square brackets. The official naming schema recommends:
D:\series\Rick and Morty {tvdb-275274}\Season 03\Rick and Morty - S03E07 - The Ricklantis Mixup.mp4

My canned response is to see https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/ and:

If you want to save yourself a lot of time I would recommend using Download - tinyMediaManager and use:

Episode format:
${showTitle} - S${seasonNr2}E${episodeNr2} - ${title}

Folder format:
${showTitle} (${showYear}) {tvdb-${tvShow.ids.tvdb}}/Season ${seasonNr2}

as the new name format.
(Please note I linked to the v3 which is free to use)

3 Likes
7

D:\series\Initial-D\Initial-D-[S4E01].mp4
After no success with putting the TMDB ID on the folder name, I started removing the folder ID and using .plexmatch
I can’t (per Plex forum) upload the exact .plexmatch file since it has no extension, but the contents are tvdbid: 70900

8

Again your issue you are using [ and ] in your filenames. Between those is the season/episode info. Plex ignores anything between them meaning plex doesnt see Season/episode info for your files.

1 Like
9

I’m very aware of this and not in favor of the newer Plex standards, but it doesn’t explain why all the older directories and files still work. Everything in my system is done this way.

10

That is because those files were added prior to the scanner change, and have not been refreshed. As soon as plex refreshes the data on those files they will disappear from the server (I lost half my library before I caught it)

Rename the files and loose the brackets, your issue will go away.

The change to the scanner was made ~10 months ago. If you waited and updated ~2-6 months ago, only items added after the update to the scanner would be affected. The new scanner doesnt see the files you have as valid TV show files. (Nothing containing season or episode info)

1 Like
11

Alright, thanks for your help

12

OK, after bulk renames to remove the square brackets, placing a .plexmatch file with the appropriate TVDB ID in each series folder, and asking the TV library to refresh all metadata, I see all the titles, old and 2022.

13

Just as a side note… the plexmatch file should not be required if the files/folders themselves are properly named (and based on your example you’ve already included the external reference in the folder names).

14

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.