Newest episodes of shows only grabbing broadcast date metadata from TVDB

[SamiNicole]

Server Version#: 1.20.4.3517
Player Version#: N/A

This is an issue that has been going on for a while, but since I’ve automated some other parts of my file management I figured I’d try and figure this out.

Show that this is currently failing on is “Magatsu Warheit - Zuerst”, specifically episode 4 (the most recently aired episode), but this has happened to multiple shows that are currently going. File is named properly (Magatsu Warheit - Zuerst - S01E04.mkv), and Plex is clearly making the connection to TheTVDB since it grabs the correct broadcast date (November 3rd, 2020 in this case), but it fails to grab anything else, deciding to simply title it “Episode 4”. I have Plex Danced a few times at this point. Nothing has seemed to help any.

I did peek at the logs, and saw a little oddness here:

No other errors or warnings have been generated. I just tested with the third episode (which I believe had previously failed and I just manually added, but left the fields unlocked), and it generated the same warning (with a 3 instead of a 4).

I’m at a bit of a loss here, but absolutely feel free to request whatever you need from me. Generally speaking, full shows which are complete add fine, it’s just when adding episode-by-episode that this has tended to happen. I tried searching around but while other people seemed to have similar issues, they either were generally different, the resolution didn’t work, or there just wasn’t a response.

[CostaHT]

Are you able to see the content of that .xml? Maybe plex is collecting it but it’s failing to load it, like the message says. And those are different problems

[SamiNicole]

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="3" librarySectionTitle="Anime Series" librarySectionUUID="649b3eab-331b-4c33-a1e4-602b9edaad45" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1603913258">
    <Video ratingKey="32123" key="/library/metadata/32123" skipParent="1" parentRatingKey="32119" grandparentRatingKey="32118" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://387391/1/4?lang=en" parentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://387391/1?lang=en" grandparentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://387391?lang=en" type="episode" title="Episode 4" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/32118" parentKey="/library/metadata/32119" librarySectionTitle="Anime Series" librarySectionID="3" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/3" grandparentTitle="Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst" parentTitle="Season 1" contentRating="TV-14" summary="" index="4" parentIndex="1" year="2020" thumb="/library/metadata/32123/thumb/1604552451" art="/library/metadata/32118/art/1604552451" parentThumb="/library/metadata/32119/thumb/1604552213" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/32118/thumb/1604552451" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/32118/art/1604552451" duration="1451050" originallyAvailableAt="2020-11-03" addedAt="1604552193" updatedAt="1604552451">
        <Media id="33305" duration="1451050" bitrate="7738" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" audioProfile="lc" videoProfile="high">
            <Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="34591" key="/library/parts/34591/1604546010/file.mkv" duration="1451050" file="I:\Anime Series\Magatsu Wahrheit - Zuerst\Season 1\Magatsu Wahrheit - Zuerst - S01E04.mkv" size="1405313846" audioProfile="lc" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="4" indexes="sd" requiredBandwidths="8012,7895,7855,7855,7855,7855,7855,7855" videoProfile="high">
                <Stream id="96330" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="7485" language="日本語" languageCode="jpn" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="1088" codedWidth="1920" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="4" requiredBandwidths="7759,7641,7603,7603,7603,7603,7603,7603" scanType="progressive" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="1080p (H.264)"/>
                <Stream id="96331" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="253" language="日本語" languageCode="jpn" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="lc" requiredBandwidths="253,253,253,253,253,253,253,253" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="日本語 (AAC Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="日本語 (AAC Stereo)"/>
                <Stream id="96332" streamType="3" selected="1" default="1" codec="ass" index="2" bitrate="0" language="English" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="English(US)" displayTitle="English (ASS)" extendedDisplayTitle="English(US) (ASS)"/>
            </Part>
        </Media>
        <Marker type="intro" startTimeOffset="990" endTimeOffset="28316"/>
        <Extras size="0"> </Extras>
        <Related> </Related>
    </Video>
</MediaContainer>

is the content of the XML file associated with it. I’m not entirely sure how to parse that but to me it looks like the metadata is missing from the XML file as well (aside from the date).

Edit: Went back and checked again, and it’s actually giving 3 error/warning messages:

I don’t know that the two in red are relevant, but figured I should note them anyway. They appear to be recurring independent of whether I refresh metadata or not.

[FordGuy61]

Your Plex server pull metadata from hosts at plex.tv, not directly from TheTVDB (or other metadata providers). The systems at Plex have not yet been updated with the episode information.

I’m not sure what the normal lag time is for Plex’s servers to receive updated information. I have loaded episodes for other shows into my server the day they aired and the metadata was available.

You can see Plex Media Server query the servers at Plex in com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb.log files.

Episode 3:
https://tvdb2.plex.tv/episodes/7973565?lang=en

Summary

{“data”:{“id”:7973565,“airedSeason”:1,“airedSeasonID”:1863021,“airedEpisodeNumber”:3,“episodeName”:“Of Creatures and Men”,“firstAired”:“2020-10-27”,“guestStars”:,“directors”:,“writers”:,“overview”:“Innumael, Schaake, and company have escaped the Imperial Army’s lockdown. Their journey takes them through a forest, but something is amiss. Helman takes a new approach in his attempt to apprehend Innumael.”,“language”:{“episodeName”:“en”,“overview”:“en”},“productionCode”:"",“showUrl”:"",“lastUpdated”:1603784836,“dvdDiscid”:"",“dvdSeason”:null,“dvdEpisodeNumber”:null,“dvdChapter”:null,“absoluteNumber”:3,“filename”:“series/387391/episodes/5f97d0877059d.jpg”,“seriesId”:387391,“lastUpdatedBy”:132808,“airsAfterSeason”:null,“airsBeforeSeason”:null,“airsBeforeEpisode”:null,“imdbId”:“tt13272822”,“contentRating”:“TV-14”,“thumbAuthor”:null,“thumbAdded”:“2020-10-27 07:47:18”,“thumbWidth”:“640”,“thumbHeight”:“360”,“siteRating”:0,“siteRatingCount”:0,“isMovie”:0}}

Episode 4:
https://tvdb2.plex.tv/episodes/7973566?lang=en

Summary

{“data”:{“id”:7973566,“airedSeason”:1,“airedSeasonID”:1863021,“airedEpisodeNumber”:4,“episodeName”:“Episode 4”,“firstAired”:“2020-11-03”,“guestStars”:,“directors”:,“writers”:,“overview”:null,“language”:{“episodeName”:“en”,“overview”:“en”},“productionCode”:"",“showUrl”:"",“lastUpdated”:1604391400,“dvdDiscid”:"",“dvdSeason”:null,“dvdEpisodeNumber”:null,“dvdChapter”:null,“absoluteNumber”:4,“filename”:“series/387391/episodes/5fa111eb087a9.jpg”,“seriesId”:387391,“lastUpdatedBy”:132808,“airsAfterSeason”:null,“airsBeforeSeason”:null,“airsBeforeEpisode”:null,“imdbId”:“tt13339208”,“contentRating”:“TV-14”,“thumbAuthor”:null,“thumbAdded”:“2020-11-03 08:16:42”,“thumbWidth”:“640”,“thumbHeight”:“360”,“siteRating”:0,“siteRatingCount”:0,“isMovie”:0}}

[stgarf]

I am on PMS version 1.20.4.3517 and am also experiencing something pretty much like this issue.
(edit: I am on running on Linux in docker, however, not Windows)

This is happening for all “daily”-type shows… Here’s a few screenshots (all showing the naming issue (e.g. YYYY-MM-DD vs Episode Name)), a) of my “On Deck” section, and b) of the few episodes/season of the Daily Show, and c) a few of the latest episodes/season of Colbert:

Here’s a screenshot of all I could find in the logs (with both Debug and Verbose logging enabled) about Plex’s attempt to properly identify the name of a single Colbert episode.

Also, for what it’s worth, the episode’s path is as follows on disk: “/tv/The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/Season.06/The.Late.Show.with.Stephen.Colbert.2020-10-28.Jaime.Harrison,.Elvis.Costello.WEBDL-1080p.mkv”.

And also also, Plex’s TVDB metadata cache does seem to have the correct episode title and show description: {"data":{"id":8010307,"airedSeason":6,"airedSeasonID":1866406,"airedEpisodeNumber":26,"episodeName":"Jaime Harrison, Elvis Costello","firstAired":"2020-10-28","guestStars":[],"directors":[],"writers":[],"overview":"Stephen welcomes politician Jaime Harrison, plus an interview with and a musical performance by Elvis Costello.","language":{"episodeName":"en","overview":"en"},"productionCode":"","showUrl":"","lastUpdated":1604096534,"dvdDiscid":"","dvdSeason":null,"dvdEpisodeNumber":null,"dvdChapter":null,"absoluteNumber":null,"filename":"series/289574/episodes/5f9c921aab8c1.jpg","seriesId":289574,"lastUpdatedBy":107828,"airsAfterSeason":null,"airsBeforeSeason":null,"airsBeforeEpisode":null,"imdbId":"","contentRating":null,"thumbAuthor":null,"thumbAdded":"2020-10-30 22:22:17","thumbWidth":"640","thumbHeight":"360","siteRating":0,"siteRatingCount":0,"isMovie":0}}

[dRuEFFECT]

@stgarf I have to echo this. It’s been happening for me with all the talk shows since 11/4, but oddly you have episodes going further back. It’s happening across the board on these… Conan, Colbert, Kimmel, Daily Show… all starting with episodes from 11/4.

I thought it might be related to the most recent PMS update, so I uninstalled and reinstalled version 1.20.3.3483, but refreshing metadata under this version doesn’t fix anything.

Oddly enough, the 11/5 episode of Colbert was also put into its own “Season 2020” season folder. Nothing has changed from Sonarr and all the files are following the same structure they were coming in as previously.

The most annoying part is that these new files are sorted at the top, so when I finish watching the most recent episode it autoplays the first episode of the season.

[stgarf]

@dRuEFFECT, yup…!

@dRuEFFECT

Oddly enough, the 11/5 episode of Colbert was also put into its own “Season 2020” season folder. Nothing has changed from Sonarr and all the files are following the same structure they were coming in as previously.

Yup, I am experiencing this symptom of the problem also.

@dRuEFFECT

The most annoying part is that these new files are sorted at the top, so when I finish watching the most recent episode it autoplays the first episode of the season.

Aha! That’s what’s happening with those shows playing the first episode… I am experiencing this symptom too and it is driving me insane as well.

[dRuEFFECT]

So the way I see it, once it’s in the media folder we need to have the episode numbering so Plex can properly match that file back to theTVDB database by episode number.

Not sure why it was working before 11/4 without the episode numbers, but the safest solution seems to be to have filenames also include the episode numbers for better matching to theTVDB.

I’d still be interested to find out what changed around 11/4 to cause this. Maybe something with the way theTVDB stores season info, or their api for looking up by episodes by date.

[stgarf]

@dRuEFFECT Ha! Glad you worked around it… this seems more like a “work around” for a bug that Plex has introduced somewhere though . As far as I am aware shows that air with some sort of daily-like pace are typically named with YYYY-MM-DD, MM-DD-YYYY, etc because they’re not “episodes” like other shows.

It’s even specifically called out as such in Plex’s own documentation so I’m hesitant to just go renaming all my files for what definitely appears to be a bug in Plex’s parser (or wherever the bug exists).

TV Shows that are date-based should be named as follows:

/TV Shows/ShowName/Season 02/ShowName – 2011-11-15 – Optional_Info.ext
/TV Shows/ShowName/Season 02/ShowName – 15-11-2011 – Optional_Info.ext

Where you specify the appropriate date. The date can use either the YYYY-MM-DD or DD-MM-YYYY formats and can use different separators:

Dashes (2011-11-15)
Periods (2011.11.15)
Spaces (2011 11 15)

[stgarf]

Oh, and here’s another data point. I spun up Jellyfin out of curiosity to see if it detected things properly unlike Plex and… lo and behold… it detected every episode perfectly without any issues. So in light of this I still maintain that Plex has introduced some sort of parsing bug for daily-type shows.

@DaveBinM Sorry to tag you but I know you’ve been very helpful with tracking issues in the past. Maybe we can get this on your radar or you can let the appropriate teams/persons know? Thanks!

[DaveBinM]

We’ve mentioned this before, but we’re currently in the middle of a complete re-write of how we scan and collect metadata for TV shows, like we did for Movies earlier this year. I don’t have any specific details on where that is (I’m more over on the playback side of things).

[stgarf]

That’s nice to hear… I can’t hope for much more than this thread gets passed along to the parser people then and maybe they’ll get a bug-fix in for the issue

Thanks for the follow-up!

[DaveBinM]

Yeah, I’m not sure on how far away the new scanner and agent is, but I’ll pass this along to our folks

[dRuEFFECT]

thanks for the insight, i was unaware of past/current development work on the metadata scanning.

[ClayM]

Yep, having similar issues. It keeps assigning new episodes of The Daily Show to Season 25. It’s pretty obnoxious.

[manbeard]

I broke down and just added the season/episode to the file name until the issue is sorted out. What’s even stranger is that VICE News Tonight matches and gets metadata just fine with only the date.

[DrCoolguy]

I am experiencing the exact same bug in the Plex server. This makes me wonder if I need to start fully vetting every upgrade before implementing it.

[elan]

we’ve identified the issue and it’ll be fixed in the next release.

[stgarf]

Thanks for the info @elan!

I’ve got the latest Plex Pass beta for Linux 1.21.0.3608-f7262c352 and according to Reddit (of course you can’t believe everything you read on the internet but I can’t find an official changelog anywhere else :p) it’s attempting to address the metadata matching issue ((Library) Date-based shows weren't getting metadata) but I’m still seeing Conan not matching properly for old episodes from Season 9 and instead put into a “Season 2019” category:

I would like to confirm however that Colbert, Vice News, Kimmel, Fallon, etc seem to be working properly.

@dRuEFFECT

The most annoying part is that these new files are sorted at the top, so when I finish watching the most recent episode it autoplays the first episode of the season.

Also, the “play oldest episode in season” bug is still occurring in the beta version for me as well. As soon as you watch the “newest” episode Plex will autoplay the older episode in the series.

[DaveBinM]

It’s in the announcements section of our forums: Plex Media Server