Remove 1 show from your primary library, do the Plex Dance, but do not put it back. Instead create a new directory call it TV_Test_Library or something similar, and move the show there, and let plex scan/add it.
Im going to bet it takes far less time than you expect to clean up your library. I can process 1,000 movies in less than an hour. TV shows tend to take a bit longer per show, but the per episode time is minimal.
Well, my mind feels like I took the red pill and went into the matrix, and I don’t fully understand what I have seen. But here is some straight-forward reporting:
Following your suggestion, I removed a show (Yogi Bear 1958) from my main TV library folder. I did the Plex Dance with the folder elsewhere on my PC.
After a couple of library scans without Yogi Bear, I created a “TV_Tester” library and put the Yogi Bear folder in a newly-created “Testing_Library” folder.
I set up a new TV Show library in Plex, keeping my old libraries intact and untouched.
Upon creation of the library, Plex scanned the folder. It found the Yogi Bear show and it correctly scraped the episode data. But honestly, I cannot tell where it scraped the data from. It does not seem to be the TVDB, though, as far as I can tell. The episode screen shots do not correspond to the ones I see online at TVDB, and I still get “no matches found” when I manually try to fix the match with a TVDB scan.
Sorry I am not providing much clarity. Here are my latest server logs, perhaps you can shed some light.
Actually you are providing exactly what I was looking for.
The Legacy Plex TVDB agent was abandoned and rewritten to the current/Modern Plex Scanner/Agent, support for that plugin was kept, but further updates to it were stopped.
The legacy agent pulls directly from thetvdb API
The modern agent collects data from several sources (TVDB, tmdb, and IMDB possibly others) and was completely rewritten for performance improvements.
The modern agent pulls data from Plex’s servers instead of directly from the source sites. this minimizes the amount of usage for those sites.
What the experiment with you has proven is that whatever change happened only affects legacy agents, and that the modern agents are still pulling metadata.
As for your episode ordering do me a favor and go to the Library => edit => Advanced and the scroll down to you see Episode ordering and set that to TheTVDB and refresh the library and let me know if the updates make it look as expected.
@anon18523487 @sa2000 @ChuckPa Hate to ping everyone but this is a confirmed issue with the legacy agents. Anyone able to take a look? This is one of several threads that are all reporting similar issues.
Confirmed. When I changed the episode ordering to TVDB, everything looks perfect in the test database. The show looks exactly as expected, with show descriptions, excellent screenshots, and correct episode names.
Of course, that means I will have to bite the bullet now and upgrade my libraries. Wish me the best of luck.
Thank you @dbirch for your thoughtful and excellent analysis of the problem.
Might want to hold off, lets see if Plex devs can figure out what happened.
But I wont argue against upgrading. I did it a while ago and havent looked back. Gave me a chance to standardize my library setup/naming/structure at the same time.
I will ask when folks are in the office unless they poke their heads in here over the weekend.
Remember. the reason for the new agents and scanner – All in C++ – is because the old Python part is going away.
Given the changes to certs in 1.32.0 , I wouldn’t be surprised if some more of the Long-Deprecated agents and scanners finally stopped working.
IIRC, they were deprecated some 2, almost 3, years ago now?
You cant’ setup a server now with the old scanners.
I’m gearing up to do the upgrade, it seems inevitable that I will have to head down that road to avoid problems such as this. Is there a decent guide posted someplace that gives tips and things to avoid during the process? I get it that it is mostly plug-and-play and should work fine if the folder structures follow the recommendations, which mine generally do.
The main thing I’m worried about is losing personalized screenshots/posters/descriptions for some movies and TV shows that I added myself. I imagine I will lose those in the upgrade process? I can restore them manually but it will take time. I’ve also got some obscure operas and ballets that aren’t in a database anywhere that I added myself, along with screenshots, posters and descriptions. Plus tags. Would the upgrade leave those unchanged and not wipe them out, hopefully?
How well are your media files structured & named in comparison to the Plex standard?
Do you have:
Movie (year)/
Movie (year).ext
optional.other.things.here.ext
SeriesName/
Season x/
SeriesName - SxxExx - Optional title here.ext
The biggest thing you’ll find is:
I am OCD about doing the directory structure correctly. The way you just posted it is the way I have it for just about everything. The only variance MIGHT be when I first set up Plex about three years ago and was a little more lax in the folders, but I have since tried to go back and do clean-up so even the early stuff complies with the recommended structure.
Like I say, the main thing I worry about is my own screenshots, posters and descriptions that I added manually myself after running the scanner. I am picturing the upgrade process zapping all that manual work out. It’s not the end of the world and I could go back and re-do my manual changes, but I’d obviously like to avoid extra work.
I’m wondering if this popup, seen after hitting the “upgrade library” button, is answering my question:
Note: Metadata for existing items in this library will not be affected until they are refreshed. We can refresh metadata immediately after updating this library or you can wait for the next scheduled update.
So that means I will lose any personal descriptions, posters, and screenshots I added myself, correct? No way to avoid that? If so, then to me that is one of the biggest downsides of doing the upgrade, and part of the reason I have been so reticent to do it. Just sayin.’
FileBot, Tiny Media Manager, many others will make short work of the media naming.
I am OCD ^2 
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)
Movies:
use ${title} (${year}) {imdb-${imdb}} as the new name format.
Folder format:
${title} (${year})
Hey @ChuckPa so if I do not use the modern agent, will thetvdb function any longer? Can this be fixed in an update or now forced to use modern? I am using SubZero plugin for subtitles… that won’t work with the modern agents… or does it not work anymore anyway? I believe it did up until the latest update. Thank you for confirming what i knew all along - that it was this update that broke thetvdb… is it because they are now charging for the api or …?
The old agent and scanner are deprecated / obsolete.
There is no “fixing” that which has been purposefully removed.
This process began 5 years ago with the removal of visible Plug-ins / Channels in Plex/web. (2018) with them being declared as deprecated. (meaning they will stop working at some point).
Best option is to:
For each library section -
When all sections are complete, restart PMS to allow all the pending changes merge (commit) back into the base database (This happens only when shutting down).
I empathize with the amount of work which might need be done.
I know FileBot (how I have it set) will rename my entire library in a couple minutes and be 100% correct
Being the “Plex Guy” here, It’s not like this was a surprise.
Being a user, “yea, not fun if the media isn’t curated in good form”
FWIW: Most people make the switch and lose nothing / require no manual “Fixing” after the fact.
Thank you! Ya, I get it… i just like the way my stuff is named… and i dont want to rename it, and i want to keep using the subtitles plugin… and it actually works (or should i say, worked) the way i wanted for a reallllllllly long time… when i went to modern when it first came out, it didnt get as many subtitles as subzero does. are you familiar with that plugin? does plex come close to it at all yet? you mentioned above “2. MUCH less tolerant of bad naming” so in other words - if i dont rename and i go to modern, it will be WORSE for me then it is right now?? even more the reason i dont want to go modern lol
@johnny_diez Please create a new thread.
We will look into your issue there
" The biggest thing you’ll find is:
Whats the value of making them "much less tolerant of “bad” naming? If it worked before with a file name, why would you “upgrade” something to work less successfully? Where is the advantage in doing that? Plex has always worked with scene standard file names and you tell me your UPGRADE will be less successful? Do you do this stuff just to upset your customer base? wtf?
