I recently started using a 3TB WD Wireless Pro. I optimized my entire Plex Library on my home server dropping them on to the WD WP. All seemed to go well and so far no issues with playback in a few limited test runs. However…my library on they WD is all wrong. I have probably 20 different TV series with some having all seasons and some just a season or two. For some reason, they are all getting lumped under “Saturday Night Live” with 212 episodes.
One possible issue is when Plex optimized the files, it didn’t place the shows in there own series folders. They were all dumped in to the same folder. Before I do anything and make it worse, any suggestions how to fix?
Also, it doesn’t seem to be downloading the metadata for movies automatically. It scans the library, no changes seem to be happening and then goes to TV Shows.
My concern is, since I want to keep this in sync with my main library if I move files in to different folders the main library may re-optimize and place the file where it thinks it should be.
I would have thought when optimizing it would of kept them in a similar structure as where they were copied from.
So I lied. I went back and looked and the movies are all dumped in to one folder, however each TV series does have it’s own folder but not each season.
The main difference I see, in my main library, I name an episode like the following
The Office (US) - S03E02% - The Convention.MKV
However when Plex optimized that episode it simply became
S03E2.MP4
Ah, since you are leaving them in the same folder when optimizing they just get the SxxExx. Plex doesn’t need the name on the file, it has the parent folder to know what show it is.
I put them in a completely separate folder and it gives them the full name of the original file.
I have deleted all my Optimized files after moving them to my WD and it does not try and re-optimize them. What are you trying to keep “in sync”, the watched status or something else?
No, I am trying to keep the files (Movies and TV Shows) themselves up to date. So if I add a movie to my main library, it automatically is optimized and dumped on to the WD when it’s connected.
What I did was create a “TV Shows” and “Movies” folder on the WD. Then added those empty folders as “Libraries” to main Plex Library. Then I told Plex to “Optimize” my “Movies” and “TV Shows” library from my main Library, selecting the WD as my destination to place the files. All that seemed to work fine and it updates as I hoped it would.
My 2 issues right now are:
It’s not seeing any TV Shows even though each series is in it’s own folder and instead has all of them tagged as “Saturday Night Live”
My Movies doesn’t seem to be “Matching” and DL metadata on it’s own. It works if I manually do it, but not automatically as I would expect. My initial thought was it was processing in the background but it’s been over 12 hours and I don’t see anything new. The WD is connected to the internet.
And I also found that by drilling down a little bit in the folder structure the TV Shows are now updating correctly.
When Plex placed them in the WD, it adds about 3 layers of folders before getting to the actual files. By adding the last folder to the library before getting to the actual files, Plex is now updating correctly.
Do you have a top level folder for movies and another for TV? If not I’ve found I have to have each folder with TV episodes added separately have plex identify the shows correctly. If I separate them, I can have add one folder with folder below for show and folders below that for season and Plex identifies things correctly.
Yes, I always keep mine seperate. When I added the Libraries to my main plex machine, I created a folder called “TV Shows” on the WD then added that location so it was available as a selection to “Optimize”. However, when Plex uses the folder to add the files to, it creates to additonal folders “Plex Versions” then “Optimized for Mobile”. My error came when adding the library to the WD Plex server of pointing it at the top level folder of “TV Shows”. Once I instead pointed it to “Optimized for Mobile” everything worked just fine.
