It would be great if metadata could be optionally retained, even when the media is removed from the library. The main thing this comes up is with TV shows, because if you watch the latest episode and delete it, then the metadata for the entire series is lost. In particular when we manually enter some metadata such as sort order, then its a drag when removal of the last episode also removes that metadata that is applicable to the entire series.
Settings/Library
Make sure, that "Empty trash automatically after every scan" is not selected
/T
Yea thanks for the suggestion, but that doesn't really solve the problem. Well kinda, the item shows up in the library with a "moved to trash" logo on it. And I presume that unchecking that option will also retain a lot of episode specific metadata that will build up over time unwantingly....
Or you could simply not delete the content if you want the metadata. Plex is not really designed to be a DVR.
what is Plex designed to do?
DVR's record shows from a cablebox and I have not suggested anything related to that, I am making a suggestion as to how metadata can be retained for TV shows, even as specific episodes come and go. This has nothing to do with DVR's and a lot more to do with Plex as a scraper and presenter of TV series. Being able to retain the series level metadata somehow would be a very good thing.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the series level metadata disappearing? If you delete the latest episode in a series then what happens and what is the expected outcome? Do you mean you are deleting every episode you watch so that afterwards you have no episodes at all present for the series and hence the entire series entry is removed from Plex?
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the series level metadata disappearing? If you delete the latest episode in a series then what happens and what is the expected outcome? Do you mean you are deleting every episode you watch so that afterwards you have no episodes at all present for the series and hence the entire series entry is removed from Plex?
It appears they mean last instead of latest. When the TV show no longer has any episodes (meaning no content whatsoever, because the user deleted them all), Plex removes the TV show from the list of shows.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the series level metadata disappearing? If you delete the latest episode in a series then what happens and what is the expected outcome? Do you mean you are deleting every episode you watch so that afterwards you have no episodes at all present for the series and hence the entire series entry is removed from Plex?
The great majority of users have plex managing long-standing content. DVRs usually keep a number of different episodes for a short time (just long enough for you to watch them) before the episodes are delted either because they expire or the user manually deletes them. The deletion of shows, manually or automatically, on a DVR is generally driven by needing the limited space to be used for new episodes.
Most Plex installations involve episodes and movies retained for longer periods and tend to have far fewer storage constraints. For example, the content on my DVR is averages about 2 weeks old while my Plex server tends to have full series that might be 10 years old.
Yes, Plex can serve many of the same functions very well, but it is inappropriate to ask for all of the functionality to be changed to accommodate a fairly unusual usage case that might impact the majority of users negatively.
To focus your feature request more productively, I suggest you request an option to retain show information after all episodes were deleted. This should be an option that would default to off and would require the ability to remove show information separately from episode data. This would allow the majority of users to go unimpacted by the change.
The great majority of users have plex managing long-standing content. DVRs usually keep a number of different episodes for a short time (just long enough for you to watch them) before the episodes are delted either because they expire or the user manually deletes them. The deletion of shows, manually or automatically, on a DVR is generally driven by needing the limited space to be used for new episodes.
Most Plex installations involve episodes and movies retained for longer periods and tend to have far fewer storage constraints. For example, the content on my DVR is averages about 2 weeks old while my Plex server tends to have full series that might be 10 years old.
Yes, Plex can serve many of the same functions very well, but it is inappropriate to ask for all of the functionality to be changed to accommodate a fairly unusual usage case that might impact the majority of users negatively.
To focus your feature request more productively, I suggest you request an option to retain show information after all episodes were deleted. This should be an option that would default to off and would require the ability to remove show information separately from episode data. This would allow the majority of users to go unimpacted by the change.
I use Plex for movies and TV Series that I will keep for many years just as you have suggested, but I also use it to manage and play episodes of TV shows that I delete after viewing, and I think a lot of people would do the same, as most people have content that they wish to keep to view again, and other content that while they may enjoy watching have no interest in viewing again. When all the episodes from that series are deleted, it would be great if the metadata for the show could be retained and applied to any new episodes that are added in the future.
You assume that people use plex for long term content and a DVR, for lack of a better word, transient content, and while this may be true for many, I also think that many like myself use plex for both, and would challenge your statement that this is an unusual use of plex, and wonder how you came to that conclusion.
You suggest it would be more productive if he instead asks for the exact feature that he did in fact ask for, which is an option to retain that series metadata, even if there are no longer any episodes from that series in the library. A feature which I also would welcome.
I clarified what was obviously a poorly phrased request, as one person in the thread did not understand it. I pointed out that it should be optional with the default being this functionality disabled.
I base my assumptions off of the fact that I have been involved with Plex for quite some time and the discussion has come up several times before. Specifically, there is an option to allow clients delete media specifically because many do not delete media often and can have it remain disabled.
early 2021 clean-up: implemented (disabling automatic emptying of trash keeps library records)
