I have one TV show that plex does not detect at all no matter what I do.
It is called snagglepuss. I checked on thetvdb and the show does exist there and is split into two seasons exactly the same way I have it in my server.
I have moved the show to another folder, then added it back in numerous times, but nothing happens. I have manually selected “scan library” - and after about half a second, that finishes without detecting the show.
I’m pretty much at my whit’s end and thoroughly frustrated because I have ALWAYS religiously followed the plex naming rules and there seems to be no way to just manually add a show without relying on plex to detect it. This is beyond ridiculous.
Below is the exact folder structure:
The Library Name and library directory is: “TV TOONS”
Below that directory is the directory: “Snagglepuss 1961”
Below that are two directories: “Season 1” and “Season 2”
In each of the season folders are the episodes…
For reference this is the exact name of the first episode: “Snagglepuss (1961) - S01E01 - Major Operation.mkv”
What the heck can I possibly do that I have not done already and why won’t Plex detect this show?!
Is your tv show library set to use TheTVDB episode ordering as default?
Which agent is default for your tv show library?
If it’s already “Plex TV shows”, you can try to include the ID from TheTVDB into the folder name. Naming and Organizing Your TV Show Files | Plex Support
(Year always in parentheses, btw. I recommend you to use 2-digit season numbers everywhere, unless the seasons have “year” numbers.)
Oh…well that makes sense. I had read in the forums to always check thetvdb for naming of series (because other series have different numbers on thetvdb than in the original DVD order and such) and I assumed that thetvdb was the database used for ordering.
The scanner is: Plex TV Series.
No, my tv library episode ordering is the plex default which apparently is The Movie Database. Why on earth would TV series be using the “movie” database…I wonder if that’s my mistake, or the Plex default? Now I’m quite amazed that anything ever matched up in the first place!
So the big question is, since nothing gets detected at all, there is not anything I can do to change the ordering for this one individual tv series is there? I am VERY hesitant to change the ordering database to “thetvdb” for the entire library because knowing Plex, it will proceed to to rescan ALL of my tv shows, redetect intros, etc and bring everything to a screeching halt for days on end.
Or will Plex leave what is currently scanned, ordered and working properly alone as long as I don’t change anything within those other tv series? If so, I would move “snagglepuss” out of the library one last time, set the ordering database to “thetvdb” and then copy “snagglepuss” over into the library again.
Despite the name, The Movie Database is not only a source for movie but also tv-show metadata and information. Usually their data is quite good – so no need to change it altogether. Simply change the episode order for shows that have no good data at all.
Good to know, thanks.
So can I temporarily change the ordering database without nuking my existing library or will it result in EVERYTHING getting rescanned? Once done, can I change it back again?
I did try including the Snagglepuss tvdb id #, but it’s still not working.
Renamed the folder to “Snagglepuss (1961) {tvdb-74938}” then copied it back into my library which is still set to use the “plex tv series” scanner. The ordering database was not changed from tmdb since it is my understanding that including the ID in curly brackets explicitly tells Plex to use database corresponding to that ID prefix. Is that correct?
It was not clear from the Plex guidelines if in addition, ordering database needs to be changed in order for the ID to work, but logically that does not make sense since why include the prefix “tvdb” in the first place if Plex can only look in whatever database is selected for the ordering database…
But if the show refuses to show up, it will be impossible to set it at the show level. Do you know if changing the agent scanner to using TVDB library-wide temporarily will trigger a library-wide re-scan and metadata pull, or does that apply only to new shows going forward?
The OP wants the latter to happen just to get the show to appear. They would then add the show, change the library back to TMDB, and make sure to specify for that show only to use TVDB.
To OP, in the meantime while we wait for info, try something else. Change the name of the folder/show to something else (something you do not have and may never get, like The Real Housewives or something). We just want to get the show to appear in Plex, then we can manually change the show agent to TVDB and rematch it to snagglepuss afterwards.
If that’s the case then it’s not due to the ordering used - a show doesn’t need to match to show up. This is most likely either incorrect file permissions, a mis-configuration in how the folders are added to the library or the show was matched as something else.
It’s not like I have three cartoon shows and it’s easy to see if something was mismatched. There are 84 cartoon shows, in 462 folders!
Therei is nothing wrong with the folder structure, permissions, etc. I just checked all the “snagglepuss” files and they are all set to full permissions like every other file on the the server.
It is feasible that “Snagglepuss” was mismatched as a duplicate of something else, but trying to figure that out is a VERY daunting task.
It seems like renaming the entire “Snagglepuss” show is the only somewhat realistic option. That means renaming the show folder AND every episode since they all have the show name “snagglepuss”.
Ok, I did a library search for duplicates. Found a few interesting problems…like Plex matching Ducktales (2007) to the original Ducktales even though they are clearly different shows. UGH.
Anyway, I DID find Snagglepuss. Plex thinks it is Infinity Train and has matched it as duplicates to that show. This only creates yet another problem. Apparently it is impossible to disassociate an incorrect duplicate match. Also, unlike Movies, there is no option to “split apart” duplicates.
So now what? Don’t tell me I have to live with this mismatched mess and always choose which episode to watch?
Changing the episode ordering does absolutely nothing to change the incorrect duplicate matching of “snagglepuss”.
I think I had that problem as well. Even though the years were included, it insisted on matching the new DT to the old.
Are you sure? I had an issue where my UK “Whose Line is it Anyway?” was mixing with the US “Whose Line is it Anyway?”, and I managed to split it out. Don’t try it on a episode-by-episode basis. Go to the show level itself (click the show name) and see if there is a split-apart option.
EDIT: Bah, Ninja’d.
If you have a TV show that is not showing up after scanning and you know that you are following the proper naming convention, then it is either mismatched as a duplicate or a different show altogether. If it is matched as a duplicate:
Within Plex library sort by Advanced > Duplicate Episode
You cannot split a tv show from the main library screen! First click on the show, ONLY then, more options includes the “split apart” option.
Once split apart, check an episode within each of the split shows to see what the actual show is. (on the episode itself, right click the three dots and choose “get info”)
Go back to the library top level, click on the pen icon for the show that needs to be changed and under the “General” settings, change the “Title” and “sort title” to the correct name. (It has been my experience that this can be hit or miss as sometimes Plex will not permit renaming the title. The order that usually works for me is to highlight the incorrect title, change it to the title desired, THEN click on the “padlock icon” to the left of the title. Clicking to the padlock to unlock it and then changing the title almost always fails)
If needed, under “Advanced” settings, change the “episode ordering” to use the database that contains the show in question (eg. tvdb).
Finally, “save changes”, then click on the show “three dots”, > fix match. Here you can choose the correct show from a visual list, or via manual search. If all else fails, change the name of the actual show directory on the hard drive to include the explicit ID tag as discussed earlier in this thread, then try to “fix match” again.
So since this “solution” involved about half a dozen different steps and pretty much every part of this string provided a necessary part of that, I don’t wan to step on anyone’s toes and choose my comprehensive recap as the “solution”…but pretty much all the steps as outlined are necessary so I don’t want to mislead anyone in the future by choosing only one aspect as the solution.
So I don’t know what is proper protocol in this case without someone losing out or forum brownie points or such. Personally I don’t care about getting any recognition or such, so if someone else wants to copy and paste my solution (and/or edit portions that seem a bit unclear), feel free to do so. Then I can delete my post, and choose that as the solution.
You made this topic so if your recap post outlines the solution that worked for you then click on the solution button at the bottom of that post (looks like a check mark in a box). You’re not going to step on anyone’s toes.
Ah, if you did Fix Match in step 6, then there was no reason (I think) to edit the display and sort titles in step 4. If you change which show that it is matched to, all unlocked metadata will update automatically. Having locked them in step 4 will keep them from being updated when you matched in 6. Of course, if you named them well in step 4, then it’s unlikely to be any different. If that’s ok with you, then leave it. I personally don’t like to lock a metadata field unless I have a real good reason for it, and this isn’t one of those reasons to me.
Sorry that there was so much difficulty in getting this show to display. It looks like, now, the reason it wouldn’t show up after renaming the file over and over and over was because it was already matched as a duplicate to another show. Checking my own library, I checked for duplicates and I found some! It seems I had some folders named badly, or some actual duplicates.
For the ones named badly (one season had no “Sxx” prefix, so it matched those episodes as duplicates of season 1), they would NOT get corrected in Plex automatically. They still displayed as duplicates of the wrong episode, despite the name being correct now. And that is due to Plex’s tendency to be sticky. That is, if you match a show or episode, and then change the filename or folders AFTERWARDS, Plex will notice the rename and keep the association between the duplicates. To fix this, you must take the files out of Plex’s visibility (I put it in my media’s root folder), scan the show, then add them back in, and rescan again. This causes Plex to forget the association (first scan with file gone), and then when the file is added back in it’s considered a “new” file and matched up according to the naming rules (second scan). This is essentially the Plex dance, and I forgot that it was an important step.
OK, that is weird. I could swear that when I clicked on the padlock it gave an unlocked icon in the past. Now it does appear that the opposite is taking place and clicking it actually locks it, not unlocks it. Was this a recent change to Plex?
When you say “scan the show” what exactly do you mean? I run into this generic term all the time, but to what actual plex process does it refer?
On the show level only options that this could be are:
Refresh metadata
Analyze
optimize
Or are you referring to rescanning the entire library because on the entire library level there is the option to:
4) Scan library files
as well as analyze and refresh all metadata
however when you change something manually by typing in a field it automatically changes to orange/locked. Which some folks don’t notice and then click it, thinking they are locking it, but actually un-doing what was done automatically.
