Plex can't assign series even with a correct IMDB ID

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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Server Version#: 4.147.1
I have added a series, particularly Habibi Baba Boom (TV Mini Series 2023– ) - IMDb to my series folder, it gets scanned, but can’t be assigned automatically and doesn’t appear in the list. However, normally I simply use IMDB ID and put it in into the search field, but it doesn’t find “tt23170480”. How can I assign it properly?

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Try using TheTVDB

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3

Plex doesn’t use IMDB for this

https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/

TV shows can be season-based, date-based, a miniseries, or more. Both the folder structure and each episode filename must be correct for the best matching experience. If you’re not sure whether a show is season- or date-based, check The Movie Database (TMDB) or The TVDB and name it as it appears there.

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Thanks, how can I search for the ID in Plex? When I input the name of this particular series, there is no match in the results. In movies, I simply search for ttXXXXXXX from IMDB and it matches then, even if it couldn’t find it by title (mostly because the title is a common word).

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My naming scheme from this particular item is:

Series/Habibi.Baba.Boom.S01.GERMAN.1080P.WEB.H264-WAYNE/Habibi.Baba.Boom.S01E01.GERMAN.1080P.WEB.H264-WAYNE.mkv

I have no problem with other series with that scheme, but it can’t find this particular series at all, no matter what I type into the search field.

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You use The TVDB series id.

In this case 468820.

{tvdb: 468820}

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You should really stick to Plex naming scheme

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Thanks, but Plex doesn’t find this series, also when putting in this ID, which indeed works for other series I checked.

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I don’t think this is a naming issue, because it works just fine for all other series but not this one.

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The IMDB ID has no relevance with Plex, you use the tvdb or tmdb ID as a tag in the naming of your file in order to get Plex to match it with metadata.

It’s also highly recommended to use the naming convention as indicated in the link I posted above, then you should be able to search in Plex for the name of the show after it has been matched.

I’m 99% sure it’s a naming issue.

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Apparently this is no longer the case. See TV Show Matching - #14 by FordGuy61

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That’s also for “matching” and not “searching” as the OP was trying to do.

Regardless… I’m still 99% positive OP’s naming convention is the issue here.

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Sure, another complexity is that the show was only created on October 2, 2025 on tvdb, so it may not have fully made it way to the plex metadata mothership.

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Oh, this will most probably be the reason, since I can search for any other tmdbXXXXXX ID in the match search field and it will find the according series, but not this particular one. Thanks, I will update this thread in a few days if it got matched finally.

Thanks all for your help!

15

Pro tip… If you edit tmdb entry and add the external ids to imdb & tvdb then it’ll help link them all together for plex.

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Thanks for the tip! I just edited both tvdb and tmdb and cross-linked them each other plus imdb.

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I think this is it. I made a very simple test using TMDB info and its not matching. Probably will match in a few days

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I would like to update all of you, the series is now being detected without any “hacks” like tvdb id or such but by title, without having renamed it to any other naming scheme I used before and will keep using.
It simply hasn’t been in Plex’ metadata backend before…

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It seems like new series are added far slower than they once were to be matched.

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Indeed, but it finally worked, and could be matched automatically without renaming. Thanks all for your input!

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