Server Version: 1.13.9.5439 (Running on Win10 x64, up to date)
Player Version: 3.69.1 (WebClient - though it shouldnt matter)
I have a tv-show that’s called “.hack” - my problem:
a) Naming the folder containing the seasons/episodes “.hack” causes the server to not find that show
b) Changing the name to “hack” destroys the integration to “thetvdb.com”
I’d guess on linux - this is excpected behavior, since that means it’s hidden - on windows however - this should not really happen.
Questions:
a) Is their any setting i missed to make the plex-server be able to find the files?
b) If i did not miss any setting - is there any method to work around that issue?
Thanks a lot.
Kind regards
Achim
PS: Naming of the show should match with the required scheme - it’s
.hack
–Season 00
—s00e01.mp4
–Season 01
—s01e01.mp4, etc.
My implementation of “.Hack” works fine.
My main folder is named “Hack (2002)”
I have two season folders “Season 01” and “Season 02”
The individual files are named like: “Hack - s01e01 - Pilot.ext”
Note that I have the date in the folder and not in the file name.
Plex considers the folder name MUCH more important than the file name for matching. I do not have a “dot” at all in either my file name or my folder name.
If you change the naming to match what I have you may need to “Plex dance” the series to get Plex to correctly name it:
“Plex Dance” to force Plex to reread the show correctly.
…
Move the folder to a location when Plex cannot see it
Force a scan of the library
Empty trash
Clean bundles
Move the folder back into the library
Force a scan of the library
…
Be sure to do each step above in order and allow each step to complete before doing the next and do not skip any steps.
Also before you do the above be sure the agent “Shows” has “Local media assets” moved below everything else.
I have had it working correctly ever since I added the series to my library with that structure but, if I remember correctly, when I recently set up a server for a friend of mine they used the structure I have shown but they had to do a “Fix match” before it synced up correctly for them.
I renamed my folder to Hack (2002) and did the “Plex dance”.
Sadly - this only lead plex to identify it wrong with another series called “Hack” - aired in 2002 as well.
(Understandable, since that match is a 100% match - however - as it is - this allows me to at least “fix match” to let plex fetch the correct information)
Since your friend had the same issue as me with identical files - i guess Plex doesnt really consider episodes at all to match series by now (but probably formerly did). (Don’t really want to put the name of episodes in the filename - i’m a simple man that formerly named the files like “1.mp4, etc”^^)
In other words: Thanks for the hint about working around this issue.
It would however be perfect if plex was able to find folders starting with a dot. (since the absolutely correct name for that series in conjunction with thetvdb would be “.hack (2012)”)
Now that I think about it I believe I remember a LONG time ago a discussion about how to hide sub folder from being scanned when its parent is part of a library and in that discussion I seem to recall that folders named with a period as a leading character were ignored by Plex.
It is possible that my old mind is scrambling that memory in some way but it is a pretty strong impression that the memory is at least partially correct.
Either way as long as it can be made to work without too much trouble is pretty good. To get a first time match you might want to try:
“Hack (2002) (79099)” as the folder name where 79099 is the TVDB ID of the series if that is the one you mean. I have had some luck with naming like that in my movie library but I have not tried it with TV shows.
Note: My entire movie library (over 3000 movies) are all named with the IMDB id as indicated and there are zero mismatches and when I set up a server for someone else I first run their entire library through FileBot and name all the movies:
“MovieName (Year) (IMDB ID).ext”
and move local media assets below everything else in all the agents,
The last server I set up has about 900 movies and after naming them correctly there were zero unmatched and zero mismatched and zero duplicated.
I would be interested to know if having the TVDB id makes a difference for hard to match TV shows.
I’m quite happy with the detection by now - that series is the only one it didnt match correctly as far as i can see. (Though i have to admit: this is difficult to say, since my collection has grown a lil too much as well)
I just tested editing the folder as you proposed - however - it just detected it wrong again - so that’s not working. Thanks however for the suggestion.
Regarding the method of hiding the folder: Wasnt the “.plexignore”-file designed for that?
That was a way, I think, to have Plex ignore a file or group of files but I seem to remember that a whole folder would be ignored with a leading period. Of course my brain, along with the rest of me, is quite old and may be remembering things wrong or even creating a new memory based on some loose associations.
However senility is a wonderful thing; I never have to watch a rerun.
