We are deviating from the thread, and I don’t really want to get into this, because this topic attracts trolls.
To answer your question.
There are 3 primary issues with the new matching logic. None of these issues existed prior to the update in January. Prior to January, I would have given Plex a 95%+ accuracy at matching on title and year only.
After January, I’d give it maybe 75% to 80%.
After January, I had to watch it like a hawk.
Hints fix this of course. But Plex documentation still says they are not required, so they are not required. So any answer of ‘you must use hints’, needs to start by updating documentation to say they are required.
I am now going through and adding hints to all of mine, but I have 16,000 movies. Adding hints to 16,000 movies is not something you do in a few weeks. Yea, I know there is a program that automates this, and I have that. That takes some of the heavy lifting, but not all.
#1) short names are a major crap show. The new matching logic is a total loss on short title names. If a title maybe 4 to 6 characters (or less), Plex no longer makes a serious effort to match it, even if you have the year included. I’ve seen matches that I sit back and say ???
I’m a programmer by trade. I try to find logic in this. My best educated guess, is that if the title is less than ‘x’ characters, Plex applies a randomization to the name, and randomly assigns some title out of a bucket. No other explanation makes sense.
The movie ‘3 (2017)’ will match to a different title every time you try it. 'Cars 3 ’ is the current match I have.
‘It (1990)’ plex will match to ‘Let it Ride (1990)’. To me, this is hugely lazy programming
There are some that make sense
Pet (2016) matches to Pete’s Dragon (2016) Yea, I get that they both have ‘Pet’ and ‘2016’. I am sure when Plex tries to search the database for ‘Pet (2016)’ that it gets back both ‘Pet (2016)’ an ‘Pete’s Dragon (2016)’. But honestly, can’t Plex just assume that ‘Pet (2016)’ is the correct match for search term Pet (2016). Is that really asking too much?
Pig (2021) Plex will match to Girl (2020) I can’t come up with a reason for that.
Polar (2019) matches to Polaroid (2019) (see my explanation on Pet)
Rent-A-Pal (2020) matches to The Rental (2020)
It’s really just a total S**t show. But worse, when I originally reported it, they blamed me for the problem. Said it was all my fault, and if I followed the ‘required hints’, that this wouldn’t have happened.
#2) common names are a major crap show. ‘Heist’ for example, or some other name that is in dozens of movies. Even if you use the year, you have no guarantees. But something like Heist is just as likely to match to a random name, as it is to Heist.
My best guess: When Plex tried to derive a match, if there is more than 1 possible result, it loses it’s mind and just goes random.
#3) There is a whole other grouping that I can’t find any pattern to. A long title name, with 2 or 3 significant words (plus the year) sometimes matches to some other movie. Some real examples: Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) plex will match to Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
Amanda & Jack Go Glamping (2017) plex matches to Amanda and the Fox (2018). Oh, well, they
both have the word ‘Amanda’, so I guess that makes a perfect match, right?
American Poltergeist 3 (2014) plex matches to The Haunting of Alice D (2014)
In my opinion, the matching logic went from very sophisticated, to stupid and lazy.
