Reference → Plex Episodes changing from played to unplayed due to online metadata source change
The above thread was auto closed so creating a new one as there are more examples of this happening.
To summarise, when the episode ordering changes on a online source, like TMDB and if the episodes where already played in plex previously they will then become unplayed.
Some additional examples:
The Amazing World of Gumball - Season 06:
If you look here → https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/37606-the-amazing-world-of-gumball/season/6/episode/9/changes you will see the episode was moved from 6x11 to 6x09.
South Park - Season 01:
If you look here → https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/2190-south-park/season/1/episode/2/changes you will see the episode was moved from 1x03 to 1x02.
The Office US - Season 04, Season 06 and Season 07:
TMDB decided to combine some of the two part episodes into one which reduced the total number of episdes. See → https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/2316-the-office/season/4/changes as an example.
She-Ra: Princess of Power (1985) - Season 02:
A user has incorrectly switched the order of the episodes from S02 to be the DVD order and not the Aired order. See → https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/14755-she-ra-princess-of-power/season/2/changes from December 20 2022. These will be reverted back (I have a request open on TMDB to fix it) but from a plex perspective the damage is done.
In all four of these example, episodes which where previously marked as watched are now unplayed in plex due to these changes.
I understand this is complex but surely plex can do something to mitigate in situations like this. The order change must be forcing a change of the plex GUID in the backend which then switches the flag from played to unplayed.
