Plex fails to detect series (or only one episode per season)

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.29.0.6244 (Arch AUR)
Player Version#: Plex Web 4.92.0

So where do i start? I’m using Plex since a while (years) now without any problems. At some point (months) i noticed that newly added series didn’t show up as expected. Sometimes they didn’t show up at all or only partial (e.g. season 1 but not season 2). In the end every newly added series (or removed (moving the files to a different location) and then added again) only showed up with one episode per season (if it showed up at all).
The older series were just fine.

Some general information:

  • I’m using filebot since years for naming and sorting
  • files (series) are names like this <name> (<release year>)/Season <season number>/<name> [SxxExx] <episode name> [<media info>] (see below for examples)
  • i’d like to stress that it was working before and i haven’t changed anything intentionally (human errors not accounted :smile:)
  • music and movies are working fine, this only affects series :psyduck_confusion:
  • in the examples below @Series is the folder watched by Plex (btrfs subvolume)

I’ve tried various things e.g. going back to an older database or checking database integrity (it was fine). Doing the Plex dance I’ve noticed a few things:

  • After moving all series out of the Plex watched folders (there are four), a few kept sticking around. Plex detected them as “not available” but failed to remove them completely (trash emptied, bundles cleaned). They all had in common that they belonged to the same base library folder. After removing the library folder from Plex’ settings, the “stray” series disappeared.
  • When adding one series (Andromeda) it is not detected at all, here is one file for reference:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 michael users 940518650 7. Jun 2017 ‘/media/raid/@Series/Andromeda (2000)/Season 01/Andromeda [S01E01] Die lange Nacht [x264-480p AC3-6ch-DE-EN].mkv’

  • When adding another series (Adventure Time) only one episode is detected, here is the one file for reference:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 michael users 893387578 10. Feb 2018 ‘/media/raid/@Series/Adventure Time (2010)/Season 06/Adventure Time [S06E35-E36] Graybles 1000+ & Hoots [AVC-1080p AAC-2ch-EN].mkv’

(notice the double episode)

  • Adding a bunch of Star Trek series, none are detected :man_shrugging:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 michael users 3750356863 10. Feb 2018 ‘/media/raid/@Series/Star Trek (1966)/Season 01/Star Trek [S01E01] The Man Trap [x264-1080p AC3-2ch-DE-EN].mkv’
-rwxr-xr-x 1 michael users 2516902777 4. Nov 2017 ‘/media/raid/@Series/Star Trek Discovery (2017)/Season 01/Star Trek Discovery [S01E01] The Vulcan Hello [x264-1080p AC3-6ch-DE-EN].mkv’
-rwxr-xr-x 1 michael users 1465650141 5. Jul 10:15 ‘/media/raid/@Series/Star Trek Lower Decks (2020)/Season 01/Star Trek Lower Decks [S01E01] Second Contact [AVC-1080p EAC3-6ch-DE-EN].mkv’

So does this make any sense to you?
While googling, i often read that the naming can be a problem. Did Plex detection change in the last months? Everything is names the same (maybe sometimes it is german “Staffel” vs “Season” but the whole structure (e.g. [SxxExx]) is always the same.
Regarding permissions: Plex runs as user plex while the folders have 755 permissions for michael:users. Since music and movies work fine, i guess this is correct.

Any suggestions what to do/try next? Do you need anything else (logs?) to make sense of this?

2

Don’t do this. Anything inside of [ ] is ignored.

Should be

/media/raid/@Series/Star Trek Discovery (2017)/Season 01/Star Trek Discovery - S01E01 - The Vulcan Hello [x264-1080p AC3-6ch-DE-EN].mkv’

2 Likes
3

Well that was unexpected! But yeah this fixes it, thanks!
So this did indeed change at some point - rename it all it is then :hourglass:

4

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