Server Version#:1.41.9.9961-46083195d
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>
One specific show is absolutely refusing to populate on my server. There is a .plexmatch file the directs to the correct show, there are valid and working episode files, I am using the correct naming convention for TV Shows (TV Shows/Show Title (Year)/Season 01/Show Title - SxxExx - Episode Title.ext). I see in the logs when attempting to import the show
./Plex Media Server.4.log:61235:Aug 07, 2025 13:48:17.360 [136781558553400] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /nfs/Anime/My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) (parent: yes) ./Plex Media Server.4.log:61236:Aug 07, 2025 13:48:17.360 [136781558553400] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023)', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map. ./Plex Media Server.4.log:61237:Aug 07, 2025 13:48:17.360 [136781558553400] DEBUG - [PlexMatch] Using 'My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1' for show ./Plex Media Server.4.log:61240:Aug 07, 2025 13:48:17.360 [136781558553400] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /nfs/Anime/My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023)/Season 01 (parent: yes) ./Plex Media Server.4.log:61241:Aug 07, 2025 13:48:17.361 [136781558553400] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023)/Season 01', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
I’ve also seen another user on reddit had this same exact issue with this same exact show their solution was to rename the folder to a completely different show then fix the match in Plex. This is not a solution, it’s barely a workaround.
My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023)/
├── banner.jpg
├── fanart.jpg
├── landscape.jpg
├── logo.png
├── poster.jpg
├── Season 01
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x01 - He's a Human That Was Dropped by a Slime.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x01 - He's a Human That Was Dropped by a Slime.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x01 - He's a Human That Was Dropped by a Slime-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x02 - It's death or carrot!.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x02 - It's death or carrot!.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x02 - It's death or carrot!-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x03 - Kill All the Little Black Things.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x03 - Kill All the Little Black Things.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x03 - Kill All the Little Black Things-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x04 - Moving to a New Place! Just Relaxing at Home.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x04 - Moving to a New Place! Just Relaxing at Home.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x04 - Moving to a New Place! Just Relaxing at Home-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x05 - Yay! It's My Turn Now.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x05 - Yay! It's My Turn Now.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x05 - Yay! It's My Turn Now-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x06 - A Beautiful Girl Appears.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x06 - A Beautiful Girl Appears.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x06 - A Beautiful Girl Appears-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x07 - This Dungeon Battle Is a Vortex of Schemes.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x07 - This Dungeon Battle Is a Vortex of Schemes.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x07 - This Dungeon Battle Is a Vortex of Schemes-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x08 - You Can Do It! Get 'Em, Celeste!.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x08 - You Can Do It! Get 'Em, Celeste!.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x08 - You Can Do It! Get 'Em, Celeste!-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x09 - We've All Been Waiting! It's Eve's Turn to Shine.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x09 - We've All Been Waiting! It's Eve's Turn to Shine.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x09 - We've All Been Waiting! It's Eve's Turn to Shine-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x10 - The Arrival of Alice.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x10 - The Arrival of Alice.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x10 - The Arrival of Alice-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x11 - Time for the Harvest Festival.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x11 - Time for the Harvest Festival.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x11 - Time for the Harvest Festival-thumb.jpg
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x12 - We're All Having a Party.mkv
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x12 - We're All Having a Party.nfo
│ ├── My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 - 01x12 - We're All Having a Party-thumb.jpg
│ └── season.nfo
├── season01-poster.jpg
└── tvshow.nfo
Navigating to the show by folder in Plex shows me an empty folder.
Thanks for the “helpful” remark, it’s not applicable, but thanks.
For future reference, I did find the issue and it’s apparently a limitation in Plex Media Server, likely due to trying to keep compatibility with NTFS filesystems and their filename/path limitation. Removing the show title from the episodes, leaving the season and episode identification untouched (01x01), immediately populated the show. While this is definitely an edge case, it’s something that should be considered and there should be logging to indicate such an issue or noted limitations on filename/path lengths.
Please refer to the solution provided. The issue had to do with the total number of characters in the filename/path. This is a hard limitation in Plex Media Server that is undocumented and does not properly indicate an error. There is still a problem that needs to be fixed in Plex Media Server to address this issue, but I provided a workaround. In this specific instance, your proposed solution would only exacerbate the problem, not solve it, as it would add two additional characters to the filename. I will also note the that support article you provided is explicitly for movies and this topic is for TV shows. You likely meant to link https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/
Your file path is also shorter than mine. Hence it being a limitation to filepath/name, not just filename. Let’s also not detract from the fact that I have nearly a thousand different TV series in Plex using the same naming convention without issue and simply removing the series title (43 characters) from the episode filenames fixed the issue.
Just sharing info…but you keep doing what your’re doing if it’s been working for ya!
I wanted to test your theory that your path being longer was the cause…I removed it, re-scanned library to ensure it was removed, emptied trash, bundles and then added a longer library path, scanned and it detected and loaded all info….either way, glad you got it working on your end.
Yah, I completely agree. OP notes they used a .plexmatch file, I’m not sure what they put in there, but the tvdb id can be placed in there as well.
I usually don’t use it, but anytime I’ve had a show that doesn’t match for whatever reason, that has solved it. And when people say shows don’t match, that will usually solve it. Folks get frustrated that it doesn’t work without it because all their other shows work. It’s not 100%, but it’s clear in the documentation to use it to help with matching.
Absolutely agree. But I was merely trying to point out that the OP it wouldn’t match but the others saying it did without issue aren’t comparing like to like. Of course it matched with the tvdb ID in it.
As I mentioned above the issue is actually because the OP added the year to the folder name. Omitting the year solves the problem immediately even without the ID.
Just head to thetvdb website and search for the name as in the OP. It won’t find it. Delete the (2023) and it shows the desired result.
This has nothing to do with directly attached, NFS, or CIFS.
The core problem is the incorrect naming.
Observe instant matching and metadata retrieval when using the correct form.
[chuck@lizum tv.2013]$ ls -la My\ Unique\ Skill\ Makes\ Me\ OP\ Even\ at\ Level\ 1\ \(2023\)/*01
total 52
drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck chuck 4096 Aug 7 19:40 ./
drwxr-xr-x 4 chuck chuck 52 Aug 7 19:40 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E01.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E02.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E03.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E04.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E05.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E06.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E07.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E08.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E09.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E10.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E11.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 346 Aug 7 19:40 My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (2023) - S01E12.mkv
[chuck@lizum tv.2014]$
You all keep harping on “use correct naming”, “you’re not naming things correctly” etc. I have already proven that to be utterly incorrect. Simply removing the series title from the file name fixed the problem. See screenshot for proof.
Also of note, I never mentioned anything about directly attached or network attached, I mentioned filesystems, NTFS specifically, which has a well known character limitation for filepath/name. Please, stop jumping down people’s throats about “naming scheme” when you don’t know what you are talking about. Can the moderators please just close this from further replies as the solution has been provided and selected and further dog-piling with misinformation about naming schemes needs to stop.
