Plex incorrectly merging different series

[jay2001]

Server Version#: 1.31.1.6733
Player Version#: 4.102.1

I have a pair of folders called…
D:\House of Cards
D:\House of Cards (US)\

These contain two different shows and are named according to TVDB series 79861 and 262908. Plex is incorrectly recognising the files in the first folder as alternate files for the second series.

How do I fix this?

[FordGuy61]

Plex Documentation → Your Media
→ Naming & Organizing Your TV Show Files
→ Naming & Organizing Your Movie Files

1. Add the show year and TVDB or TMDB ID to the folder name of each show.
2. Plex Dance both shows, moving them out of the library at the same time and returning them separately (make sure one show is OK before adding the next).
3. Unrelated, but consider adding a TV Shows folder to the drive, d:\TV Shows.
   Plex does not like to be pointed at the root of a drive. Applications occasionally write temporary files there, and it can cause difficulties for the Plex scanners.
   Also, it makes it easier to move a show or movie out of sight of the Plex scanners if/when you need to perform the Plex Dance or just re-organize your media.

/TV Shows
   /House of Cards (1990) {tvdb-79861} <-- show_name (intro_year), TMDB/TVDB ID optional, but helps.
      /Season 01 <-- "Season" in English, two digits for number
         /House of Cards (1990) s01e01.ext  <-- ext = mkv/mp4/etc
   /House of Cards (2013) {tvdb-262980}
      /Season 01
         /House of Cards (2013) s01e01.ext

[jay2001]

Thanks for that. As it happens I had already tried adding the years, plex didn’t care and used them both as the US version anyway! They are also not in the root, I had just done that to cut down on the full structure of d:\media\tv\House of Cards\ for simplicity.

Adding the TVDB ID’s fixed it immediately, a trick I was previously unaware of and I’ve been a Plex user for years and a Lifetime Plex Pass user for many of those!