Plex is incorrectly grouping TV shows in library

[jchen34]

Hi, I recently purchased a Synology NAS (info below) and am having a strange issue when adding TV shows to my Plex library. So far, I’ve added episodes of both “Lost” and “Battlestar Galactica” to my library but when I scan the library files, it combines both series into a single show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” even though I have everything following the recommended naming conventions. On my NAS, I have the folder and file structures set up like this:

/TV Shows
/Battlestar Galactica (2004)
/Season 00
Battlestar Galactica (2004) - S00E01 - Miniseries Part 1
Battlestar Galactica (2004) - S00E02 - Miniseries Part 2
/Season 01
Battlestar Galactica (2004) - S01E01 - 33

           etc.
 /Lost (2004)
       /Season 01
            Lost (2004) - S01E01 - Pilot, Part 1

            etc.

First, I copied both series to the NAS and then updated the Plex library and it lumped both series as a single series “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”. I then did the “Plex dance”…removed the files, rescanned the library, emptied trash, deleted bundles, moved the files back (this time, did it for “Battlestar Galactica” only), rescanned the library and once again, the series showed up as “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”.

I went ahead and manually fixed the match, changing it to “Battlestar Galactica” and was able to get Plex to update all the episodes correctly. However, I then moved the “Lost” episodes back (in a separate directory under “TV Shows” as above), and when I rescanned the library, it added all the “Lost” episodes under “Battlestar Galactica” and the library lists them as “Battlestar Galactica” episodes now.

I’ve tried this several times now and it doesn’t matter which shows I try, they always get scanned in and show up as “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” for some reason.

I’m baffled as to how to get Plex to see these shows correctly!

Plex Server Version#: 1.13.5.5332
Synology NAS Model: DS418Play
DSM Version#: 6.2-23739 Update 2

Thanks for any help you can offer!

[tom80H]

Are those mp4/m4v files and have you given the highest priority to Local Media Assets in your agent configuration? If so, this could mean there’s some embedded data in the files that gives Plex a wrong match

[ChuckPa]

It’s “Battlestar Gallactica (2003)” not (2004)

[jchen34]

They are MP4 files but I’ve given highest priority to “TheTVDB” and even tried unchecking “Local Media Assets” but no change. I’ve also checked the embedded data in the files and didn’t see anything incorrect in there.

[jchen34]

I did actually have “Battlestar Galactica (2003)” first in both the directory structure and filenames when I ran into the problem. When I manually matched it up to TVDB, it listed it as as (2004), so I changed the directory and files to match that but no difference (after again doing the whole Plex dance again).

[ChuckPa]

https://www.thetvdb.com/series/battlestar-galactica-2003

Move the files away from plex,
scan files
empty trash
clean bundles
Fix names
move back

[jchen34]

OK, I tried it again…moved all the files out from Plex, scanned the files and saw that Plex now showed nothing in TV Shows, emptied the trash, cleaned the bundles, I then renamed all the “Battlestar Galactica” episodes back to (2003) instead of (2004), moved them back, and rescanned the library.

This time the series showed up as “Ricky Gervais”.

I don’t know where Plex is getting this metadata from!

[ChuckPa]

Plex pulls directly from TheTVDB.

Permissions on the files?

Show me a directory listing / structure screenshot expansion from File Station

[jchen34]

Here’s a directory listing. Let me know if there’s a different view that you need or if the image doesn’t show correctly.

I wouldn’t think it’s a file permissions issue because once I manually correct the listing by doing a “Fix Match” then everything works correctly. It also seems like movie entries have worked fine so far…I’m only having this issue with TV shows.

Thanks for your help with this!

[ChuckPa]

On Synology, it can be file permissions. Remember, it’s Linux. It’s possible to grant permission to the share then get caught up at the per-file level (which always takes precedence over share level).

Here is my listing for one season

[~] # cd /share/tv2/Battlestar\ Galactica\ \(2003\)/
[/share/tv2/Battlestar Galactica (2003)] # ls -la
total 64
drwxr-xr-x  8 chuck chuck 4096 2018-08-19 21:59 ./
drwxr-xr-x 52 chuck chuck 4096 2018-09-07 03:52 ../
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 2018-06-23 02:43 Face of The Enemy/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 2018-06-23 02:45 Season 00/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 2018-06-23 03:08 Season 01/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 2018-06-23 03:35 Season 02/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 2018-06-23 03:58 Season 03/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 2018-06-23 13:19 Season 04/
[/share/tv2/Battlestar Galactica (2003)] # ls -la Season\ 01
total 51247192
drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck chuck       4096 2018-06-23 03:08 ./
drwxr-xr-x 8 chuck chuck       4096 2018-08-19 21:59 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 1239804871 2018-06-23 02:54 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S00E01.Battlestar Galactica The Miniseries (1).mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 1067719411 2018-06-23 02:55 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S00E02.Battlestar Galactica The Miniseries (2).mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 7893466392 2018-06-23 02:57 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E01.33.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3522001859 2018-06-23 02:58 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E02.Water.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3522138872 2018-06-23 02:59 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E03.Bastille Day.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3523655188 2018-06-23 03:00 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E04.Act of Contrition.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3522150669 2018-06-23 03:01 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E05.You Can't Go Home Again.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3524231466 2018-06-23 03:02 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E06.Litmus.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3522691315 2018-06-23 03:02 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E07.Six Degrees of Separation.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3522752737 2018-06-23 03:03 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E08.Flesh and Bone.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3523777041 2018-06-23 03:04 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E09.Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3523352520 2018-06-23 03:05 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E10.The Hand of God.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3523838611 2018-06-23 03:06 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E11.Colonial Day.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3521782435 2018-06-23 03:07 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E12.Kobol's Last Gleaming (1).mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 3523572982 2018-06-23 03:08 Battlestar Galactica (2003).S01E13.Kobol's Last Gleaming (2).mkv
[/share/tv2/Battlestar Galactica (2003)] #                                                                                                   

To verify your permissions are ok at the file level, apply them this way. It’s common for permissions to get dropped on a Synology (their gift to us).

[jchen34]

I just checked and the permissions on the directories and files are all actually 777 currently.

[jchen34]

UPDATE: I think I figured out the problem. Under the Library settings for “TV Shows”, the folder was entered as “/volume1/Media”. I changed it to “/volume1/Media/TV Shows”, re-added the episodes and scanned the library and everything showed up correctly…it identified each show properly and didn’t combine them as a single show like it was doing previously!