As an example but this happens for lots of other films.
If using TMDB as an agent and scan my library, it will find Black Panther (2018) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022).
If using Plex Movie, it doesn’t find Black Panther at all.
This is obviously a huge hindrance in moving to Plex.
Is there a reason for this?
Naming convention is ‘/Volumes/Stubby 2/Media /Movies/Black Panther/Black Panther.mp4’
Thanks in advance
Server Version#: Version 1.42.2.10156
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Unfortunately your files are poorly named which is why plex is not matching them. There are multiple movies with the name Black Panther so plex has no way of knowing which one you actually mean …
At a minimum, you should add a year hint in your naming of the media structure \Black Panther (2018)\Black Panther.mp4 or better again use matching ids \Black Panther {tmdb-284054}\Black Panther.mp4 to do a direct match.
If that is the case then it is a failing on the Plex Movie scanner not my naming convention.
I will reiterate, if I use the The Movie Database agent, then it happily finds all my movies, and the ones it is not sure of, it adds to the library without the artwork etc and therefore I have the option to manually correct the name and refresh the metadata.
The Plex Movie agent does not even attempt to add the movies you are suggesting it cannot ratify.
Why is The Move Database so much better?
For example, I have the film The Spirit, from 2009, the file name is NOT appended by the year. There are multiple films in The Movie Database called The Spirit. Instead of not adding it to the library at all, it adds an entry called The Spirit, with a screen capture as the poster, and I can go in a manually match the correct film.
The Plex Movie scanner does NOT allow me to do that. It just ignores the film and makes everything more difficult.
Not really. The older legacy agent would just guess which ended up with incorrect matches more often than not. Sometimes it might get it right, other times it would not and you would really have no way to know.
The newer one is more strict when it comes to matching. Anyhow, you have your answer, its up to you to decide what you want to do next.
By the dismissive nature of your reply and the fact you have avoided all the salient points made, I am having to guess you are either a rabid Plex fanboy or an employee.
I have paid for Plex and therefore I want it to make my life easier. Not force upon me more work.
If OSMC and the TMDB Scanner in the Plex Server itself, can add a film/tv show to the library even if it has got it wrong and thus enable the user to rename it correctly, and not like Plex Movie / Plex Series, completely leave it out of the library and thus make the user have to manually ratify what’s on disk against what is in the library, then plain and simple, something is wrong with Plex’s implementation of it scanner.
It’s simple really. A company should not make it more difficult for the user, especially if there is already a solution that it has currently implemented that does a better job.
It’s up to you to decide what you want to do next with this reply.
I think you’re correct and the legacy agents are planned to be deprecated soon. We need to keep topics like this active in the forums. If perfectly fine metadata agents are being deemed obsolete, then Plex needs to offer an alternative that is reliable, comprehensive, and easy. I’m not seeing that from the new Plex agents yet.
Shouldn’t be a problem if its on plex’s side, just dont upgrade the server.
I cant stand the plex scanners. Pile of junk with imposed strictness for the sake of being strict and “special”. Its like tvdb all over again.
@dokuro is not a “fanboy” at all, he is very critical of Plex at times but always provides constructive feedback. The only person being dismissive is you.
Are you saying it doesn’t even put a placeholder using local info only?
That’s different than “not matching”. If Plex sees a new file it’ll add it even if it can’t match it no matter which agent you’re using. That’s been my consistent experience. The only times it doesn’t is when it either didn’t automatically recognize it was added, in which case manually triggering a scan pulls it in, or it did see it but added it as a duplicate of another title, in which case filtering for duplicates (prebuilt option in the Library) helps me find it and sort it out.
I am really lazy about my file naming and structure and it still works for me - Plex doesn’t completely ignore new files I’ve added even if it doesn’t always match them. I have found adding the year to titles does help a lot in matching.
Edit: And maybe tone down some of the entitlement and antagonism. It’s fine to be frustrated - lord knowns I’ve snapped or been snippy in these forums when frustrated - but you’re being very aggressive about it, particularly as an admitted new user to a product and community. I think the productive approach in this case would be “what am I possibly missing” rather than “get me the c-suite right now”.
You must be new here if you expect anyone at Plex to respond to something like this.
You’ve walked into a community for a product you’ve only just started using and started trying to dictate how it should work, rather than learning how it does work. You need to read the manual.
If you had, you’d know that Plex (the company) is quite clear in the naming required on media to use the product.
So, let me get this straight, I explain the issue, and give an example, and detail the fact that an existing scanner that Plex supplies does a better job than the scanner that Plex is pushing people to use.
Someone responds, and when I point out that he/she is wrong in the assumption that what I am doing is wrong based on the two different outcomes of the scanners that Plex supplies, the answer he/she gives is condescending in tone and dismissive.,
And then a Plex employee jumps to the defence. Interesting!
Well, as, if you do a google search, there are plenty of people complaining about the Plex scanners for both movies and tv, including the others on this thread, maybe you can listen to some of your paying users and do something about it.
I am not about flame wars. I am about a company, who I have paid money to for a service, doing something that is making it more difficult for me to use the product. Simple.
You could have found how how plex works without paying anything. No payment is required for this aspect of ingesting media into your PMS. Our guides are explicit about this aspect which have been in place for years. You chose not get info on how it works before you did so.
I am only walking in to a community because Plex provide NO technical support path other than this.
If my existing naming convention was fine and worked and still works when using TMDB scanner and gave me the option to rename misidentified item, it’s not a stretch for me, as a paid customer, to expect the same functionality when pushed to use something the company is essentially going to mandate I have to use.
You asked for help with a negative product experience.
A few folks offered suggestions to get you a better outcome.
You didn’t try their suggestions or discuss the situation further and instead responded as if everyone’s suggestion was an attack on you and Plex is broken and you need to speak to an authority.
Here’s a new start for you because no matter how justified you may feel, it’s not cool. So either you’ll take it to heart that maybe there was a wrong foot put and can work on this in good faith or you’ve learned that this is a bad fit and you can just stop here.
Is the Black Panther title you mentioned missing entirely from your Plex movie library or is it showing unmatched with a local info only placeholder (usually a screenshot as the poster with filename or metadata as title) or a wrong match? Have you checked the duplicates in case it matched to a wrong title; maybe it combined Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever together?
What is your process of switching agents in Plex? Are you refreshing metadata and running manual scan after? There’s really not much point to using the old agents - they are there for legacy users and you’re a new user so might be best to just run with the Plex Agent and get things shored up with that in mind either way.
Edit: Looks like OSMC is built on Kodi, and Kodi naming conventions - and therefore OSMC naming conventions - say you should be including the year as well. https://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files/Movies
I don’t follow all the right naming rules myself, but when it doesn’t work I know I probably need to fix the files to follow them more closely rather than blame the product or community members who are just trying to help someone out.
