Yes, I see the problem. If Plex does not have the capability of actually modifying the NFO’s, only reading them, that could cause an issue.
If something is marked as watched in PMS and the NFO says it’s not watched, when I refresh the metadata should it mark it as unwatched now? And vice versa.
I personally see the info in an NFO file as the most definitive version of the info of a file, so I wouldn’t have an issue with this, but I can see how it would be a problem for others.
It would make migrating to a new physical device easier though. There is a method available today but it’s a bit cumbersome compared to some other media servers.
You’re right, the title comes from the embedded MP4 tag.
New setup, new library and the only agent is the built-in NFO agent, not a custom agent with backup(s).
That’s why I’m reporting the problem. The NFO agent apparently prioritizes the title from the file over the titles from the NFO file. I would expect that the title(s) will only be extracted from the file if there is/are no title(s) in the NFO file or the NFO file does not exist. Maybe it’s just a problem with multi-episode NFO files and MP4 video files? I tested multi-episode files in an MKV container with embedded titles and the it worked as expected. The agent extracted the titles from the NFO file instead of the MKV file:
The embedded title of the MKV container would be “Garfield and Friends - S01E01“. And the file name is “Garfield and Friends - S01E01-E03 - Peace & Quiet + Box o’ Fun + Nighty Nightmare SDTV.mkv”.
@drzoidberg33 I’m about ready to switch fully over to using custom agent with NFO enabled but wanted to check one thing before I jump.
In the past it was frowned upon to change a libraries agent as it could cause issues and in extreme cases corrupt a library. This may have been related to changing from legacy to modern and back to legacy again but I’d like to get your opinion if its now okay to switch agents.
It’s unlikely I’ll ever want to switch but wanted to have the option if needed. Thanks.
After using the NFOs for TV Shows more, and seeing it make Collections for “Tags”, it makes me 1. wish for controls on this, and 2 having a minimum number for collections like in Movies.
I’ve switched over my movie and tv show libraries and while I can’t report any corruption, this issue remains unresolved and @drzoidberg33 stopped responding to me after blaming my file structure for the inability to match with the new custom provider.
Perhaps I’m being unfair but I would’ve expected some kind of reaction after 9 days, considering how active drzoidberg has been in this thread. Even an “I’m unable to determine the source of the error, try using the agent with a fresh library” or something along those lines would’ve been fine for me.
So I guess if you’re fine with (potentially) only newly added movies being matched with the custom agent, go for it, @dokuro.
At least for me, I’m happy to report, its gone swimmingly well so far. I went full nuclear, completing deleting my db as I noticed some possible schema drift in my db so took this opportunity to perform a full clean-up of my db.
Here is what I done …
took a backup of my full server
stopped plex and deleted everything under /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server with the exception of .LocalAdminToken and Preferences.xml
started up plex and created my new custom agents using Plex Local Media -> Plex NFO Movie -> Plex Movie (primary) for movies and Plex Local Media -> Plex NFO Series -> Plex Series (primary) for tv shows.
added my libraries with the exact same settings and order they where added previously but now using my custom agent.
once everything was ingested into my new plex server I then restored my watched status, play history, accounts and dashboard stats using the procedure I outlined in this thread years ago. I don’t use plex sync and would rather control all this myself.
I’ve included a sample NFO file below as I use a cut down NFO schema to just take what I want from NFO and then the rest from the plex main agents.
Sample NFO Movie File - Hamnet
<movie>
<uniqueid type='tmdb' default='true'>858024</uniqueid>
<title>Hamnet</title>
<originaltitle>Hamnet</originaltitle>
<plot>The powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.</plot>
<tagline>Keep your heart open.</tagline>
<genre>Drama</genre>
<genre>Romance</genre>
<genre>History</genre>
</movie>
Results: Everything has been 100% auto matched as I strictly adhere to the plex naming for movies & tv shows adding matching ids, example Hamnet {tmdb-858024} and Scrubs (2026) {tmdb-295778}. My libraries are fairly large, 4,750+ movies with 1,225 shows & 44k episodes. I’ve also almost 190k music tracks which is not relevant to NFO but does help show the scale of the test. My db is 1.2gb in size.
I’ve also confirmed all my watch status, dashboard history, stats etc… for myself and my shared users is all present. Server is now busy doing deep analysis which will take another 24 hours or so as its single threaded (really wish this could be multi threaded).
Honestly, could not be happier with how this has gone. No more crappy titles, spoiler filled summary and crazy genre’s.
Local extras don’t work on the ‘New Experience’ apps. They do on the web app because that hasn’t been updated to it yet. Same goes for third-party apps like Infuse (added in version 8.4) and Plezy, although Infuse also does not show the cast & crew just like the ‘New Experience’ apps. Infuse had this issue using the old XBMCnfoImporter plugins as well.
But - they do support local extras on the new experience apps if they’re matched to an online source. Is matching to an NFO not the same as matching in respect for extras? Is this something that is planned do we know? Because it’s the one thing keeping me with Jellyfin now Plex support NFO.
All I know is that local extras have never worked for me in those updated apps using either the legacy plug-in or the new NFO agent.
The kind with the extra naming “-behindthescenes” or “-deleted”. I’ve never matched any of those to an online source since I had no need for it.
Much of what the New Experience apps draws from is the Discover Credits and online metadata providers.
You can tell when you make a custom agent. The info displayed in the web app or desktop app is mostly all your local info + supplementing whatever’s missing with online sources. The same media in the ‘updated’ apps looks totally different because they can’t draw from that info. Not with the now unsupported legacy plug-in, nor Plex’s own plug-in.
The hope I assume is that this older functionality can at some point be restored (third party apps can do it so it can’t be that hard) and that all apps finally have feature parity.
Because right now depending on what official client you use on what platform you have wildly different experiences.
I don’t have any updates for you, I’ve been unable to replicate your issue and you’re also the only one that’s reported this issue. I’ve had to prioritise my time elsewhere unfortunately.
Not in my case. NFO agent. File named correctly like video.mp4-behindthescenes or video.mp4-other. Has never ever worked in the new apps, since they were launched. Does work everywhere else.
Just checked and my TV library extras is still showing.
I’m using separate folders (e.g. Featurettes, etc.) for Shows and Seasons and the -featurette format for episodes (as that’s the only way those are supported).
> /Game of Thrones
> /Season 01
> /Behind The Scenes
> A look at season 1.mkv
> Season 1 Deleted Scenes-deleted.mkv
It also doesn’t work with movies. Featurettes, deletedscenes,… None of them show up in the new apps. Never have. Show up perfectly fine on web/desktop and third party apps.
I’m certainly not the only one:
The wording on your guide pages also needs updating.
This doesn’t work.
You have a “Behind the Scenes” extras type subfolder, and then are placing a “Deleted Scenes” extra into it, which is marked as an extra by the suffix -deleted.
In other words, you are combining the “subfolder” method and the “suffix” method with each other. This has never worked.
For any one movie (or show), pick one of the methods and stick to it.
