Plex Not Detecting New Files but only in TV Shows

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

I’ve just upgraded to server v1.15.4.993 on a Centos 7 virtual machine running on VMware ESXi v6.5. Client browser Chrome 73.0.3683.103 on Mac Mojave 10.14.4, but I have the same problem on my Android client on my phone.

I see there’s a post with the same title using Synology NAS. I originally posted there by mistake.

First four episodes of a series were recognised in earlier
plexServer version before upgrade. Next six episodes won’t register at all in Plex client, which can’t see them.

All appear named in an identical manner. TinyMedia Manager recognised them all, and added thumbnail images and .nfo files for all episodes.

I’ve checked the .mp4 file ownership and permissions - all have owner/group showing as john/john, and permissions as 0764 - just the same on all files in this folder, and for similar series in other folders for other TV Shows.

I’ve tried

  • Optimise database
  • Clean bundles
  • Empty trash

I’ve also cleared the browser cache.

then (for the third or fourth time)

  • Scan Library files
  • Refresh Metadata

I’ve also tried the full Plex Dance - moved the whole series folder off the server, did the fully monty of emptying trash, rescan, clean bundles etc. then moved the series folder back to the server, and re-ran Library scan. Same result - only the first four episodes show in Plex.

Is it a function of the latest PlexServer version upgrade? All was working fine before that.

I’ve also tried a server restart.

What else is there to try? I really want to be able to watch all the episodes.

1 Like
2

MP4 files carry internal metadata which includes title/name.

PMS reads that information from MP4 files.
If the information is conflicting / confusing, PMS won’t match it.

If the internal fields are blank, PMS will use the filename.

Best practices recommendation for all media files is to remove internal tags/names and let the file name provide the info

3

Thanks, Chuck.

As you suggested looking at the internal info, I’ve tried looking inside the mp4 files using the program kid3 for Mac.

All the files seem to have their tag fields filled in appropriately, with no visible differences in format between the ones that Plex sees, and the ones it doesn’t.

And all the files are in the same folder structure and file name format, which is the same as older series that Plex saw previously when they were put on the server: Series Name/Season 01/Series Name - S01E01.mp4 to SeriesName - S01E10 (there are further episodes I haven’t downloaded yet).

For example: the first of four files (episodes 1-4) that are visible in Plex:

image
image682×733 65 KB

And episode 05 - the first of all the later episodes that is not visible in Plex:

image
image690×725 65.2 KB

Should i just try unticking, or even deleting, all the internal tags for a later episode (keeping a copy of the originals that have the tags) and try again?

At about the same time I’ve found that Plex will no longer cast to Chromecast audio devices, although they are working in VLC player on the same music files (I guess that VLC uses the DNLA server in Plex). Plex can ‘see’ the Chromecasts (I have three) in a list of devices, but when I click on the Cast icon, it animates for about 20 seconds, then gives an error message ‘Unable to connect to ’

Is that issue relating to the new server version? If so, should I start a new topic for it?

4

To simplify the test:

  1. Make a copy of the files while still pristine and put someplace safe
  2. Now clear all the internal info
  3. move the media to an unmonitored directory (we are “dancing” it )
  4. Scan files,
  5. Empty Trash
  6. Clean Bundles (removes all old knowledge of the files at this step)
  7. Verify test file names (without tags) now in “Series - SxxExx - optional title.ext” format.
  8. Move back into position.

We dance the media because PMS doesn’t like renaming in-situ. (Engineering is changing this)

5

I’ll try that.

One recent additional piece of info. I’ve just added another TV series transcribed from a BluRay 3-disk set.

Plex doesn’t see them at all - even after I rescan either the whole Library or just the TV Shows section.

Maybe the file names aren’t in the proper format though…

6

Curioser and curioser.

I’ve copied just two of the files off the server altogether, and deleted the whole Murdoch Mysteries folder from the server (I have a copy of it all on my Mac).

Then done the rest of the Plex dance - Empty Trash, Clean Bundles.

Then Scan (TV Shows) Library again.
Then clear the browser cache, close the browser and reopen it.

The series entry is still present, still showing 4 (episodes) in the top right.

image

…and the titles of all the episodes when I open that and Season 1.

However, when I click on one episode, Plex correctly reports that the file is missing.

Why isn’t the whole series being removed by the Clean Bundles operation?

I then deleted the series using the Plex interface - the three dots bottom right of the poster.

And now ‘The Server Plexserver is unavailable’ all of a sudden.

Not a happy few days since the upgrade. I’ll try to restart the server.
…

That’s worked. But when I restore the series folder, with just two episodes in it, Plex now doesn’t see either of them - not the original episode 01 in which I left the original tags, nor the episode 05 from which I deleted all the tags.

So now I don’t really know what to do next. I’ll try deleting EVERYTHING in the Murdoch Mysteries folder except the Season 01 folder and one untagged .mp4 file, and see if that works again.

And I can try adding a film I’ve just transcribed from BluRay and see if Plex recognises that.

…

Tried deleting the Murdoch Mysteries contents except for /Season 01/Murdoch Mysteries - S01E05.mp4. Then reran Scan Library.

No sign of it the show any more at all in Plex.

1 Like
7

Plex uses TheTVDB as it’s master source. Look there and find the right name. This is your foundation for naming.

The Plex Dance (move out, rename, scan files, empty trash, clean bundles, movie back) are the steps

8

Well, I’ll try all that once more. TinyMediaManager also uses TheTVDB and was finding the titles, posters, etc. without problem, from (I think) just the filenames. Or maybe was reading the tags?

But it does seem to me that something has changed with the new Plex version. Before I upgraded, the first four episodes were immediately recognised. Now nothing new I add is being seen at all, and I haven’t changed any other aspect of the process of adding things.

9

because of the testing I do, I have to create a new PMS installation each time.
My mainstream media is all intact. I can take the time and spin up the test series db if needed about 2500 series

10

Just checked TheTVDB web page. Search for just ‘Murdoch Mysteries’ and get an immediate and correct match.

So the file name is matching.

Sorry, feeling stuck at the moment, and have to go shortly. For the moment, I can use VLC player on either computer or phone to play to Chromecast (Audio or TV). But I really like Plex, and want to get things working again, though I don’t at the moment see how.

But I’ll try the plex dance again, put something new on the server, and see if that works at all.

But not for an hour or two yet.

11

I am spinning up my test library (about 100,000 episodes).
I will do the full regression test with this test.
My internet isn’t the fastest so this will take a few hours.

12

Well, I’m stumped.

I deleted the whole of the Murdoch Mysteries folder from the server, then did the Plex Dance in full.

Created an empty folder Murder Mysteries (2008) folder on the server, a Season 01 sub folder in it, and put in it just one episode (05) with the tags removed. Then Scan (TV Shows)/Library folder.

Nothing shows up in TV Shows. Plex just isn’t seeing the new folder or file in its subfolder Season 01. Tried changing the subfolder name to Series 01 but that didn’t make any difference, so changed it back to Season 01 which is the way I’ve named folders for other seasonal shows.

Tried also adding a new film (movie) I’d just transcoded from a BluRay disk.

That worked fine, and Plex automatically added all the usual meta-data without my doing anything except copy the folder onto the server. And there was only one .mp4 file in that folder.

Tried also adding a new TV Series I’ve just recorded off a Box Set of BluRay disks - Mad Men (Season 02). Didn’t work initially, probably because the file naming wasn’t right, and there don’t seem to be any non-empty tags in the .mp4 files.

Renamed properly, moved into a subfolder for Season 02, but not recognised even on a rescan of the TV Shows folder.

Will do the plex dance again with those files and see if that works when I re-upload them after doing the dance. Will report back shortly.

13

Well, still nothing is working for newly added TV Shows.

Removed Mad Men and Murdoch Mysteries from the server.

Did the plex dance.

Re-uploaded two episodes of Murdoch Mysteries. Server doesn’t see them at all.

Re-uploaded just one episode of Mad Men to a subfolder ‘Season 02’, correctly renamed to Mad Men/Season 02/Mad Men - S02E01.mp4.

Checked file ownership and permissions - it’s just like all the others. Owner/group john/john, folder permission 0755, file permission 0764 - just like the older (working) folders.

I give up at least for tonight. I CANNOT see why this isn’t working, and Chromecast isn’t working either, if it isn’t bugs in the latest Plex server.

Server doesn’t see those shows either.

PS. What’s the command line to restart the plex server? I’ve been using
service plexmediaserver restart (or … stop, or … start) but the response I get on a new line now says

Redirecting to /bin/systemctl restart plexmediserver.service.

Should I be typing that instead? I’m not even quite sure it’s doing anything, because the response comes back to a new command line very quickly.

Anyway, to be sure, I restarted the whole virtual machine. At least for now, it doen’t do anything else except run the Plex Media Server.

Makes no difference. Plex still can’t see either of the new TV Shows series I have added.

14

Please look at your spelling?

You state:

Murchoch Mysteries.

The correct spelling is:

Murdoch Mysteries

15

Sorry, typo in my post, I think. Will double check on server.

…

Yes, typo only in the post. Correctly spelled elsewhere and in folder/file names on the server.

I’ve had one further thought on something to try. I still have Plex v1.14x running on my Synology server, which I haven’t updated to 1.15x yet.

I’ll try uploading a sample of the new series to the Synology, and see if that works there, and report back asap.

16

I created test files. recognition was immediate. I will have metadata shortly.

Screenshot%20from%202019-05-06%2016-43-03
Screenshot%20from%202019-05-06%2016-43-031092×458 507 KB

Names as they exist:

Making "Murdoch Mysteries (2008)/Season 06"
Making "Murdoch Mysteries (2008)/Season 07"
Done
[chuck@lizum ~.102]$ pushd /vie/tv3/Murdoch\ Mysteries\ \(2008\)/
/vie/tv3/Murdoch Mysteries (2008) ~ ~ 
[chuck@lizum Murdoch Mysteries (2008).103]$ ls -laR
.:
total 40
drwxr-xr-x  9 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:40 ./
drwxrwxrwx 77 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:38 ../
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:38 Season 01/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:38 Season 02/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:39 Season 03/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:39 Season 04/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:39 Season 05/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:40 Season 06/
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:40 Season 07/

./Season 01:
total 88
drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:38 ./
drwxr-xr-x 9 chuck chuck 4096 May  6 16:40 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck  177 May  6 16:38 Murdoch Mysteries (2008) - S01E01.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck  177 May  6 16:38 Murdoch Mysteries (2008) - S01E02.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck  177 May  6 16:38 Murdoch Mysteries (2008) - S01E03.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck  177 May  6 16:38 Murdoch Mysteries (2008) - S01E04.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck  177 May  6 16:38 Murdoch Mysteries (2008) - S01E05.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck  177 May  6 16:38 Murdoch Mysteries (2008) - S01E06.mkv
17

Tested on the Synology plex server by uploading a couple of episodes of each series, and they are recognised immediately and automatically - the TV Shows page refreshes automatically without my doing anything, and i can immediately see the season and episode pages. And play the episodes I’ve uploaded.

It seems to be either a function of the 1.15 server, or the fact that it is on a Centos Linux machine instead of a Diskstation.

What might be a good way to either revert to an earlier version on Centos, or repair the 1.15 version?

18

I use the same binary image for Synology that I use for Linux workstations.

The only possible differences are

a. Browers
b. Agent settings differences between the two instances.
c. Other preferences differences between the two instances.

19

  1. Using the same browser on the same machine (Mac )S X 10.14.4 Mojave)

  2. Agents - both set to defaults, I think. I’m not consciously aware of changing them, but will double check in a few minutes.

  3. What other preference differences might I look for? Again, i think i left them at the defaults, at least on the later installation on Centos.

Very odd. Will get back shortly. Thank you so much for taking all the trouble to research the metadata lookups.

20

At this point, I would walk through all preferences, including those in Show Advanced.

Make them identical.