Plex not picking up some media files

Server Version#: 1.24.4.5081
Player Version#: 4.63.0

My PMS is not finding some video files (mp4). The problem is not the naming, since changing those files to another movie already in the library is the same result. Is not a permissions issue either since other files in the same folder and same permissions are ok.
Here is an example:

name: HOME (2009) (tt1014762).mp4
with or without the IMDB id makes no difference.
The file plays without issues in VLC.
permissions: -rwxrwxrw- 1 500 everyone
same as all other files that work.
metadata:
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42 (isom/avc1/mp42)
File size : 1.38 GiB
Duration : 1 h 33 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 124 kb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2009-09-25 10:49:25
Tagged date : UTC 2009-09-25 10:49:25
gsst : 0
gstd : 5598213
gssd : BB51EF146HH1336791787457024
gshh : o-o.preferred.cablevision-eze1.v21.lscache6.c.youtube.com

Video
ID : 2
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L3.1
Format settings : CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 3 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=30
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1 h 33 min
Bit rate : 1 997 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 5 980 kb/s
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 24.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.090
Stream size : 1.30 GiB (94%)
Title : (C) 2007 Google Inc. v08.13.2007.
Encoded date : UTC 2009-09-25 10:49:36
Tagged date : UTC 2009-09-25 10:50:59
Codec configuration box : avcC

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 1 h 33 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 125 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 246 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 83.5 MiB (6%)
Title : (C) 2007 Google Inc. v08.13.2007.
Encoded date : UTC 2009-09-25 10:49:25
Tagged date : UTC 2009-09-25 10:50:59

Any idea why this happens?

THANK YOU

If it is an MP4 i would check if it has any embedded metadata and check duplicates in case it got matched as something else you already have.

Hey! Thanks for the quick reply. No and no. No other name in the metadata, nor any strange tag. Also don’t have this file duplicated. But as I mentioned is not a single case occurrence, this is happening with other files too.

Show us a screen-dump from top of where your PMS library is pointing towards, and all the way down to the media file that’s not been picked up

You mean this?

Screenshot 2021-10-16 at 01.51.37

Then from here both “HOME” and “The day the wave came” are not being picked up by Plex.

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Is the SOCIETY- Environment not a directory? I would put the year after the title, not before. And each movie and their associated sub file etc in their own movie folder.

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Plex documentation → Your Media → Naming & Organizing your Movie files

To strictly follow the Plex docs: Home (2009) {imdb-tt1014762} [misc info in square brackets].mp4

As BigWheel mentions, put the year after the name in the rest of your files, and preferably, each movie in their own folder.

I did not see it listed in either IMDB or TMDB. What is it?


Library Folder:
Your library should point to SOCIETY- Environment, not DOCUS-Unitarios. Plex does not officially support subfolders. It might work now, but at some point it will probably not.

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Is a directory.
As I mention in my original post, the file was named “title (year) (imdb id)”, then I started trying different things, what you see in the sreenshot is one of them. Nothing works. And I also said that I tried naming the file with another movie, like “Avengers (2019)” and it didn’t work either. :frowning:

Thanks for your reply. Tried with the {} instead of () but didn’t make any difference.
It doesn’t matter if the agent finds it or not, it should appear as “Unmatched” but it doesn’t. That’s what I want to solve, not the matching.
About the year at the beginning or end, won’t explain why I have 2000+ movies with the year at the beginning that are matched, But anyway, again matching is not my problem.
Same thing with subfolders, other 20+ movies in that subfolder are found by Plex, why only 2 are not?

Sill Plex won’t see the file.

First of all, your library should point towards /share/CE_CACHEDEV1_DATA/Video/DOCUS-Unitarios/SOCIETY- Environtment

Secondly, in the listing, what’s with the * at the end of every filename?

And thirdly, if using the new agents for your library, you could add imdb id to the filename, like:
Home (2009) {imdb-tt1014762}.mp4 as @FordGuy61 mentions

I also STRONGLY recommend, that movies are put into a folder of their own, like:

/Movies
   /Batman Begins (2005) {imdb-tt0372784}
      Batman Begins (2005) {imdb-tt0372784}.mp4

See and follow the link that @FordGuy61 posted regarding the naming guide

And regarding The day the Wave Came (2005) it’s not listed in neither IMDB, TMDB nor TVDB, and is as such 100% unknown to the world :wink:
Closest I could find is: Tsunami - The Day the Wave Came - Journeyman Pictures

And if above. either create an account and add it to tvdb, or put it in a “Home Video” type library in Plex

Hi dane.
If the library should be pointing to a deeper directory, then why 95% of the files are being spotted by Plex with few exceptions?
The asterix I don’t know, we should as Qnap :slight_smile:
About your third point, you may have missed one of my replies, bc I already did that too.

About the hideous redundancy of creating a dedicated folder for each movie…I’m not gonna get into that, to me is the most stupid thing in the world, but I’m not gonna argue since is a developer choice. I’m just gonna say that Plex developer say that it should work without a dedicated folder too, so this is not plausible as a solution to me.

Yes! that’s the movie! but…
Journeyman Pictures is the producer not part of the title. Tsunami is also not part of the title but ok. However, for the third time, I don’t care if Plex matches this movie, I’m just missing it from “Unmatched” filter, meaning is not recognizing it as a video file or something of the sort.

Cheers.

Luck.

Nope, since according to your screenshot, you named it:
Home (2019) {tt1014762} Bla bla

Correct naming is:
Home (2019) {imdb-tt1014762} Bla bla

Note: {imdb-ttNumber}

Also, since you dir put it in a directory named Home (2019) you should also as I shown in my latest post put the IMDB identifier on the directory

It might have been wrongly identified as a duplicate to an existing movie, so check the duplicate filter

mmm, I don’t buy into luck when 2000+ files are categorized correctly, man.

Correct, you’re right about your second point, my bad, will try again!

At least is not in the Plex filter “duplicates”.

Thanks!!

Well, trust me when I say, that I’ve seen above statements 2000+ times, yet when people start to follow the correct naming std. and guides, things start to work by magic :wink:

Running an unsupported configuration is really a Hit'n miss situation, so I stand by my words about luck

Ohh, and adding here…

If you have your movies in a separate folder for each, then you can also switch the WebClient into folder view, and then easy check what it matched as

Well, I’m not gonna create 2000+ folders for that now, too late, I’ll ride along with luck I guess :slight_smile:
But I managed to resolve the issue, and has nothing to do with naming (as I pointed out, was never the problem).
I moved the problematic files from the NAS to my PC and back again to the NAS, same folder, same naming “(year) Title [other info]”. And both are recognized as video files by Plex now, of course only Home is matched via the agent/scraper.
Don’t really know what was the issue, since permissions remain the same, the files metadata or video stream are the same…
Anyway, thanks for you responses, I hope this serves as a possible solution for anyone hitting the same issue in the future.
Peace.

@conradseba

FWIW: FileBot will take your stack of movies and do the work for you.

I have a very simple rule ./{n} ({y})/{n} ({y}) which is easily embellished.

It takes the name of the file,
Performs the lookup,
Creates the subdirectory per the rule,
Renames my file per the naming rule.

When you have a lot of media, an automated tool which guarantees Plex matches the first time is invaluable.

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Thank you, true. But FileBot is not free anymore, and what I’m really against is the entire approach about it.

  • Against the common sense for redundancy.
  • Plex is not the only tool in the entire world, I also browse files manually from other sources (like TVs), and having to go back and forth in and out of folders with file managers is just a pain in the ass!

Buy hey, that’s me :slight_smile:

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