Plex Series Scanner has serious flaws

[dchamb]

Server Version#: linuxserver/plex
Player Version#:Web
The Plex Media agents are completely going off the rails. I’m not sure how to deal with this situation. I have a share on my Unraid server called “Video” with a folder named “TV Shows” with a folder for “Doctor Who (2005)”. Under that is a folder called “Specials”. This folder structure has been in place for many years. The files in that folder are as follows:

Doctor Who (2005).s00e02.The Christmas Invasion.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e04.The Runaway Bride.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e07.Voyage of the Damned.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e101.Farewell to Matt Smith.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e103.The Time of the Doctor Behind the Lens.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e11.Doctor Who at the Proms.mkv

doctor who (2005).s00e125.the ultimate companion.mkv

doctor who (2005).s00e126.the ultimate time lord.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e13.Planet of the Dead.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e14.The Waters of Mars.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e142.Doctor Who Last Christmas.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e143.Doctor Who Extra Last Christmas.mkv

doctor who (2005).s00e144.doctor who extra the husbands of river song.mkv

doctor who (2005).s00e148.the husbands of river song.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e149.The Return of Doctor Mysterio.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e150.Doctor Who Extra The Return of Doctor Mysterio.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e151.The Doctor A New Kind of Hero.mkv

doctor who (2005).s00e154.twice upon a time.mkv

doctor who (2005).s00e156.resolution.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e157.revolution of the daleks.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e16.The End of Time (1).mkv

doctor who (2005).s00e162.the star beast.mkv

doctor who (2005).s00e163.wild blue yonder.mkv

doctor who (2005).s00e164.the giggle.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e17.The End of Time (2).mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e35.A Christmas Carol.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e47.The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e49.Best of the Christmas Specials.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e66.The Snowmen.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e76.Doctor Who in the U.S…mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e78.An Adventure in Space and Time.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e82.The Companions.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e83.The Day Of The Doctor.m2ts

Doctor Who (2005).s00e84.The Time of the Doctor.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e88.Doctor Who at the Proms 2013.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e88.The Next Doctor.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e89.The Night of the Doctor.m2ts

Doctor Who (2005).s00e90.The Science of Doctor Who.mkv

Doctor Who (2005).s00e94.Doctor Who Explained.m2ts

Doctor Who (2005).s00e97.Tales from the TARDIS.mkv

What I am getting is hard to describe. I now show no Plex icons at all for Specials, and have 2 icons for season 7. It appears that one of the Season 7 Plex choices has a mixture of what is in the Specials folder and Season 7. The first Season 7 display has 32 episodes while the second Season 7 has 18 episodes. In the Unraid Specials folder I have 40 episodes and the Season 7 folder has 13 episodes. So even the number of episodes do not reconcile with what Plex is showing.

Refreshing metadata does nothing. Fix Match does nothing.

Under “Edit TV Shows” in the “Advanced” tab it has Scanner Plex TV Series and Agent Personal Media Shows, which is not what I want. I assume I should be using Plex Series Scanner and Agent = TheTVDB. Oddly if I select Scanner Plex TV Series the drop down under Agent shows TheTVDB is available but when I select it the Scanner changes to Plex Series Scanner (that seems like a bug to me).

Okay, so selecting Scanner Plex Series Scanner and Agent TheTVDB starts a new scan but gives me a red exclamation point on the activity icon at the top of the screen saying “Library Upgrade Required” —what the heck is that?

I lose the Season 7 icons and get 2 Specials icons. And nothing matches to TheTVDB.

I am a PlexPass member.

HELP!

[dbirch]

Can you please show a screenshot of the get info for 1 episode of each season affected season?

[dchamb]

These are showing up in separate Plex groupings, both labeled “Specials”

[dbirch]

Ok Preform a Plex Dance and upload your server logs Something odd is going on as your filenames should match.

[BigWheel]

@dchamb

I assume I should be using Plex Series Scanner and Agent = TheTVDB.

it should be Plex TV Series scanner and Plex Series agent.
if you name your files mostly off the TVDB then the Episode ordering for the library should set to TheTVDB ( which is the aired order)

If there are individual shows you don’t want to use the library default episode order set above then you can edit individual shows to use another episode order like theTVDB DVD order for example needed for shows like Firefly.

@dchamb

What I am getting is hard to describe. I now show no Plex icons at all for Specials, and have 2 icons for season 7

I’m not sure if you mean episode thumbnails when you say “icons”

@dchamb

—what the heck is that?

those old agents such as TheTVDB are not being updated anymore and are going away and you should update to the new ones mentioned I mentioned above.

[dchamb]

Yes, I meant episode thumbnails.

I edited my TV Shows to match what you show above. However, for the Edit Doctor Who I have as my only choices for Episode Ordering is Airing Order, DVD Order and Absolute Numbering. None of the ones you show are present. I set it to Airing Order.

I still have 2 thumbnails for Specials, however the titling appears correct now. But alas, Season 7 is missing.

[BigWheel]

you need to manually refresh metadata for the entire library for shows to be rematched with the new agents selected.

[dchamb]

I manually refreshed the entire TV Shows library and still no Season 7 and still have 2 Specials. Maybe I need to do the Plex Dance after all.

[dchamb]

I followed the above instructions from dbirch and BigWheel. First I set the scanner to Plex TV Series and agent to Plex Series, and episode ordering to TheTVDB. Second I performed the Plex Dance by removing the Specials and Season07 folders after copying them to a drive that is outside of Plex’s view. Then copied them back after doing the steps in Plex Dance.

All looks fine now. I have only one Specials folder and one Season07 folder with their proper contents and episodes properly labeled! Thanks guys for your guidance.

[mightydh]

@BigWheel

you need to manually refresh metadata for the entire library for shows to be rematched with the new agents selected.

Not to necro a solved thread, but this is directly related: if we want to use dvd ordering for any tv series, we need to first select the legacy TVDB, then manually refresh TV library, then process our files?

There is a total of zero options for me to select dvd ordering from a new plex server setup per attached screenshot. Just confirming that this is the expected user experience from plex,inc.

[dbirch]

Which version of BSG is that?

[shark2k]

You probably should open a new thread and reference the post in this one (or a mod can split out your posts and any after to accomplish that).

That said, what are you scanner and agent settings for the library itself?

The above are mine for my TV library and if I go to a series and go to the edit dialog and then advanced I see these options under “Episode ordering”

-Shark2k

[mightydh]

Fixed, thanks for the inspo where to look! Order of operations (brand new server, bare metal ubuntu Version 1.41.3.9292) for anyone searching:

1. Manually select Plex TV Series agent from your TV Show top level library
2. Plex will ask to via popup to update scanner out to legacy, into “modern”(?), accept
3. Grab a coffee, let plex do it’s thing for a few minutes
4. Manually refresh all metadata in TV show top level
5. Fix Matches for TV shows the “modern” scanner messes up
6. Now we can successfully choose The TVDB (Aired/DVD/Absolute) ordering schemes and carry on as expected

[dbirch]

@mightydh

Fix Matches for TV shows the “modern” scanner messes up

FYI This will be caused by failure to follow proper naming schema that plex recommends.

[mightydh]

I’d normally agree, but I’m building a 1:1 replica of my plex server that has been in operation for a decade where I had 3x shows completely fail on the legacy → modern agent upgrade. Was only 3 out of 375 so it isn’t bad, but with a library that large I’m sure edge cases will pop up.

[dbirch]

The Plex scanner has evolved over time, what may have been matched years ago using a less than ideal naming schema, may not match today as the naming requirements have gotten stricter.

[sh0wst0pper]

I don’t want to create a new thread when my question is very similar to the OP. I am having a naming issue with Rob & Romesh Vs S07E04 - Darts. Plex is naming it as ‘Wildlife’, and I am not sure sure where it is even getting that from.

My library settings:

TVDB listing:

Plex episodes:

Can anyone let me know what I have done wrong please?

[dbirch]

Looking at the tvdb entry, it was last updated today Rob & Romesh Vs - Darts - TheTVDB.com. Odds are the metadata is in flux and Plex will take 3-5 days to catch up.

[sh0wst0pper]

Why so long to catch up?

[dbirch]

3-5 days isnt that long, Plex batches and processes the metadata from multiple sources with the modern agent. It prevents Plex Servers from directly interacting with those sites, which could stress their resources. Plex’s process is a fairly good balance of speed and reliability. Take a look at the crowdstrike incident for an example of how to rush a product to market, something plex is trying to avoid