Plex Version optimised file names are truncated showing only episode and season. Rest of file name is removed

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.20.1.3232
Player Version#: 4.34.4

As an example…
Source file named: TV_Series_Title.S02E04.Title_of._Episode.WebRIP.XDiv.avi

I know its put in it’s own directories, but the resulting optimised file will be renamed to…
S02E04.avi

Can the optimised file name be exactly the same as the source file?

Reason:
What I may wish to do is directly replace the source files with the optimised files so I only have to keep one version of the media and not two. I would so this manually using the OS’s file manager… What I would is not have to manually rename every optimised file to match the source.

2

That is not possible.

3

Ok… This next question is born out of curiosity . . . .

Why?

4

I don’t know the reason. Just a decision someone made. My guess is to make it clear that it was not the same file as the original. It was never intended that the optimized version would be used to replace the original so I don’t think it ever was a thought that the user would want to reuse the filename.

5

Right. How would I communicate this higher up the chain within Plex? The reason I’m asking is that I have a NAS with an Intel Atom processor… I can set-up Plex to optimise media, but what I would like to do is not have two copies of the same media.

I would like to just copy the optimised versions over the non-optimised versions and retain the exact file names. Would have been useful if Plex could do that.

I guess I might be able to put together some script that could do that. I’m just not good at writing shell scripts. Not done it for a long time.

6

Here’s the corresponding support article:

Depending on your setting it clearly states that a new folder is created where the optimized files will be stored along with the original files.

Don’t hold your breath while waiting for Plex to change something. I would Re-Encode the files before adding them to the library. There are lot’s of tools that do just that perfectly (e.g. Handbrake).

IMHO, optimzed versions exist to prepare content for clients with specific needs (limited bandwidth, …). That way your server does not need to transcode on the fly on low budget servers. Your wish does not fit in there. You want to use optimized versions in a way it was never ment to be. Just my two cents.

Alternative: With a little bit scripting knowledge you can move the optimized files over the old ones easily.

7

There is already a feature request to replace the original with the optimized version. Go vote for it, [Feature Request] Keep the optimized movie version only.

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