Plex Woes: Deleting Libraries, Deleting Folders In Libraries, Naming TV Shows

[Buadhai]

Server Version#: 1.25.6.5577 - Mac Running Monterey

I’m having a number of issues with Plex which I’ll list here. I’m sure most have simple solutions. Unfortunately, my search skills seem inadequate to the task. Nothing I’ve found has helped.

First let me note that all my media directories are wide open (rwx for everybody). I did this in desperation trying to solve problems.

• I’m unable to delete the Music and Pics libraries. I just don’t use them. I have followed the instructions here: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200289286-deleting-libraries/, but they just don’t work.

• I’m unable to delete an unwanted folder in the TV Shows library. When I try to delete it I get a message saying: Your changes could not be saved.. I can add a folder and then delete that folder; I just can’t delete the folder I don’t want.

• I can’t add the TV Show “Around the World In 80 Days”. I’m using the same naming scheme that I use with other TV Shows which seems to work fine:

MrMuscle:tv mnewman$ tree "Midsomer Murders"
Midsomer\ Murders
├── Midsomer.Murders.S20E05.Till.Death.Do.Us.Part.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb.mkv
├── Midsomer.Murders.S20E06.720p.HDTV.x264-MTB.mkv

MrMuscle:tv mnewman$ tree "Around the World in 80 Days (2021)"
Around\ the\ World\ in\ 80\ Days\ (2021)
├── Around.The.World.In.80.Days.2021.S01E01.mkv
├── Around.The.World.In.80.Days.2021.S01E02.mkv

• Finally, there are a bunch of videos in my Movies library that are not movies and don’t belong there. The Movies library should only include Movies that are in the /Volumes/Media/Movies directory (folder). However, it also contains many videos that are in the /Volumes/Media/Home Movies directory. They should be in the Home Movies library, not the Movies library. I don’t know how they got there or how to get rid of them.

[SE56]

From your Volume called Media, create a Folder Called Home Videos. You will also have to create a Home Videos Library and link storage directory.

Example:

/Volumes/ Media/ Home Videos

When completed Drag and drop the titles Home Video to that location. When Completed Open Plex Server and Go to Movies Library, where you will find a vertical Ellipsis.

Empty Trash.

I have also noticed your naming of Titles files are incorrect and may cause issues. Example: Lots of Periods added and not using a space and Hyphen.
Example:

Around the World in 80 Days (2021)
/ Around the World in 80 Days (2021) - S01E01.mkv
/Around the World in 80 Days (2021) - S01E02.mkv

After renaming, Refresh your metadata

https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/

https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-movie-media-files/

Result:

Another way to Delete a file is from the Get Info panel:

Delete a Folder:

Drag the Folder marked Photos or Music in your storage Volume with all your files inside and drag them from the Drive. Then Go back and manage the Library, unlink and delete Library/

[Buadhai]

I already have a subdirectory called Home Movies:

MrMuscle:Home Movies mnewman$ pwd
/Volumes/Media/Home Movies

I also have a Plex Library called Home Movies. All of my Home Movies are there:

The problem is that some Home Movies appear in my TV Shows Library. Also, a show that has been deleted from my hard drive (The White Lotus) also appears in the TV Shows Library.

.
.
But, as you can see, neither Diving Thailand (a directory in my Home Movies folder), nor The White Lotus appear in my TV Shows directory:

MrMuscle:TV Shows mnewman$ ls -l
drwxrwxrwx   5 mnewman  staff  170 Jul 23  2019 Agatha Christie's Poirot/
drwxr-xr-x  10 mnewman  staff  340 Mar 11 04:55 Around the World in 80 Days (2021)/
drwxr-xr-x   3 mnewman  staff  102 Dec  4 12:39 Endeavour/
drwxrwxrwx   4 mnewman  staff  136 Mar 10 05:00 Last.Week.Tonight.With.John.Oliver/
drwxrwxrwx  10 mnewman  staff  340 Mar 10 06:54 Midsomer Murders/

.
.
You say that I shouldn’t use periods in file names. And, yet, all of my TV shows use periods in their file names and they work just fine:

MrMuscle:Midsomer Murders mnewman$ tree
.
├── Midsomer.Murders.S20E06.720p.HDTV.x264-MTB.mkv
├── Midsomer.Murders.S21E01.Point.of.Balance.720p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.x264-BTN.mkv
├── Midsomer.Murders.S21E02.Miniatures.720p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.x264-BTN.mkv

I tried removing the periods and add the dash as you suggested:

Around the World In 80 Days 2021 - S01E01.mkv*
Around the World In 80 Days 2021 - S01E02.mkv*
Around the World in 80 Days 2021 - S01E03.mkv*
Around the World in 80 Days 2021 - S01E04.mkv*
Around the World in 80 Days 2021 - S01E05.mkv*
'''

But it still doesn't work.

BTW, if I do "Refresh All Metadata" it just goes on for hours and never stops. This on a Library that has only four TV shows. Does it really take hours?

[Buadhai]

Since nothing I tried seemed to work, I went ahead a deleted the following subdirectories (folders)

~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/
~/Library/Caches/PlexMediaServer/

I set the libraries up again. I waited for Plex to scan. Now, all is well (file names with dots and all).

All of this should have been fixable without starting from scratch, but I guess it wasn’t.