Plex Won't Find My Show even though i follow naming scheme

I have a show called “Race to Dakar” which can be found on IMDB so i know plex would normally find the metadata.
I have it named " Race to Dakar - Episode 1" and so forth just like many of my other shows.
But for some reason it wont even appear in plex for me to manually add metadata.

What can i do to get plex to recognize the show.
Thanks
Nathan

Plex doesn’t use the IMDb for tv show content.
Show me your file and folder names, please.

Are these mp4 or m4v files perhaps?

http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=79899&lid=7 - Race To Dakar at TVDB

Example:

A TV Show Library/
…Race To Dakar/
…Season 01/
…Race to Dakar - S01E01.xxx
…Race to Dakar - S01E02 - Episode Name Optional.xxx
…Race to Dakar - S01E03 [Put Torrent Spam in Brackets so Plex will ignore it].xxx

@OttoKerner said:
Plex doesn’t use the IMDb for tv show content.
Show me your file and folder names, please.

Are these mp4 or m4v files perhaps?

This is my folder Structure
" Y:\TV Shows\SD TV\Race to Dakar"
Race to Dakar - Episode 1
Race to Dakar - Episode 2
Race to Dakar - Episode 3
Race to Dakar - Episode 4
Race to Dakar - Episode 5
Race to Dakar - Episode 6
Race to Dakar - Episode 7
They are also .avi files.

I have the same structure for another show which is also AVI but can be found no problem.
Y:\TV Shows\SD TV\Long Way Round
Long Way Round - Episode 01
Long Way Round - Episode 02
Long Way Round - Episode 03
Long Way Round - Episode 04
Long Way Round - Episode 05
Long Way Round - Episode 06
Long Way Round - Episode 07
Long Way Round - Episode 08
Long Way Round - Episode 09
Long Way Round - Episode 10
Long Way Round - Special Feature Episode 11

@nathan.bosworth said:
This is my folder Structure
" Y:\TV Shows\SD TV\Race to Dakar"
Race to Dakar - Episode 1

This will not work.

I have the same structure for another show which is also AVI but can be found no problem.

That is not conclusive. Any non-compliant file naming schema is not guaranteed to work.
It may work in the beginning for some time (when your library is still relatively small), but sooner or later it won’t anymore.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201543057-Why-is-some-of-my-content-not-found-

@nathan.bosworth said:

@OttoKerner said:
Plex doesn’t use the IMDb for tv show content.
Show me your file and folder names, please.

Are these mp4 or m4v files perhaps?

This is my folder Structure
" Y:\TV Shows\SD TV\Race to Dakar"
Race to Dakar - Episode 1
Race to Dakar - Episode 2
Race to Dakar - Episode 3
Race to Dakar - Episode 4
Race to Dakar - Episode 5
Race to Dakar - Episode 6
Race to Dakar - Episode 7
They are also .avi files.

I have the same structure for another show which is also AVI but can be found no problem.
Y:\TV Shows\SD TV\Long Way Round
Long Way Round - Episode 01
Long Way Round - Episode 02
Long Way Round - Episode 03
Long Way Round - Episode 04
Long Way Round - Episode 05
Long Way Round - Episode 06
Long Way Round - Episode 07
Long Way Round - Episode 08
Long Way Round - Episode 09
Long Way Round - Episode 10
Long Way Round - Special Feature Episode 11

Yeah, that’s completely wrong. See Juice’s example above; you have to have a title folder, then a Season folder; and finally fix the names to something like:

Race to Dakar - S01E01 - episode name here if you have it

Looks like its a bug with avi files,

I’ve got files named perfectly (according to the naming convention) and its not finding them.

Other filetypes (the majority of which aren’t named correctly) are found without issue.

@xkjq said:
Looks like its a bug with avi files,

I don’t believe that.

I’ve got files named perfectly (according to the naming convention) and its not finding them.
Other filetypes (the majority of which aren’t named correctly) are found without issue.

Please show me your actual file and folder names.

P> @OttoKerner said:

@xkjq said:
Looks like its a bug with avi files,

I don’t believe that.

I’ve got files named perfectly (according to the naming convention) and its not finding them.
Other filetypes (the majority of which aren’t named correctly) are found without issue.

Please show me your actual file and folder names.

Hmm, someones got a lot of faith.

Lets have a look at the logs

DEBUG - * Scanning directory /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1 (parent: yes)
VERBOSE - * Noting that ‘Show_Name/Season 1’ was updated at 2017-05-17 21:54:37
VERBOSE - * Taking directory ‘Show_Name/Season 1’ (8384) out of the map (0 left)
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e04 - replaced_junk.nfo
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e06 - replaced_junk.jpg
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e10 - replaced_junk.avi
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e06 - replaced_junk.nfo
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e08 - replaced_junk.avi
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e07 - replaced_junk.jpg
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e09 - replaced_junk.avi
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e02 - replaced_junk.nfo
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e09 - replaced_junk.jpg
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e08 - replaced_junk.jpg
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e10 - replaced_junk.jpg
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e05 - replaced_junk.avi
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e04 - replaced_junk.jpg
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - S01E01 - replaced_junk.mkv
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e06 - replaced_junk.avi
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e01 - replaced_junk.nfo
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e08 - replaced_junk.nfo
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e03 - replaced_junk.jpg
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e02 - replaced_junk.jpg
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e03 - replaced_junk.avi
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e10 - replaced_junk.nfo
DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: /media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e04 - replaced_junk.avi
DEBUG - * Scanning Show_Name Season 1 Episode 1
DEBUG - Looking for path match for [/media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - S01E01 - replaced_junk.mkv]

The MKV is a file from another season I dropped in and renamed as a little test, its the only one that imported, the avi’s are all ignored.

These are not actual file names. They have been anonymized.

But OK. If you have Show_Name replaced with the actual show name as it is used on TheTVDB
(and not replaced any space characters and forbidden, special characters with underscores) then you did it right.

Check first, that your tv show library points exactly to /media/sea/testlib
Not one folder level above it, not one below it either.

If you have confirmed that, perform the Plex Dance with all files of the show.

@OttoKerner is correct but I also noted for troubleshooting, you should try the exact examples found on my link:

Your path from above:
/media/sea/testlib/Show_Name/Season 1/Show_Name - s01e06 - replaced_junk.avi

Naming convention (https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220687-Naming-Series-Season-Based-TV-Shows )
◦TV Shows/ShowName/Season XX/ShowName - sXXeYY - Optional_Info.ext

Thus for your example which does not contain TV Shows would be better formatted as:
/media/TV Shows/Show_Name/Season 01/Show_Name - s01e06 - replaced_junk.avi

Note: has TV Shows, and a 2 digit season number.

Target the /media/TV Show/ level in your library

This is how my paths look and they work for all formats of files and subtitles (.srt files) for all my tv series

@grhiner said:
Note: has TV Shows,

That is actually not important. The name of the folder which contains all the ‘show’ folders doesn’t play any role at all.

and a 2 digit season number.

Yes, this may have some influence.
Sorry, I forgot to mention this!

Oh dear, before anyone else tells me to rename the files, I’d like to point out that the log clearly shows that they are being found - it is not a naming issue.

For whatever reason the avi files are being ignored.

Not that it adds anything useful but I’ve attached a full log for when I try to import two files (an avi and mkv).

Have you performed the Plex Dance yet?

What kind of device is your server running on?
I am seeing Unix-style folder paths, so I’d at least consider a ‘file access privilege’ issue if the Plex Dance doesn’t work.

Based on your import log your failing show is ‘Archer - s01e01 - Mole Hunt.avi’ based on the JPGs being called. You are right that the AVI was passed to the scanner but not processed.

This is exactly the behavior @OttoKerner remarked on and is the top subject of his link (https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201543057-Why-is-some-of-my-content-not-found- ).
“If you run into issues with content not being found, being ignored, or simply not matching well, the first thing you should do is to follow the naming and organization recommendations.”

I too have AVI files in my server (attached) and I followed the naming convention exactly in every detail and have never had a failure of a file type as you describe. It is at least cause to create a test scenario:
/media/TV Shows/'Archer/Season 01/Archer - s01e01 - Mole Hunt.avi
/media/TV Shows/'Archer/Season 01/Archer - s01e01 - Mole Hunt.mkv
If you did not get two entries this would validate or support your premise that AVIs are not being processed correctly and not a naming format problem.

@OttoKerner said:
Have you performed the Plex Dance yet?

No, because I’m a stubborn ■■■■■■■ and couldn’t see how any of the would help.

What kind of device is your server running on?
I am seeing Unix-style folder paths, so I’d at least consider a ‘file access privilege’ issue if the Plex Dance doesn’t work.

Well, finally get past the naming issues and it turns out that I am an idiot. Some permissions had somehow got screwed at some point in time (-rw--------; or maybe I’m a selfish, stubborn ■■■■■■■).

Once fixed everything now imports smoothly, despite some of their slightly poor naming :wink: .

Thanks all.