I have an issue with my .plexignore file. It’s not ignoring the specified content in my iTunes directory.
Here is my sample directory structure:
.
└── TV Shows --> library root/
├── .plexignore --> lives right under root
└── Show XYZ --> each TV show is in it's own folder/
├── Season 0 --> custom folder I create with symlinks to actual specials /
│ ├── 01 Special #1 (SYMLINK).m4v |
│ ├── 02 Special #2 (SYMLINK).m4v | --> each file is a SYMLINK to an actual special video file, which lives in the parent folder (i.e. in this case "Show XYZ")
│ └── 03 Special #3 (SYMLINK).m4v |
├── Season 1/
│ ├── 01 Episode Title.m4v --> regular Season 1, Episode 1
│ └── 02 Episode Title.m4v --> regular Season 1, Episode 2
├── Season 2/
│ ├── 01 Episode Title.m4v --> regular Season 2, Episode 1
│ └── 02 Episode Title.m4v --> regular Season 2, Episode 2
├── 01 Special #1.m4v |
├── 02 Special #2.m4v | --> These are Specials. iTunes stores each show's specials under the show's root
└── 03 Special #3.m4v |
I can’t change that, that’s how iTunes stores files and it’s how it’s gonna have to stay. I need that, because I use iTunes to sync movies/shows to my iOS devices for off-line viewing.
Everything is working well, except for Specials. iTunes stores specials directly under the show’s folder (i.e. “Show XYZ” in the example above). There is no way to tell iTunes to store Specials in “Season 0” folder, which is what Plex wants. So what I do instead is create a “Season 0” folder myself and then run ln -s ../*.m4v . from Terminal to auto-generate symlinks to all individual Specials files that live directly under the root of the show’s folder (i.e. under “Show XYZ” folder). That’s working really well too, but the Plex still picks up the files under “Show XYZ” and usually shoves them under corresponding “Season 1” episodes as duplicates. Hence why I need to ignore all files directly under “Show XYZ” using .plexignore. It used to work but now it stopped and I don’t know what to do. Here are the .plexignore file configurations I’ve tried, which no longer work:
# Original configuration, which worked for a while, but no longer does
/*/*.m4v
# Configurations I've tried since, but it doesn't work either
./*/*.m4v
*/*.m4v # <-- this one "worked" by whipping out my entire shows library in Plex
Server Version#: 1.21.1.3876
[EDIT]: added clarifications & a better looking folder tree
[Edit to add]
This suggestion doesn’t address the problem at all and is the result of my having mis-read the initial post.
[Original]
What’s the behavior if you use just *.m4v? Absent a directory reference, this notation should cause only files which match the rule, in the current directory, to be considered (as long as the .plexignore file is not in the root of the library).
I obviously don’t want that. That would exclude ALL show files, not just specials under each show’s root.
All iTunes video files are in .m4v format. I want to ignore all files in each show’s root folder ONLY. Because otherwise Plex wrongfully assumes that they belong to “Season 1” and then tries to clump them with a matching episode as a duplicate. E.g. if we have a file 01 Episode #1 Name.m4v (in folder “Season 1”), the file 01 Special #1.m4v (under root “Show XYZ”) will be added as it’s duplicate. Hence why I want to ignore files like 01 Special #1.m4v under each show’s root.
And I don’t want to use an individual .plexignore file under each show, that would be redundant. So that’s why I have it under the main library root and I want to step into all sub-folders (i.e. “Show XYZ”, “Show ABC” etc) and ignore all files that just sit directly inside them. All child sub-sub-folders should be scanned, because those would be regular Seasons or my custom “Season 0” folder with my symlinks to specials under show’s root folder.
No, it wouldn’t (and in fact doesn’t, at least not here). I’ve tested it on my own system and it does just what I described: It excluded only the files in only that directory (the root of the show). The remainder of the series I tested remained intact. I only tested on Windows and Linux, but macOS-based installs should behave the same.
So you are saying that if I place a .plexignore file under the main “TV Shows” folder with just *.m4v filter in it, it’s going to ignore files like /TV Shows/Show XYZ/*.m4v, but not /TV Shows/Show XYZ/Season 1/*.m4v? How on earth can that be the case?
Unless there is a massive scanner bug in Plex, when it comes to .plexignore…
You’re correct, I mis-read your initial post. Sorry for the confusion. For some reason I read it as your .plexignore being present in Show Name/ directory and then completely ignored the third paragraph of your follow-up post; definitely a reading comprehension failure on my part. Mea culpa.
Not sure where you got that idea, but the documentation from Plex does in fact state that “Special” is a recognized and allowable folder. I know my brother uses that for his folder name. I stuck with Season 00 only because that’s what I started with and prefer the consistency.
I got that idea from the fact that in iTunes there is no way to tell it to store specials in “Specials” or “Season 0”/“Season 00” folder. iTunes will always store specials inside the show’s main folder itself (i.e. under “Show XYZ”, “Show ABC” etc). There is no way to change that behaviour. Hence why I’m using a symlink “hack” I came up with, where I create a “Season 0” folder myself inside those shows that have specials, and populate that folder with symlinks to actual episodes in the show’s root folder above.
In any case, just take my word for it. It works. iTunes is happy & Plex is happy.
The problem is not with my organisation. The problem is with .plexignore file not doing what it’s supposed to do - which is ignore files using a filter like /*/*.m4v (i.e. step into each show’s folder & make sure to ignore any rogue *.m4v file inside of it, that doesn’t belong to any “Season X” sub-folder). It used to work, but it no longer does.
No problem, thanks for the input anyway. I have edited the original post to show a better file tree example. Hopefully that will prevent any further confusion.
