# PMS Win10 randomly joining files **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-windows\ **Created:** [July 5, 2021, 7:54am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793 "2021-07-05T07:54:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dponeq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dponeq/32/245546_2.png) [@dponeq](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dponeq)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2021, 7:54am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/1 "2021-07-05T07:54:18Z")
Version 1.33.0.2444-a220eae4 Experiencing a repeat issue with PMS renaming and joining files. This week it hit an all-time high–I discovered that Plex had joined _99 files_ into one. I split them apart, but refreshing metadata just updates the thumbnail. I still have 99 files with the wrong name. I don’t understand why it’s doing this. Some useful data. These are adult videos, so obviously the specific details are somewhat limited; I’m not posting that here. They don’t have complex auto-generated metadata. They’re from different sources, have different file sizes and times. Different resolutions, different years, different directories. **Can someone explain why this might be happening? And maybe an easy way to undo it?** I’m including the Get Info on two different files, with the filenames edited to keep everything SFW. **F:\Media\Directory\Filename - [2160p4K].mp4** Media Duration 33:32 Bitrate 25158 kbps Width 3840 Height 2160 Aspect Ratio 1.78 Video Resolution 4K Container MP4 Video Frame Rate 24p Web Optimized Yes Audio Profile lc Has 64bit Offsets true Video Profile high Part Duration 33:32 File Filename - [2160p4K].mp4 Size 5.89 GB Audio Profile lc Container MP4 Has 64bit Offsets true Indexes sd Web Optimized Yes Video Profile high Codec H264 Bitrate 24992 kbps Bit Depth 8 Chroma Location left Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0 Coded Height 2160 Coded Width 3840 Color Primaries bt709 Color Range tv Color Space bt709 Color Trc bt709 Frame Rate 23.97599983215332 fps Height 2160 Level 5.2 Profile high Ref Frames 4 Stream Identifier 1 Width 3840 Display Title 4K (H.264) Extended Display Title 4K (H.264) Codec AAC Channels 2 Bitrate 166 kbps Audio Channel Layout stereo Profile lc Sampling Rate 48000 Hz Stream Identifier 2 Display Title Unknown (AAC Stereo) Extended Display Title Unknown (AAC Stereo) View XML **F:\Media\Totally Unrelated File - [1080p].mp4** Media Duration 1:04:03 Bitrate 12185 kbps Width 1920 Height 1080 Aspect Ratio 1.78 Video Resolution 1080p Container MP4 Video Frame Rate NTSC Web Optimized No Audio Profile he-aac Has 64bit Offsets true Video Profile high Part Duration 1:04:03 File Totally Unrelated File - [1080p].mp4 Size 5.45 GB Audio Profile he-aac Container MP4 Has 64bit Offsets true Indexes sd Web Optimized No Video Profile high Codec H264 Bitrate 12049 kbps Bit Depth 8 Chroma Location left Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0 Coded Height 1088 Coded Width 1920 Frame Rate 29.969999313354492 fps Height 1080 Level 5.0 Profile high Ref Frames 5 Stream Identifier 1 Width 1920 Display Title 1080p (H.264) Extended Display Title 1080p (H.264) Codec AAC Channels 2 Bitrate 136 kbps Audio Channel Layout stereo Profile he-aac Sampling Rate 48000 Hz Stream Identifier 2 Display Title Unknown (HE-AAC Stereo) Extended Display Title Unknown (HE-AAC Stereo) View XML ---
**Author:** ![dponeq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dponeq/32/245546_2.png) [@dponeq](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dponeq)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 6:26am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/3 "2021-07-06T06:26:49Z")
I obscured the names because, you know, NSFW and all. But the way I name them is “Name of main star - [Site of Origin] - [Resolution].mp4” and the naming is very consistent. This mass-merge included both well-named files and files with un-sanitized names. It also included files from multiple folders, so breaking it down into folders doesn’t seem to be the play, either. I’ll check out FileBot, thanks for the link. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 7:01am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/4 "2021-07-06T07:01:48Z")
Is the type of library “movie” or “other videos”? It must be the latter. ---
**Author:** ![dponeq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dponeq/32/245546_2.png) [@dponeq](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dponeq)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 12:33pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/6 "2021-07-06T12:33:11Z")
> Is the type of library “movie” or “other videos”? Other Videos. Plex Video Files Scanner, Agent Personal Media; should I be changing one of those? Ideally I don’t want plex to be trying to identify these files at all. > Then Plex is going to group them together because Plex thinks they are parts of the same Movie or TV Show. But that’s what I’m saying. These are totally different file names. It could be as different as Quick Brown Fox - [OnlyFans] - [1080p] Lazy Dog - [Patreon] - [2160p4K] I don’t see how those would get grouped. I also don’t understand why it would merge these files–merging is what it does when it thinks the files are identical, not part of the same show, right? because all the merged files are just treated as if they’re the same thing as the parent object, which is the only thing Plex then sees? I’m not sure if I’m expressing that correctly. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/7 "2021-07-06T12:36:34Z")
> [@dponeq](#): > > should I be changing one of those? Absolutely not. > [@dponeq](#): > > Quick Brown Fox - [OnlyFans] - [1080p] > Lazy Dog - [Patreon] - [2160p4K] Make sure _not_ to use square brackets around stuff which may help to distinguish files from each other. Plex will ignore everything within the first set of square brackets – i.e. these two files will look identically to Plex: ```auto Quick Brown Fox - [OnlyFans] - [1080p] Quick Brown Fox - [Patreon] - [1080p] ``` Use regular, round parentheses () instead. ---
**Author:** ![dponeq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dponeq/32/245546_2.png) [@dponeq](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dponeq)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 12:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/8 "2021-07-06T12:59:41Z")
Okay, good tip. I’ll look into doing a mass renaming to change brackets to parentheses. That isn’t the issue here, though, as this merging included multiple different resolutions, and files featuring different principal actors across different folders. So I had, in the same merge F:\Media\Directory 1\Quick Brown Fox - [Sitename] - [1080p] F:\Media\Directory 1\Sub Directory 1\ Green Snake - [Sitename] - [720p] F:\Media\Directory 2\Lazy Dog - [Sitename] - [2160p4K] So even if it was merging all files that ended in 1080p, that isn’t what happened here clearly. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 1:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/9 "2021-07-06T13:02:43Z")
Are these all mp4/m4v files? If they are, inspect the content of the `Title` meta tag in them. If you have e.g. a video converter software which has spammed its own name inside that meta tag, Plex will consider all of those videos having the same title. ---
**Author:** ![dponeq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dponeq/32/245546_2.png) [@dponeq](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dponeq)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 1:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/10 "2021-07-06T13:20:35Z")
They all are .mp4 files, yeah. They don’t share any meta data that I can tell. To make sure I’m looking in the right spot, where is the Title meta tag? (it seems so obvious that I feel like I must be looking in the wrong spot). ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 1:23pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/11 "2021-07-06T13:23:03Z")
You can use the file properties in Windows. ![k4bbqtak9drl](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/5/9/59cc9e8c2a89e035502bdd7ce45d52e88b749b57.png) Or for a bit more comfort when looking at several files at once, I recommend [mp3tag](http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html "mp3tag") This one also allows you to set the “title” tag to (part[s]) of the file name and vice versa etc.pp. ---
**Author:** ![dponeq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dponeq/32/245546_2.png) [@dponeq](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dponeq)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 2:24pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/12 "2021-07-06T14:24:18Z")
Hmm, I think literally every one of my files is blank in that spot–or close to every document. Spot checks seem to confirm it. ---
**Author:** ![boblinthewild](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/boblinthewild/32/4050_2.png) [@boblinthewild](https://forums.plex.tv/u/boblinthewild)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 5:00pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/13 "2021-07-10T17:00:51Z")
I was having the same problem and have been manually splitting and editing the movie title in Plex to differentiate. But when I add a new version of an existing movie to the library, everything gets re-merged and I have to go through the split/rename again. After seeing your suggesting, I changed the names of a few movies to use parentheses to differentiate versions, instead of using square brackets, per your suggestion. It doesn’t seem to make any difference. These were the original names: Alien (1979) [1080p x265] Alien (1979) [Director’s Cut 1080p x265] Alien (1979) [Theatrical 1080p x265) I changed the names per your suggestion to: Alien (1979) [1080p x265] Alien (Director’s Cut) (1979) [1080p x265] Alien (Theatrical) (1979) [1080p x265) After the change, only the first one gets automatically matched. I have to manually match the others, but when I do that all of them end up being merged and I have to manually split them as before (when I was using brackets to differentiate versions I still had to split/rename, but at least I didn’t have to manually match any of them). Am I not following your suggestion correctly? I suppose doing the manual match, since I select the same source movie (in this case, “Alien”), is what causes them to be merged, but is there any naming trick to keep them separate when they are added to the library? BTW, these are all MP4 files and the embedded metadata title is the same as the movie name (in any case, “Prefer local metadata” is turned off). Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 5:13pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/14 "2021-07-10T17:13:56Z")
Plex has no support for different “cuts” or “versions” of the same movie title. For Plex, all 3 of these files are the same _movie_. Therefore it will merge them under one poster. You can intentionally “unmatch” 2 of them and they will remain so. But them you’ll have to supply the metadata yourself (or embed them into the mp4 file). ---
**Author:** ![boblinthewild](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/boblinthewild/32/4050_2.png) [@boblinthewild](https://forums.plex.tv/u/boblinthewild)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/15 "2021-07-10T22:44:04Z")
OK, thanks @OttoKerner ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-win10-randomly-joining-files/726793/16 "2021-10-08T22:44:43Z")
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