Problem with EXTRAS folders for movies

General Discussions
1

I have been adding all the goodies (extras) I have locally for many of my movies. This has been going well up until maybe a week or two ago. I didn’t notice it until today…so can’t swear to how long… BUT…

I have followed the instructions and have many movies with the extra folders that work just fine. The extras show up in the folders inside the movie. When I click on a movie, there they are listed inside the folders I put them into.

However, NOW, for whatever reason, those EXTRAS are showing up in the main movie directory. NOT under the movie they go to. So now I have several Behind the Scenes folders. Several Shorts folders, etc. all in my main MOVIE directory. When I look at the info for the files, they are right where I put them. But PLEX isn’t associating them with the mother folder (movie.)

I have always followed these instructions:
Organized in Subdirectories
You can organize your local extras into specific subdirectories inside the main directory named for the movie. Extras will be detected and used if named and stored as follows:

Movie/MovieName (Release Date)/Extra_Directory_Type/Descriptive_name.ext
Where Extra_Directory_Type is one of:
 
Behind The Scenes
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Interviews
Scenes
Shorts
Trailers

My Plex server is: Version 1.11.3.4803

Any ideas as to why this has started happening? Anyone else having this issue? Any thoughts on fixing it? I have done the whole PLEX dance several times…doesn’t fix it. They always end up in the main movie directory on Plex. NOTE: The ones I had done several weeks ago are working like they should… ONLY new ones are doing this now.

Thanks…

-Greg

2

looks like you were doing it right.
could it be there’s been some typo for the movie(s) you added during those last few week(s)? Mind sharing the structure/naming details for a check with an additional set of eyes? :wink:

3

How many other files are directly in
Movie/MovieName (Release Date)/
and particularly, are there several versions of the movie present or are there other extras in there with file names like Making Of-featurette.mp4 ?

4

Ok…Just checked, and extras that were working are no longer working.

When I got home from church today I noticed that the extras I added yesterday, that I mentioned here that were showing up as their own ‘movie’ in the movie list, are no longer there. They had a garbage can icon and vanished when I emptied the trash. However, the files are still where they belong on the drive. Guess PLEX cleaned that up when it did server maintenance overnight.

So apparently NONE of my EXTRAS work anymore. I ran a scan of the drive so I could post what my structure looks like. Please note, the ones I am posting on here WORKED just fine when I added them in August 2017 and October 2017 and as far as I know in December. I do remember watching a couple right around Christmas time. And now they do NOT show up inside of PLEX.

Here is just one that all extras worked just fine a couple months ago and now, while the files are still in the directories, does not show in PLEX anymore. The movie is fine…just the extras are not available.

Media
   Movies
       Willow (1988)
           Willow (1988) [PG, 125 Min] [Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Warwick Davis] [Action, Adventure, Drama] [1080p, AAC@6ch].mkv
           Willow (1988) [PG, 23 Min] [Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Warwick Davis] [Action, Adventure, Drama] [1080p, AAC@2ch].srt
   
           Behind The Scenes
              The Making of an Adventure.mkv
       
           Deleted Scenes
              Deleted Scenes.mkv
      
            Featurettes
               An Unlikely Hero.mkv
               From Morf to Morphing.mkv
               Matte Paintings.mkv
               The Letter W.mkv
5

The library should point to media/movies,
not just media. Could you verify that?

Does that external subtitle appear? If it doesn’t show up either, you probably have the ‘Local Media Assets’ agent disabled.

6

@OttoKerner said:
The library should point to media/movies,
not just media. Could you verify that?

Does that external subtitle appear? If it doesn’t show up either, you probably have the ‘Local Media Assets’ agent disabled.

Yes, it points to Movies. I simply included the drive name as it was part of the file listing I did. And yes, the subtitle does appear in the list.

7

Did you make a copy & paste error above? Because the file names of video and subtitle files are different. In this case the subitle won’t get recognised by Plex.
Are you sure the subtitle is the one from that file. It may as well be embedded into the video file itself.

Anyway, could you post the Plex XML info of this movie?

8

@OttoKerner said:
Did you make a copy & paste error above? Because the file names of video and subtitle files are different. In this case the subitle won’t get recognised by Plex.
Are you sure the subtitle is the one from that file. It may as well be embedded into the video file itself.

Anyway, could you post the Plex XML info of this movie?

Oddly enough, it was named wrong..YET, was still working. To test this I renamed it to a ZULU country code…and it still showed up. Go figure… (see picture)

I then removed the WILLOW movie folder from the Movie folder. did the dance…and put it back with everything correct(ed.) This is what then showed in the RECENT part of the HOME tab.

Notice the Deleted and Behind the Scenes folders (not even sure what movie they are from) that appeared from NOWHERE as garbage…and now the extras from Willow are showing up as movies. 10 minutes later, those same extras (plus one) from Willow appeared with the garbage can icon on them.

Anyway, after doing the dance several times, and trying various things…my extras simply do not work anymore. None of them. The files and folders are correct and in place…but none show up with any of my movies. I have undone and re-followed every instruction for how to do them. Exactly as I had before when they DID work.

  • Greg
9

Did you enable Settings \ Server \ Library \ Run a partial scan when changes are detected?

I’ve found having this enabled messes up folder based extras. If so, either turn this off or switch to the inline extras method.

10

I have ‘partial’ active, and my local extras do work.

I’d be interested in a screenshot of the library properties, the ‘Add Folders’ tab

Also, I recommend checking for database corruption:

  1. activate debug logging (not ‘verbose’!)
  2. quit Plex Server
  3. wait 1 minute
  4. start Plex Server
  5. wait 5 minutes
  6. fetch log files and attach them here

Or inspect them yourself. Take a look at the Plex Media Server.log file and seek for messages about database corrupt or malformed.
If you find these, you may have to repair your database.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201100678-Repair-a-Corrupt-Database

11

@OttoKerner said:
I have ‘partial’ active, and my local extras do work.

I’d be interested in a screenshot of the library properties, the ‘Add Folders’ tab

Also, I recommend checking for database corruption:

  1. activate debug logging (not ‘verbose’!)
  2. quit Plex Server
  3. wait 1 minute
  4. start Plex Server
  5. wait 5 minutes
  6. fetch log files and attach them here

Or inspect them yourself. Take a look at the Plex Media Server.log file and seek for messages about database corrupt or malformed.
If you find these, you may have to repair your database.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201100678-Repair-a-Corrupt-Database

Otto, I didn’t understand what you wanted a screenshot of… Library under Settings? Or library where I would ADD a new library (but EDIT) the current movie folder?

I am uploading my logs here. I did check them myself and didn’t see any issues…but you may see something I missed.

FYI, I really appreciate all your help…on every issue I have had over the last couple years!!! Thank you so much!

  • Greg
12

Not sure if this is related or not…but now, as of 2 days ago (thought it a fluke when I saw it on 1 new movie added) but now PLEX is not merging movies. As I upgrade movies from say 240p to 1080p it would normally merge them, then I just have to view info and delete the one I don’t want. Now, it is NOT doing that. It puts the duplicates NEXT to the others… I know this doesn’t sound like a big issue…having to open MAYBE both info’s to get the right one to delete but having it merge made it so simple to SEE which files I needed to examine. As I am adding at times 20-50 movies at one time, some duplicates of ones I already have but better versions, not getting that 2 flag in the corners means I have to SLOW scan my movies folder to find which ones I have duplicated. This probably doesn’t make sense to some…but bottom line…I like the auto merge feature and wonder why it isn’t working anymore… And since apparently this is an issue with how things are added/saved it seems it may be related to this other issue with my extras.

13

OMG…now it’s removing SOME (not all…seems to be random) new names I give media. And YES I always LOCK them when I rename them. For 3D movies I put 3D at the beginning of the name. ex: 3D Planes I lock that and lock the sort title so it doesn’t move the movie to the numbers area. I also put 3D as a collection tag. In the movies where it removes the 3D from the title it also remove the 3D from the collection tags. I have NOT changed any of the server settings…and it has NOT changed these for more than 8 or 9 months since I learned how to set it up so it wouldn’t. I am at a loss as to what my server is doing… UGH!!!

14

I usually have two copies of every movie, one version in HD quality, and one in an SD version. I also include any extras and trailers using the sub-folder structure. I have “partial scan” enabled, but having that option requires some extra steps when adding movies.

Through the trial and error process over the last couple of years, here are the glitches and workarounds I have discovered.

  1. You can’t add extras at a later time using the sub-folder method. Plex will insist the extras are new movies, and try and identify and add them as a new movie. You can add them later if you use the “in-line” method, but even that can be glitchy, occasionally identifying them as a fake new movie. The workaround is to “plex dance” the movie, which screws up the the “added to library” date making it the most recent addition.
  2. You can’t add a second version of a movie into the same folder as the original using the sub-folder method for extras. One of two things will likely happen. Plex will lose the the extras, or it will re-discover the extras incorrectly as fake new movies. Even weirder, it will often still show the “extras” correctly with the movie as well as the fake new movies. My workaround is to add the second version in a separate folder. Plex will then add it correctly as a duplicate version, and the extras show up correctly.
  3. You can’t “mix and match” methods for extras. Choose one or the other.
  4. Extras have to be inside the folder of the first version discovered by Plex. That is, if you add the extras at a later time and they are not inside the original folder, weird things will happen, similar to point 1 above.

I honestly don’t know if these glitches affect everyone the same way, or if my work-around methods will fix problems for anyone else. They work consistently for me, and I have not had a problem getting extras to work properly for quite awhile. Hope my explanations help in identifying and resolving the problem.

@ChefGS — the problem with Plex not identifying the second version as a duplicate may be because at some point in time you have changed the default agent for your movie library. I occasionally have that happen when I add a second version, and it can be corrected by using “Fix Match” and specifically select one of the other agents. In my case, I have changed the default agent to “Plex Movie” but was originally using the “Movie Database” agent. The movies are correctly merged if I correct the match and choose the older, original agent.

2 Likes
15

@ChefGS said:
Not sure if this is related or not…but now, as of 2 days ago (thought it a fluke when I saw it on 1 new movie added) but now PLEX is not merging movies.

Did you perhaps change the default agent of your movie library (from ‘Plex Movie’ to ‘TheMovieDatabase’ or vice versa)?

What kind of drives are d: and M: ?
Are they local and internal?

Good news is, there are no signs of database corruption.
There is however a crash report being uploaded to plex.tv.

Disable IPv6 support. Nothing good comes from it.

What type of anti virus is running on your machine?
I am seeing some really weird behaviour going on in the logs.

16

@OttoKerner said:

@ChefGS said:
Not sure if this is related or not…but now, as of 2 days ago (thought it a fluke when I saw it on 1 new movie added) but now PLEX is not merging movies.

Did you perhaps change the default agent of your movie library (from ‘Plex Movie’ to ‘TheMovieDatabase’ or vice versa)?

I honestly don’t recall changing the default agent. I have in the past…but don’t recall doing it anytime in say the last 6 months or so. Maybe even a year.

What kind of drives are d: and M: ?
Are they local and internal?

D is one of my 3 internal 512GB SSD drives. M is one of my 8 external 10TB drives.

Good news is, there are no signs of database corruption.
There is however a crash report being uploaded to plex.tv.

Not sure if this is related to that crash report… but at least once a day the server says it’s not available to the outside world. This is odd, however, as I watch stuff on it while I am at work. A restart of the server fixes the notification every time.

Disable IPv6 support. Nothing good comes from it.

What type of anti virus is running on your machine?
I am seeing some really weird behaviour going on in the logs.

I Disabled the IPv6 support. My antivirus is McAfee Total Protection.

I have friends that also utilize my server and none of them have reported any USER issues at all with it.

17

@leelynds said:
I usually have two copies of every movie, one version in HD quality, and one in an SD version. I also include any extras and trailers using the sub-folder structure. I have “partial scan” enabled, but having that option requires some extra steps when adding movies.

Through the trial and error process over the last couple of years, here are the glitches and workarounds I have discovered.

  1. You can’t add extras at a later time using the sub-folder method. Plex will insist the extras are new movies, and try and identify and add them as a new movie. You can add them later if you use the “in-line” method, but even that can be glitchy, occasionally identifying them as a fake new movie. The workaround is to “plex dance” the movie, which screws up the the “added to library” date making it the most recent addition.
  2. You can’t add a second version of a movie into the same folder as the original using the sub-folder method for extras. One of two things will likely happen. Plex will lose the the extras, or it will re-discover the extras incorrectly as fake new movies. Even weirder, it will often still show the “extras” correctly with the movie as well as the fake new movies. My workaround is to add the second version in a separate folder. Plex will then add it correctly as a duplicate version, and the extras show up correctly.
  3. You can’t “mix and match” methods for extras. Choose one or the other.
  4. Extras have to be inside the folder of the first version discovered by Plex. That is, if you add the extras at a later time and they are not inside the original folder, weird things will happen, similar to point 1 above.

I honestly don’t know if these glitches affect everyone the same way, or if my work-around methods will fix problems for anyone else. They work consistently for me, and I have not had a problem getting extras to work properly for quite awhile. Hope my explanations help in identifying and resolving the problem.

@ChefGS — the problem with Plex not identifying the second version as a duplicate may be because at some point in time you have changed the default agent for your movie library. I occasionally have that happen when I add a second version, and it can be corrected by using “Fix Match” and specifically select one of the other agents. In my case, I have changed the default agent to “Plex Movie” but was originally using the “Movie Database” agent. The movies are correctly merged if I correct the match and choose the older, original agent.

I have been replacing my low quality movies with HD versions. I NEVER put two of the same movie in a folder. When my movies are renamed (filebot) they are put into their own folders based on the movie name (…\Movies\Finding Nemo (2003).… or …\Movies\Footloose (1984).…) and if they are not 1080p or 720p then they go simply into the Movies folder. Not their own. This allows me easy viewing of their quality so I can decide if I wish to get better versions. My file names look like this:

M:\Movies\About Time (2013)\About Time (2013) [R, 123 Min] [Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy] [Comedy, Drama, Fantasy] [720p, AAC@2ch].mp4

or

M:\Movies\Prince Of Persia - The Sands Of Time (2010) [PG-13, 111 Min] [Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley] [Action, Adventure, Fantasy] [360p, AC3@6ch].avi

or

M:\Movies 4K\Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)\Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014) [PG-13, 120 Min] [Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista] [Action, Science Fiction, Adventure] [2160p, AC3@6ch].mkv

–

I will give the plex dance a try with one of the folders that contains extras and see what happens. I don’t much care about ADD DATE… Just a pain to have to do all that every time I want to update a movie with extras…

I will keep in mind about the movie database for matching issue… I don’t think I changed it anytime recently…definitely NOT in the last few days when this issue appeared but probably not for the last 6 months to a year that I remember.

It is interesting about not being able to add extras at a later date…that’s sort of a real bummer… Be nice if there were a way to not have to do the entire plex dance but rather have a built in comment (option) to reset that entire movie in the db… So if you do add extras folders after the fact you could simply tell Plex to remove the file from the db and process the folder as a new addition.

18

@ChefGS said:
My antivirus is McAfee Total Protection.

We had reports about this one causing bad behaviour in Plex. It’d fit those error messages I’ve noticed.
If you can, disable/uninstall it.

  1. Extras have to be inside the folder of the first version discovered by Plex. That is, if you add the extras at a later time and they are not inside the original folder, weird things will happen, similar to point 1 above.

I typically don’t use the ‘subfolder’ method. But I know that the ‘suffix’ method is working. But only in the folder of the first version of a movie (if you have several versions of a movie in the same library - even if you ‘split’ them)

19

@OttoKerner said:

@ChefGS said:
My antivirus is McAfee Total Protection.

We had reports about this one causing bad behaviour in Plex. It’d fit those error messages I’ve noticed.
If you can, disable/uninstall it.

  1. Extras have to be inside the folder of the first version discovered by Plex. That is, if you add the extras at a later time and they are not inside the original folder, weird things will happen, similar to point 1 above.

I typically don’t use the ‘subfolder’ method. But I know that the ‘suffix’ method is working. But only in the folder of the first version of a movie (if you have several versions of a movie in the same library - even if you ‘split’ them)

I’ll try to disable mcafee and see what happens… I paid for that one though, so hate to lose it.

I’ll try the inline method. I only ever put extras in the main folder. Like I said, I don’t keep inferior versions of a movie however, I do have (when available) 3D versions of movies however, as stated, they would be in their OWN folder.

Question though…so if Plex only associates with the FIRST version is that based on the file name? The meta data? So, I have these 2:

**M:\Movies\Beauty And The Beast (2017)

M:\Movies\Beauty And The Beast 3D (2017)**

The file names are different in each folder as well:

**Beauty And The Beast (2017) [PG, 124 Min] [Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans] [Family, Fantasy, Musical] [1080p, AC3@2ch].mkv

Beauty And The Beast (2017) [PG, 129 Min] [Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans] [Family, Fantasy, Romance] [3D, 1080p, AAC@6ch].mkv**

I would have the extras folder in the NON 3D version. It comes first in the file directory. Is that the FIRST you talk of? Or is it the first one Plex logs…which, in my case, would always be the NON 3D version but if I installed the 3D version first THEN the non 3D version would it consider the first (main) one the 3D version? Even though it’s second in both my computer file structure AND in the Plex ‘view’.

And if I may inquire…what is (possibly) McAfee doing to the server?? Maybe something THEY need to address…if so I will contact them… as a paying customer I would hope they would look into it.

20

@ChefGS said:
I’ll try the inline method. I only ever put extras in the main folder. Like I said, I don’t keep inferior versions of a movie however, I do have (when available) 3D versions of movies however, as stated, they would be in their OWN folder.

Do you actually mean ‘folder’ here or ‘library’?

Question though…so if Plex only associates with the FIRST version is that based on the file name?

Whichever of these versions was added to Plex first.

And if I may inquire…what is (possibly) McAfee doing to the server??

Disturbing communication between the different modules of Plex. These all communicate per network protocols with each other.
I assume this MacAfee software is also a personal firewall and there fore attempts to block anything but the most common network protocols.

Mandatory watching for all MacAfee users