I’m assuming that the library you have your tv shows in uses a Plex Series agent or TheTVDB agent and you are trying to populate the episode name.
episode name’s and other meta data are typically populated by the agent/meta data source. My understanding is that:
-Plex will parse the media file’s filename for:
TV Show Name, TV Show Season and TV Show Episode → show.name.S01E01,
-then once parsed, plex searches for a match on the meta data source(thetvdb.com)
-then other meta data like episode name, run time, cover art etc. are pulled from that match to the episode on your plex.
The are some shows like this in NA that are released with dates only and not with S01E01 numbers in their filename, yet Plex is able to find a match on the meta data source. I’m assuming in cases like these, where no S01E01 is parsed from the filename, plex with try to parse the date from the filename.
Talk shows like the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon typically don’t have S01E01 in their name instead they just have the date in their name like this:
"Jimmy.Fallon.2023-11-17.mkv".
This show’s meta data is properly displayed/populated in my library. The appropriate episode name along with the correct S01E01 are displayed because there is some kind of mapping that goes on behind the scenes to map the date parsed from the filename with the proper S01E01 number, episode name etc on the meta data source entry. I don’t really know the specifics on how plex does this. All I know is that it works with only the TV Show Name and date being parsed from the filename.
Notice the populated meta data in the pictures below where plex only had the TV Show Name and date from this Jimmy Fallon episode to work with.
Try renaming your files and remove the episode number e000 and episode name from the filename. Format it so just the TV Show Name and date remain in the filename, like this:
show.name.yyyy-mm-dd.fileExtension
Example:
Jimmy.Fallon.2023-11-17.mkv
If that doesn’t work, then you have to search for an entry for your TV show on the meta data source like thetvdb.com and do the mapping manually by searching for the date and changing the filename to match that episodes proper S01E01 numbers on the listing while discarding the date from the name.
Jimmy.Fallon.2023-11-17.mkv → Jimmy.Fallon.S11E35.mkv
Plex should find a match for your TV Show if there is an entry for the tv show’s episode on the meta data source(like thetvdb.com) and then the episode name along with other meta data should display/populate properly.
