I have about 1900 titles in my Plex Library now. I switched over to it because of it’s amazing features regarding organization, such as allowing for multiple genres, etc. Plus the interface is stellar.
That being said, there are some gripes I have regarding the fetched metadata and how it refreshes, even after I locked certain areas (ie: if I move or rename files manually in Mac Finder). So I’m hoping for some good best practices or solves that others may have come across. Hell, maybe a skilled programmer will feel inspired to find a solution.
1.) Is there a good agent out there that can grab poster artwork that’s clean? Meaning, the poster’s official backdrop and only the title of the film without the director’s or actor’s plastered all over it? I can usually find one of these options when I edit the film and choose a different poster manually. But it gets old after 1800 edits.
2.) Seeking a best practice or permanent solution: How do you sort your films? For example, I usually add version numbers to the end of the film, like “Harry Potter 1.00”, “Harry Potter 1.01”, Harry Potter 1.02", etc. This helps for when reboots happen and I can change the version number to 2.00, 2.01, etc. I came up with that system after organizing the James Bond series. But I can’t help but think there’s an even better, more fool proof way someone out there has. Even better yet, is there an agent that adheres to these kinds of sorting options?
3.) Collections …holly hell… collections. I have too many single movies that are in their own collection. I delete the collection name from the metadata and lock it as empty. But as what happens in question 1 happens here too. There has to be better solutions out there. I’d actually rather collections not auto-populate than put in something I have to fix. Anyone else have anything to suggest or offer?
Anyway, sorry for a TL:DR post. Hopefully you made it this far. If you did, thanks. I look forward to reading any suggestions or solutions you all may have.
None that I have ever come across and I too have to manually grab the poster I am most interested in… I too like clean posters not an ‘actual’ bill post with names
You should for the sake of your own sanity label the movies by title exactly how plex instructs you to and organize them exactly the way plex wants to see them… it will save you many headaches down the road… there is a FAQ on it so read up…
As for Bond and REALLY BIG collections… the best that I have done is this … put all your bond in one physical folder… create a ‘Bondathon’ library and point it to the folder you have all your bond in. When you sort that libary, sort by date of release… then you see the whole collection in the order you want to watch it in…
3’. Collections… it is the 7th circle of hell but according to plex you are in the minority… in reality… take heart… you are just like EVERYONE ELSE HERE that A Wants collections… and B thinks that the way plex handles it SUCKS… just drop @elan a line and let him know… there was a nice 12 page thread below on the teams priorities… its a fun read.
I dont even try to use plex collections…
1 it takes far too many button pushes on the 10’ interface
2 it returns crap results
3 WAY NOT worth my time to try and edit to fix… because plex will change them all back
Until plex makes collections a ‘priority’… once they stop messing with getting plex to do your laundry and dust the house… you are just going to have to suck it with collections or use workarounds…
@ocifersven said:
2.) Seeking a best practice or permanent solution: How do you sort your films? For example, I usually add version numbers to the end of the film, like “Harry Potter 1.00”, “Harry Potter 1.01”, Harry Potter 1.02", etc. This helps for when reboots happen and I can change the version number to 2.00, 2.01, etc. I came up with that system after organizing the James Bond series. But I can’t help but think there’s an even better, more fool proof way someone out there has. Even better yet, is there an agent that adheres to these kinds of sorting options?
Sorting Harry Potter, James Bond etc so they appear in the correct order when browsing the library
is only possible by editing the ‘Sort Title’ within Plex. I don’t know an agent which could do this automatically. http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/947570/#Comment_947570
3.) Collections …holly hell… collections. I’d actually rather collections not auto-populate than put in something I have to fix.
Agreed.
Go to Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - Plex Movie
click on the small ‘cog’ icon at the end of the line ‘Plex Movie’ (it might take a second or two before the options are opened)
then remove the checkmark from ‘Use collection info from The Movie Database’
then proceed to Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - The MovieDatabase
edit the options of the line ‘The MovieDatabase’
and again remove the checkmark from ‘Use collection info from The Movie Database’
This will prevent Plex from fetching the silly Collection info that is on TMDB.
if you use my workaround for large collections by making a seperate library for them… you can sort by release date so no manual intervention required
So that gives me 61 total libraries instead of the 5 I have now. Not a very elegant workaround at all… (And I’m not being critical of you by suggesting it, just pointing out that this workaround is UGLY and unmanageable.) But I suppose I should get used to the idea of ugly and unmanageable within Plex. So many other Features have the same types of workarounds…
again mike dont jump down my neck… I have said many times… its not for every collection just real large ones like bond (28+) and others… selectivly as a half baked workaround…
just trying to make chicken salid using chickenshit as my dad was fond of saying…
again mike dont jump down my neck… I have said many times… its not for every collection just real large ones like bond (28+) and others… selectivly as a half baked workaround…
just trying to make chicken salid using chickenshit as my dad was fond of saying…
Note to self: never accept sandwiches from @dragonmel
@ocifersven said:
2.) Seeking a best practice or permanent solution: How do you sort your films? For example, I usually add version numbers to the end of the film, like “Harry Potter 1.00”, “Harry Potter 1.01”, Harry Potter 1.02", etc. This helps for when reboots happen and I can change the version number to 2.00, 2.01, etc. I came up with that system after organizing the James Bond series. But I can’t help but think there’s an even better, more fool proof way someone out there has. Even better yet, is there an agent that adheres to these kinds of sorting options?
Sorting Harry Potter, James Bond etc so they appear in the correct order when browsing the library
is only possible by editing the ‘Sort Title’ within Plex. I don’t know an agent which could do this automatically. http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/947570/#Comment_947570
There are other movie titles that don’t sort well, which is another reason why I stuck this sorting format. For example, the Mariachi Trilogy: “El Mariachi,” “Desperado,” and “Once Upon a Time In Mexico.” This is just an example as to some movies that don’t share the same naming scheme. However, this particular trilogy sorts alphabetically in the collections group. But I know there are other film series out there (that I can’t immediately recall) that don’t sort automatically. Actually one just jumped into my head: “Kiss The Girls,” “Along Came A Spider.” Those two films do not sort appropriately.
3.) Collections …holly hell… collections. I’d actually rather collections not auto-populate than put in something I have to fix.
Agreed.
Go to Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - Plex Movie
click on the small ‘cog’ icon at the end of the line ‘Plex Movie’ (it might take a second or two before the options are opened)
then remove the checkmark from ‘Use collection info from The Movie Database’
then proceed to Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - The MovieDatabase
edit the options of the line ‘The MovieDatabase’
and again remove the checkmark from ‘Use collection info from The Movie Database’
This will prevent Plex from fetching the silly Collection info that is on TMDB.
That’s amazing! There are so many submenus and lesser, harder to stumble-upon areas of Plex that I hadn’t seen yet. This was one of them. Thanks for pointing that out. I attacked that area and switched it off. I’d honestly rather manually input the right collection rather than spend so much more time removing or fixing the collection.
Maybe if a Plex developer is reading this, they can add a “Sort Title in Collection” field which overrides the main “Sort Title” field within Collections only. That might be awesome.
Beyond that, I’m all about having 1 library. To each their own, of course. If it works for you, it works for you. And I appreciate the suggestions. But I’m really loving the concept of collections all on its own. I just want to break in that beast to make it wonderful (probably wishful thinking).
Also for reference, I have as my primary setup: 1x Apple Mac Mini (Late-2012) for PMS, Mac OS 10.11.6 “El Capitan”, PMS v.1.2.7.2987, ATV 4 x2 (latest tvOS)
Ahh. Another infuriating (no pun intended) series of films that refuses to sort properly is the Fast & Furious series. This is another example of why I use “sort title” version numbers. Hey tmdb.org staff and Scott Olechowski - …version numbers for sorting, por favor.
Maybe I’m the only person who does this, but I always just change my sort title to something like “Star Trek A”, “Star Trek B”, or “Star Trek J”, to ensure they are in the order I want them. If it came to something that had more than 26 films in it, I’d just start doing, “Star Trek Z1,” etc.
Someone will probably tell me why that’s a horrible way to do it, but it works for me!
OttoKerner just stole my answer. I put the year (and in the case of 2 movies released in the same year, year.month) in the sort title.
examples:
Batman
TITLE: Batman – SORT TITLE: Batman 1989
TITLE: Batman & Robin – SORT TITLE: Batman 1997
This method has a great effect of placing the movies together and in order:
Motherf*****!!! All of the movies I spent a day fixing auto refreshed with collection info readded, despite me turning off the following. I even double-checked that the settings weren’t changed.
Collections could be so so so good if Plex spent some time on it. And again, there needs to be a “Sort Title in Collection” field. This would allow trilogies like “El Mariachi”, “Desperado”, and “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” to sort properly in the all movies list, but sort in order under Collections.
@OttoKerner said:
Go to Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - Plex Movie
click on the small ‘cog’ icon at the end of the line ‘Plex Movie’ (it might take a second or two before the options are opened)
then remove the checkmark from ‘Use collection info from The Movie Database’
then proceed to Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - The MovieDatabase
edit the options of the line ‘The MovieDatabase’
and again remove the checkmark from ‘Use collection info from The Movie Database’
This will prevent Plex from fetching the silly Collection info that is on TMDB.
Are your movies stored on a separate device from your server?
If so, you want to make absolutely sure that the following checkbox is cleared:
Settings - Server - Library - Empty trash automatically after every scan
(This applies even to externally connected hard drives. These are often spun down when not in use. When Plex does a library update and the drive spins up too slowly, the content will get removed from the library. And with it all the customizations you did.)
Have you manipulated the Plex agnts in any way?
Only the Plex Movie and TheMovieDatabase agents based upon the suggestion above.
Have you installed 3rd party agents into your server?
Yes, but only recently. This has been happening for a long while.
Are your movies stored on a separate device from your server?
Yes, on an attached Drobo.
If so, you want to make absolutely sure that the following checkbox is cleared:
Settings - Server - Library - Empty trash automatically after every scan
(This applies even to externally connected hard drives. These are often spun down when not in use. When Plex does a library update and the drive spins up too slowly, the content will get removed from the library. And with it all the customizations you did.)
(And I’m not being critical of you by suggesting it, just pointing out that this workaround is UGLY and unmanageable.) But I suppose I should get used to the idea of ugly and unmanageable within Plex. So many other Features have the same types of workarounds… 
