Recent issue - Episodes duplicating to show part 1 & part 2 despite only 1 file

[BobbyTwoKills]

This issue started about a week and a half ago

Hosted on Windows 11 machine - Plex version Version 4.87.2

Very strange error.

the file will play, then restart once finished saying it’s part 2. The affected episodes show as double the length, due to it believing it’s 2 parts.

what’s even more strange, I’ve found that when I mark as played/watch it & then skip the duplicate, it goes back to recognising it as one file.

It seems to affect everyone that my library is shared to.

When I sort TV programmes by episodes rather than shows, then select ‘duplicates’, I find a random selection of 300ish episodes are affected. When you click get info on them, you can see that it’s the same file twice. The files only exist once.

I have tried rescanning the library, reanalysing the show, ‘the plex dance’, the file naming and path convention is all fine (as shown in the screenshot.

I’m not sure how logs would help in this scenario given that it doesn’t require any activity to happen, but if there’s anything else needed , please let me know

edit: The TV Shows library has 2 paths, both of which are on completely different drives (and so no overlap)

[OttoKerner]

Please drag screenshots directly into the forum message editor.
There is no need to let a 3rd-party website collect yet another set of usage data from all forumists who are looking at this thread.

How is the file named?

[BobbyTwoKills]

Amended. Didn’t realise that was an option
screenshot shows how the file is named .
Doctor Who (2005) - S08E10

(the year is because there is an older Dr Who (which is not in my library), and this matches theTVDB to my knowledge).

It also affects shows where I have included the episode name without a show year.
e.g.: Futurama - S07E12 - 31st Century Fox

[OttoKerner]

There is clearly an issue with this. It shows 2 identical file paths for this episode.
Are you still using the old deprecated tv show agent?

[BobbyTwoKills]

I am using the ‘Plex TV Series’ agent, and ‘Plex TV Series’ scanner

[OttoKerner]

Occurences like this are often caused by 2 overlapping library scans.

Is your library scanned both periodically and automatically, (and/or perhaps library scans are triggered by an external software or additions are made during the server maintenance hours)?

The only way to repair this is AFAIK a Plex Dance.

[OttoKerner]

To be on the safe side, do also check your plex database file for damage:

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/articles/repair-a-corrupted-database/

[BobbyTwoKills]

Both are enabled. So should I just have the one, and is there one option superior to the other that I’d be best leaving enabled? I’ve been running without changing these settings for a few years now without issues

[OttoKerner]

See if “automatic” scans are doing it for you.
If you use external software which can trigger a library scan, both could be disabled.

[BobbyTwoKills]

I don’t use any other software, no.
Thanks.

I forgot to clean bundles after the last plex dance and this has solved the issue for one episode,
Around 300+ random episodes of different shows across 2 drives are affected, so it’s going to be a bit of a job!

Thanks though

[OttoKerner]

Do also verify that all folders which are appearing in your library’s properties (on the “Add Folders” tab) are actually

• existent
• accessible
• not completely empty

[BobbyTwoKills]

Thank you,

Yep just the two

K:\Backup\TV
&
D:\Backup\TV

[BobbyTwoKills]

have just seen this database post now. Will look into it.
I’m just running an optimization first, now I’ve seen the option