Restore Duplicates Badge removed in Plex Web 4.53.0

[FordGuy61]

The duplicate badge was removed from the media details page in 4.53.0 (announcement).

As of 4.56.4, it is no longer available at the library level.

Please restore the badge, at least at the library level.

I have some libraries where duplicates are desired for some movies (multiple resolutions/encodings/etc).

I have some libraries where duplicates are undesired.

Having the badge at the library level is a quick, easy, visual way to see if duplicates exist, and, if so, how many.

Using the duplicates filter is not nearly as useful, especially for libraries where some duplicates are desired. First, there is no way to list movies without duplicates (that I know of, anyway). Therefore, I have to open a second Plex Web window, one showing all movies, the other showing duplicates, and compare the two. Having the badge at the library level is much, much easier. Second, without the badge, there is no way to see how many duplicates exist without going into the details page for each movie. I know how many duplicates should exist for a given movie. The badge makes for a quick, easy visual check across the entire library. For example, if I saw a badge showing three versions, I knew something was wrong and could investigate. This is much more difficult without the badge. There is no visual indication of the number of duplicates, so I have to go to the detail page for each movie, a much more time consuming process.

Again, please restore the duplicates badge. I’m not sure why it was removed. I saw no posts of people complaining that it exists. There are several posts of people complaining now that it is gone. I personally find it very useful and would appreciate its restoral.

[chrishoage]

Thanks for the feedback.

We will consider some alternatives for the duplicate badge, however in most cases this was visual noise and collided with things like the multiselect indicator. One thing we would like to explore is when filtering by duplicates to show an extra title below the movie title of how many duplicates the item has. This might look like the following

Movie title
3 Versions

This way the information is presented when it is useful, when a user is caring about duplicates/versions, with out introducing visual noise in other for typical cases.

First, there is no way to list movies without duplicates (that I know of, anyway).

While this isn’t possible with the simple filter menu, you can in fact filter to movies with out duplicates using the “Advanced Filters” option in the filter menu.

[FordGuy61]

Thanks for the reply.

I can see where it might be visual noise for general client use, just playing movies & shows.

I use Plex Web to manage my Plex Server, and rarely, if ever as a client to watch content. I used the duplicate badge strictly for library management purposes.

@chrishoage

when filtering by duplicates to show an extra title below the movie title of how many duplicates the item has

Something like that would be helpful.

@chrishoage

“Advanced Filters” option

I forgot about that capability. I’ll check it out.

Regards.

[axemanuk666]

This for me is a real pain!

I used this indicator all the time when I am replacing items with higher quality, or that have been converted to x265.

@chrishoage

We will consider some alternatives for the duplicate badge

I really do love how @Plex always seem to always do the following…

1. Think that they know better.
2. Remove features.
3. Remove features WITHOUT supplying a reasonable alternative.

This is one of the reasons you guys have so many posts on this forum, from people who are tired of this kind of thing!

Changes, changes, changes!

Suggestion: You could have moved the indicator to the top right of the poster within the web app. That would have cured the issue with multi select indicator… But no… Just remove it!

GREAT!

I am starting to lose count of the amount of features that I use, that have been removed over the last year!

Not happy… Really not happy!

[axemanuk666]

Oh… And here’s my vote just for good measure!

[cprout618]

Keep the badge off and use the duplicates filter. Its a nuisance!

[GomerPyleUSMC]

Here is different proposal that could make it work for those on both sides of this change.

@GomerPyleUSMC

…
So, at least for Plex Web, why not create an option in the Dashboard for the Plex Web General section that allows a user the option to enable or disable (based on the default setting) duplicates badges for themselves. With a duplicates badge option enabled, the badges would then be displayed to Movie posters from library views as well as TV episode pseudo posters from the Season view, like previously. With the duplicates badge option is enabled, it would be nice if the duplicates badge also appear on the poster in the movie and TV episode details page. With duplicates badge option disabled, the behavior would be just as it is right now (ie. No badges displayed). This option would allow each user to tailor the behavior to their preferences.

Regardless of the how the duplicates badge option is set, I think it would be a good idea to leave the new VERSIONS field that was added to details pages for movies/tv episodes.

[steinj13]

This is an enormous step backward. I can understand duplicates not being shown on the library level, but at least show them on the individual season/show level!

There are many cases I have where multiple versions are needed.

• HDR vs non-HDR
• different resolutions
• different cuts

This tag would let me easily see that the show has multiple versions and then just use that information. But now I have to actually go and check individually by seeing if “play version” exists? That’s ridiculous and a horrendous experience user interface wise.

Edit for context: I mean that there are more cases where this badge is necessary than in some way when filtering for duplicates. It appears as though the only case thought of is when duplicates are something that one wants to remove. I want to have duplicates / optimized versions. I want users to easily see them with a quick and simple number! This lets users know “hey, there’s more than one version here, let me pick the best one for me (for whatever reason that is)”, or at least this is how it was explained to them.

And this works, and I see individuals consciously picking one version over another. It is upsetting that I have to create a patch for the web app myself and teach my users how to apply it so we can get this basic functionality back that Plex decided to remove without thinking of all the ways this was being used.

[EVOTk]

Really a shame this backtracking, it was very practical!

[steinj13]

Incredibly so. I’m so annoyed that I wrote a damned patch to bring it back, just have to color the background and reposition it now.

Patch is done (imgur album updated above), now I just have to create documentation and make sure the patching process is reproducible.

[axemanuk666]

I’d be very interested in how you did this, as I am sure would everyone in this topic.

Hope you can make it available once you are sure it is ready

EDIT: And I agree, it looks better top-right

[steinj13]

I’m no stranger to obfuscated code, and I compared the pre-4.53 code (well, I focused on what was relevant) and the 4.54.5 code (what’s on the current stable version of PMS). I then replaced any relevant variables by looking at surrounding context. The one thing that took longer than I’d like to admit is the positioning, because plex web has a lot of “dud” code (does something, but effect is nothing) including the use of a topLeftBadge css class (it’s a longer name than that, but I’m simplifying for readability), which I replicated in the injected code…but there was no CSS for said css class in the new version of Plex Web.

I’m currently working on adding a patch for 4.56.4 (current web client in Plex Desktop) E: this has been completed and is in the repo below. Because of the way that the patch is written, soon enough, I’ll be able to write a script that automates the creation of the patch entirely by comparing abstract syntax trees (and possibly make a browser extension, so that such a patch would also affect app.plex.tv and not just Plex Desktop / Plex Web directly reached from PMS (i.e., https:/​/server-ip:32400/web/index.html).

I’m not going to be creating patches for versions between 4.53 and 4.54.4 (PMS) and I won’t be testing patches for versions between 4.53 and 4.56.4 (Desktop) because that’s would involve me uninstalling and reinstalling the relevant software each time.

Future patches, for future versions, sure, within a day of me updating, but I might take my time updating for one reason or another (or if I automate the process by then, within 30 minutes of the version being released for Linux).

Here’s a link to a repo for the patches that includes directions. Mac is not officially supported (yet) because I don’t own a Mac, and changes do not reflect on app.plex.tv as mentioned above (this may change if I write a browser extension to do this, though).

[steinj13]

If you check my post above, the patches should be up for the most recent version of Plex Web on both PMS and on Plex Desktop. Apologies, I didn’t hit “reply” before so I don’t think it pinged you.

As you can see if you perform a word-diff on the two different patches (for the different versions), what I had to do to update the patch to the newer version of Plex Web was incredibly minimal, just changing some constant values I injected. This could in theory become more complex later on, but this is unlikely.

[bluebird]

where is the link it doesnt do anything, click click click nothing, no change no new window hello. . .

[axemanuk666]

@bluebird

where is the link it doesnt do anything, click click click nothing, no change no new window

It looks like @Plex may have disabled the link!

[steinj13]

cc @bluebird

Under the assumption that Plex did not disable the link, and I just was stupid and accidentally added garbage in the markdown from my clipboard (there was a zero width space at the beginning), I’ve removed that zero width space and the link works.

If the link goes down again, it’s definitely not me,.

[axemanuk666]

Ah awesome! I’ll take a look at this in the next few days. Thanks @steinj13

[dc2112]

Who was complaining about this “noise” ? And if there are people complaining why not give the option to put it back the way it was for the people that found it extremely useful? Yes I did setup filters and stuff like that to find them, but that’s still extra steps for something that used to be easy. I still don’t understand why to go through the effort of removing something that worked.

[JuiceWSA]

Apparently Plex never moves media 'cause if they did, they’d know how important that Blue 2 is after ‘The Copy’ - before ‘The Delete’ is engaged…

Now - it’s gonna be a leap of faith…
…and the meter sensitive enough to measure my faith in Plex at this point hasn’t been invented yet.

[axemanuk666]

@chrishoage - Has there been any headway on @Plex contemplating an alternative, or even maybe backpeddling and simply restoring this feature?

Or has it gone to that list of “discussions we’re not likely to have anytime soon”??

As a good number of people have mentioned, this is extremely annoying, and for me, annoys me every single day!.. Like EVERY SINGLE DAY!

I am constantly converting media and moving it around… The badge was an instantaneous way to identify exactly what I need at that moment in time, without having to drill down here, or filter there.

And because it annoys me every single day, do you know the result of that???

The passion for this product gets chipped away, bit by bit, day by day… That’s not good !!