My PMS is running pretty great, but i have a slight issue with two separate movies being listed together under via the Plex clients. Here’s the two movies i have and i sorta understand with the similar naming scheme why they’re coming up together under “The Captive” title, but i cannot figure out how to separate them properly in the PMS:
folder name: The Captive (2014)
file name: The Captive (2014) DVDRip.XviD-EVO.avi
I understand that it doesn’t sort using a specific word, but what can i edit to separate these files out? I would assume the different year would be enough to differentiate. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I’m half a week into my Linux adventures, i just couldn’t take it with Win10 forced updates essentially reinstalling (or upgrading) the entire OS which somehow borked my firewall rules. </rant off> Thanks again for this delightful community.
Linux Mint 18 (x64) Cinnamon
PMS Version 1.3.2.3112
Your naming seems like it should be ok. Might be worth checking if there is metadata on the mp4 file that could be causing the match to fail (Perhaps it just says “The Captive” with not year or something). Will probably need to do the Plex Dance afterwards as well to make sure it’s refreshed.
-or-
Another thing to try is the Split Apart in Plex Web. Then you can do Fix Incorrect Match on the items from the split and be good to go as well.
Thank you kindly, being so very new to Plex i hadn’t yet successfully used the Split Apart feature. That worked pretty well. Haven’t quite gotten into these management features, so i appreciate you holding my hand when the naming schemes seemed appropriate, yet i was still getting this duplicate. You, sir, are nice! Obviously Plex Ninja suits you.
Knowing the “Plex Dance” is quite a useful feature. Thank you for imparting that wisdom upon me. Sadly, it still placed them together, incorrectly as “The Captive” despite what i felt to be, obviously separated by a year. Regardless, i can go back and reuse the Split Apart feature you suggested. Powerful tools.
@peatrick, did you check for a bad title in the metadata (particularly the mp4, not sure if avi have it or not).
In Windows, this can be accomplished by navigating to the file in Windows Explorer, right click on the file and select Properties, then click the Details tab. Check what is in the Title attribute, if it’s something that doesn’t seem like it will fit the Plex naming then it will match incorrectly. Should be able to just blank it out, do the plex dance, and hopefully it will show up correctly.
The split is nice to have, but personally I like it when stuff matches properly so I don’t have to mess with it in the case that I have something go terribly wrong and need to rebuild.
Yes, in fact after you suggested checking meta data for the mp4 (yer correct, avi do NOT have meta data) i went so far as to ADD some meta tags to the .mp4 version hoping it would sync up properly. Didn’t work.
Went back to scratch, removed both files Plex, cleaned up the library, did the Plex dance, tried again. Added both files, properly named, separated by year, WITH meta tags in the mp4 – still grouped them together, thinking (incorrectly) that they were both the 2014 Ryan Reynolds edition. My OCD almost caused me to remove the aforementioned movie, but it’s the other one that was having problems being properly displayed. Have ended up filling in a few IMDB details on my own. We also had six or eight similarly named Louis CK stand-up specials and only one out of the lot of them didn’t populate correctly. Again, was able to quickly use your tips to remedy the situation. Thanks, SO very much.
Any other suggestions, or what else could i be missing, or doing wrong? Is it a problem with their database? IMDB displayed the Kate Mara (2015) “Captive” so i’m not sure why i can’t pull it and match up correctly.
For absolute certainty you should put extra information in [brackets] after the (Year) field in file names because Plex will absolutely ignore all that is in [brackets].
As far as embedded metadata in MP4 files the optimal situation is not to have any - at all - but to further thwart this annoying situation it is advisable (and highly recommended) to visit: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200241558-Agents
Move Local Media Assets to the bottom of every Agent list you can find under every tab (simply drag and drop). This will instruct Plex to stop giving top priority to embedded and likely bogus information in the Title Field. Plex will then concentrate on your (hopefully) good file names instead.
To absolutely start over with a new file name and a new bundle:
check, double check, triple check file names for correctness
replace item(s) into library
update libraries
Failure to Plex Dance® in the order presented above will result in - not much. There’s a reason it’s laid out that way. The reason is it’s the only way to ensure a new bundle with correct information is added to the database.
As @JuiceWSA said above, if you aren’t using embedded metadata the above can certainly help out to just ignore it entirely.
Edit: @peatrick For what it’s worth I had some time to give this a try with some test files and am seeing the same behavior. Best to just split it for now and I’ll pass it along to the proper channels.
Thank you, i dragged Local Media to the bottom of my list(s). Is it ideal to check all (or more) than what the default settings are? I toyed with that a small bit on my previous Win10 build and figured this time i’d leave the default settings until i was more familiar. Manually entering information i pulled directly from IMDB for the 2015 version of Captive as well as manually setting the appropriate poster has been a feasible work around for now.
Still frustrating that no matter what i do, i can’t seem to make the online databases work. I’ve since gone back and removed any mp4 meta tags, as per your “ideal” situation recommendation. Thanks you kindly, fellas.
@peatrick I should have mentioned that part with the split. There is a tool called Fix Incorrect Match just for fixing it after the split.
As for the agents, I would probably read through the FAQ and support articles before making too many changes. That way you’ll at least know what all the settings do.
Yep, it’s all jacked up somewhere:
Captive (2015) [720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC]
The Captive (2014) [DVDRip.XviD-EVO]
(no metadata)
produces a Merged:
‘The Captive (2014)’
Splitting and a Fix Incorrect Match (that should not be necessary, nor should they Merge at all) does immediately correct the issue:
It may have something to do with The Captive having about 3 names before they settled on that one, but both titles have separate and distinct listings at TMDB (the only database that matters): https://www.themoviedb.org/
Of the 10s of Thousands of items in my libraries - this is one of maybe 4 times in my Plex-Career I’ve had to use Fix Incorrect Match. I guess that’s not too bad - but still a mystery.
Oh wow, Fix Incorrect Match is another powerful tool that i hadn’t been aware of. Obviously i need to do some more reading of what’s available. Entering things manually from IMDB was far from ideal. Thanks, fellas!
@JuiceWSA i’m not sure if you already had both those titles in your library, or if you quickly downloaded them to see what all the fuss was about, but BRAVO SIR for the uniquely specific support.
And @adamskoog without your initial tip for the Split Apart tool i’d still potentially be scratching my head.
I get that these are incredibly powerful tools, but it’s pretty great to know that you can count on one hand the number of times it’s been stumped. I’m still counting my library in hundreds… looking forward to the day i’m able to manage tens of thousands of titles. Getting closer to being ready to add my neighbor’s 3TB disk on the network to my PMS, but i’ve gotta get him to learn how to properly name and organize data before heaping it on there. He is a long time audiophile who has just recently discovered the potential the PC offers to him and is learning to implement SACD rips into his already growing FLAC (and movie/tv show) database. Pretty good for a PC novice. With this kind of terrific support i should be able to manage the back end and keep this Linux box trucking so he (and the gf) are able to quickly and easily sort through all the titles that have been hiding on the network for years.
I have a little movie extra I rename as everything for testing. It was a simple matter to copy your names, check their validity at TMDB, add some brackets and toss then into my MCEB-Movies library. Plex doesn’t care what it is - so long as it has a name it can work with.
I am investigating the information at TMDB - to see if I can see what’s up.
Edit:
The Captive (2014) - as I suspected - has about a dozen alternate names in many languages (some I can make out, some that look like chicken scratches to me) and I believe therein lays the problem. I’m not going to delete those alternate names. This is just one of those items that require Fix Incorrect Match I suppose.
The databases still don’t quite find the subtle differences, but i quickly adjusted the display names and set different posters, so it’s all working out satisfactorily… for the most part. Until i go and break something else.
I would get into the habit of using FileBot (link in my signature) to immediately and accurately pre-match and re-name items before they ever touch your library. Once FileBot has done it’s work and before you put it in the library copy the name and paste it as the name for the subtitle thusly:
The Longest Day (1962)
The Longest Day (1962).eng.srt
injecting your own language code - if English (eng) isn’t it.
If you add a sub afterwards, re Analyze the item:
From the pre-play screen, left pane, click the dots, Analyze.
I am unsure what would happen if that item had [brackets] around a bunch of BS, but if Plex is going to ignore all that is in [brackets] let it ignore the same BS in the sub as it did in the original file name:
The Longest Day (1962) [Unnecessary BS]
The Longest Day (1962) [Unnecessary BS].eng.srt
Ouch, ten bucks for FileBot, eh? Is there an open source or other linux alternative for poor people? I’m trying to spring for Plex Pass before i splurge on anything else. As i slowly improve the functionality and overall usability, as well as choices that my Plex Media Server has to offer i’ll be able to more easily justify spending a few dollars on an SSD and proper arrary, as well as increasing the cable modem package to begin using and linking servers with my college roommate, but these costs begin to pile up quickly… so, for now, just trying to lay the foundation for something i hope to continue using and upgrading for years to come (hence the move from the Microsoft environment). Thanks again for all these very significant tips from experienced users.
Keep looking. It’s cryptic, but there should be a free one, but really… in about 10 minutes you’ll quickly realize that 10 bucks is easily justified for a program the developer is putting so much effort into that works as well for Plex Users as FileBot does.
It will change your world.
If set up properly and ultimately FileBot will monitor your ‘download locations’ pick up new files, pre-match and re-name anything new that appears, copy/move a Plex Perfect version into your library structures while you scratch your butt.
If that won’t change your world I don’t know what will.
Solid recommendation. And being able to do all that while scratching my butt would be dreamy. Thanks, VERY much. Any other tips or suggestions for a neophyte Plexer? Dabbled with a Windows version six+ months ago, but nobody on the network was using it. Trying again and already seeing more improvement, with single user Direct Playing media.
Although, i’m now getting some odd almost buffering type behavior, but i can’t isolate the issue – the Vizio smart tv when being controlled from the tv’s remote control just will not respond for 30+ seconds at times. It remembers all the times you’ve pressed the buttons, which will all come at once. This is frustrating for my gf who has no idea what is happening, she keeps thinking the batteries are going dead, but it’s something that tends to happen after seeing an ellipsis “…” from Plex displayed in the middle of the television. I’m presently watching the System Monitor in Linux Mint 18 and trying to determine if it’s disk reads, or cpu time being maxed out. The Swap file is 227.8MB (2.9%) and 1.3GB (33.6%) RAM usage, so that all seems fine. Running 5%-30% cpu usage.
Uhh, i know my system is under-powered, probably should have installed MATE, but went with Cinnamon desktop environment. Perhaps specs would help give some context:
Dell Vostro 200
Intel Dual-Core E5700 3.0GHz (x2)
4GB DDR2 RAM
200GB 7200rpm HDD
1TB 7200rpm HDD (NTFS disk from previous Windows build)
Gigabit ethernet NIC
100Mbps onboard NIC (unused)
You guys have been super helpful, and this is WAY off topic and probably would be best posted elsewhere, but i just started rambling stream of conscious style here, so feel free to ignore some or all of this nonsense. Seriously, thank you thank you.
Oh wow, PMS update. gf is currently streaming media to the Vizio, can’t wait to install this. Such a great community.
I have no idea about Linus, other than he plays a mean Beethoven’s 5th.
With that server you’d better make sure all your stuff direct plays (you can start by never touching another AVI file as long as you live) and we’ll cover that in episode 2 of this scheduled 22 episode season.
Lulz. Double lulz. I’m okay with Direct Play (for now) as this is a bargain basement rendition of dipping my toes into the Plex universe. Even my crappy Vizio direct plays most media types (including .AVI). My neighbor is purely Windows, but also has a high end Oppo Bluray player in addition to his LG smart tv. The gf has an old mac mini server re-purposed as her desktop, along with a Kindle Fire HD.
I’m not anywhere close to having the magic 2000+ Passmark score. My CPU is around 1743, i think. Even dropping an ssd into it won’t solve those issues, sadly. I noticed when the gf turned subtitles on for Avatar it maxed out both cores of the CPU at 100% and the quality took a noticeable hit. For now, the strategy is to stick to these crispy mp4s and hope for the best Direct Play results. I think all the aforementioned nonsense from my previous post was due to the Vizio having a crappy processor in it, i dunno.
