Seasons of TV Show Not Syncing

[brianjohnson989]

Server Version#: 1.29.1.6276-4a96dd5b1 (I think)
Player Version#: 1.52.1 (I think)

I have been converting my DVDs to digital copies for a bit this past year. It has been working with Plex without a hitch except for one season in a show. Every other season shows up in the Plex library/ player except for one. Each season is its own folder on my drive and each season is titled similarly. Each episode is titled in the same format under those folders as well and each episode is the same filetype for all the season. Why is one season randomly not syncing when all the rest are? I have removed the folder from the drive, synced the library, then re-added it in. I have tried “emptying the trash” from the TV Show library after I removed the folder as well then re-added it back in. I can’t seem to fix it with basic troubleshooting techniques. Any idea how to fix this? Thanks

[FordGuy61]

How is the show named and organized?

Please show a directory listing, screenshot, etc.

[brianjohnson989]

[FordGuy61]

Plex Documentation → Your Media
→ Naming & Organizing TV Shows
→ Naming & Organizing Movies

Thanks for the screenshots.

The season folders are the problem. They should be Season 01, Season 02, etc. Do not include the show name.

The episode names look fine. Below, I show adding the year to the episode name, but Plex will work without it. You should add the show year to the main show folder if it is not present.

---

Name and organize your files per Plex requirements.

Then Plex Dance the entire series.

/TV Shows <-- Folder added to TV Show library.  Exact name unimportant.
../Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013) {tvdb-269586} <-- ShowName (year), ID optional.
..../Season 01 <-- "Season" in English, two digits for number
....../Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013) s01e01.ext <-- sXXeYY format mandatory; ext=mkv/mp4/etc.

If you need to rename many files:

• Filebot
• Tiny Media Manager
• Microsoft PowerTools PowerRenamer

Many people use Filebot. It is quite powerful and can rename an entire library in minutes.

Tiny Media Manager is also very useful, and free.

TMM Renamer Patterns:

• Show Name: ${showTitle} (${showYear})
• Season: Season ${seasonNr2}
• Episode Name: ${showTitle} (${showYear}) s${seasonNr2}e${episodeNr2} ${episode.title}
• Movie Name: ${title} (${year}) {imdb-${imdb}}

PowerRenamer in Microsoft Power Tools is helpful for simple renaming with pattern matches or regular expressions. It makes quick work of tasks such as adding a year to file names, removing undesirable text from multiple files, etc. Simple example: Rip a TV show with MakeMKV and all the episodes have _tXX at the end. You can remove it from all episodes in just a few seconds.

[ralexlaptop]

@FordGuy61 When did the Plex Media Server get so strict on the file naming convention?

I have files named using both ways and they both work equally well.

I used one method for my Cheaters TV Series.

I used a different method for my Unit TV Series.

[dbirch]

The Season folder isnt required just recommended practice. As for non-standard file naming, Plex has been slowly dropping support for non-standard formats for a while. The biggest Ive seen was the drop for [S##E##] about 8 months ago. As long as you have the show folder and file names correct actual matching should be fine, If you add Season folders you just have to follow the recommended format.

[ralexlaptop]

@dbirch I was just curious because I’ve seen strict file naming guidelines but I’ve used different ones and they all seem to work for me.

Just an example: The Unit, I’ve named my episodes as seen below.

It still displays fine in Plex.

[dbirch]

I have no clue how that was parsed correctly. I know the legacy scanner had a lot of matching rules, which have been dropped. The reason that was done was for performance. Some of the old scanners could take days to a week to scan/parse a large library. After dropping support for the least used formats and optimizing the scanner, that now takes minutes to hours for a scan instead. Plex defined their file naming standard at least 10 years ago, and hasnt changed it since.

[ralexlaptop]

@dbirch The way I got it to work was I changed from “Plex TV Series” to “The TVDB”.

I was then prompted to Upgrade Library and everything just worked…

[dbirch]

@ralexlaptop Sorry that was more of a rhetorical comment, but your response highlights the differences between the older legacy scanner and the newer agent.

[FordGuy61]

The legacy scanners are no longer receiving bug fixes or feature updates. They will be discontinued at some currently unspecified date.

The Plex documentation on how to name movies and TV shows has been consistent over time (reference). Other formats may or may not work. If they do, you’re basically getting lucky. If you follow the documentation, the media will be matched and correctly added to the library the vast majority of the time.

If a show using undocumented naming is currently matched, it will most likely stay matched. However, if the show is added to another library or moved to another server, it may not be recognized unless renamed.

As mentioned above, there are many tools, some free, to assist with any needed renaming. They can make short work of renaming even large media libraries.

[brianjohnson989]

Thank you. I went through and re-named the show title folder, all the seasons folders, and adjusted the season in question’s episode titles to include the year per your suggestions. The 7th season is still not appearing in Plex though.

[JaysPlex]

The Unit only has 4 seasons so I’m assuming you’re talking about the show Cheaters?

If so, it looks like there is no DVD order on TVDB and the seasons oddly don’t have any more than a few episodes listed

For season 7 there’s only 2 episodes

Cheaters s07e02

Cheaters s07e11

I have a feeling most of the missing episodes you’re going to find under the “Specials” list

The specials actually look like mostly DVD stuff. “The Best Of”

https://thetvdb.com/series/cheaters

[brianjohnson989]

Scroll up. I am referring to my original question I posed.

[ralexlaptop]

Just a note that the Plex Media Server not only cataloged my TV Series with all the episodes in a singe folder or having the episodes separated into different Season folders but it also works when you have all the episodes in a single file (as shown below).

Plex knows how to catalog all the different file naming conventions.

[brianjohnson989]

I have removed all the seasons and added only season 7 back in. I did not add a sub folder. It is just the master folder of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013)” and then all of the season 7 episodes in that folder. All the episodes are titled as directed. It still won’t show up in my Plex library.

[pshanew]

Do you see any duplicates if you set your TV show Library view like this (duplicates, episodes):

If so, check the info for some of those to see if your missing S7 files are being found as duplicates of something else.

[FordGuy61]

@brianjohnson989

I have removed all the seasons and added only season 7 back in. I did not add a sub folder. It is just the master folder of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013)” and then all of the season 7 episodes in that folder.

Let’s see if log files show anything.

Please do this with minimal other activity on the server - no streaming, adding other content, etc. It does not hurt anything, but the extra activity makes the log files more difficult to read.

1. Configure your system for debug level logs.
   Settings → Server_Name → General
   

   

2. Restart Plex Media Server.

3. Wait 2 - 3 minutes for Plex to fully start.

4. Add a Season folder for the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episodes.

5. Plex Dance the Show.
   Perform all the steps, in order.

6. If the show/episodes still do not appear,
   a) Wait 2 - 3 minutes for Plex to log everything.
   b) Pull server logs: Settings → Troubleshooting
   c) Upload the entire ZIP file to the thread.

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FWIW, this works on my Plex server:

[brianjohnson989]

Sorry for the late reply, I was gone for most of the last month. It looked like simply removing the seasons then restarting the server worked. It was the one thing I hadn’t tried apparently haha. I had tried Plex dance several times previously. Thanks!