Plex Documentation → Your Media
→ Naming & Organizing Your TV Show Files
→ Naming & Organizing Your Movie Files
Example:
/TV Shows <-- Folder added to TV show library, name does not matter
../Rick Steves' Europe (2000) {tvdb-7865} <-- Show_Name (Intro Year), ID optional, but helps
..../Season 01 <-- "Season" in English, two digits for number
....../Rick Steves' Europe (2000) s01e01 Portugal's Heartland.ext <-- sXXeYY mandatory
....../Rick Steves' Europe (2000) s01e02 Paris Grand and Intimate.ext <-- ext = mkv, mp4, etc.
..../Season 02
......Rick Steves' Europe (2000) s02e01 Venice Serene, Decadent, and Still Kicking.ext
Read through the documentation linked above and follow it as closely as possible.
Some additional pointers:
The ID is optional, but helps with matching. It tells Plex exactly which show to match. Plex uses TMDB or TVDB IDs for TV shows. Plex uses TMDB or IMDB IDs for movies. The ID must be in curly braces, {}, not parentheses, (), or square brackets, [].
Leave out any illegal characters such as :, ?, *, etc. Do not substitute a dash, space, or other character.
The year is always when the show started. It does not change with the season.
Plex ignores everything after sXXeYY. You can episode names or other info if desired.
For some shows, the episode order differs between how they aired and how they are placed on the DVD. Plex defaults to using the order listed at TMDB. You can this on a per-library or per-show level.
At the library level, you can choose TMDB or TVDB. To change, Edit the library, choose Advanced, then set Episode ordering as desired. Save changes and refresh the library metadata if Plex does not do so automatically.
At the show level, you can choose TMDB, TVDB (Aired), TVDB (DVD), or TVDB (Absolute). Other orderings may be listed at The TVDB, but they are not supported by Plex. To change, edit the show (pencil icon) at the show level (not season or episode level). Choose Advanced. Set Episode ordering as desired. Save changes and refresh the show metadata if Plex does not do so automatically.
Special Note regarding MP4 Files
For movie and TV shows, Plex will read embedded metadata from MP4 files if configured to do so. It does not read embedded metadata from other file formats.
Some ripping/transcoding applications may add embedded metadata to the file. If this information is incorrect, Plex may display the movie/show incorrectly.
You can view the information using MediaInfo or other such tools.
To configure Plex to use (or not) embedded metadata, Edit the library, choose Advanced, set Prefer local metadata as desired, and save changes. Refresh the library metadata if Plex does not do so automatically.
