First , make-series is a little shell script I crafted to create test files.
Nothing fancy here but it does need rewriting. I’ve had it for ages.
#!/bin/sh
# Make a fake TV series for match and metadata debugging
Dir=/glock/qa/tv
# Set = 1 to print rather than create filenames
Testing=0
if [ "x$1" = "x" ]; then
echo Usage: $0 Name \(Remember to use \" or \' as needed \) \[number of seasons\] \[Episodes/Season\]
exit 1
fi
Name="$1"
# Get Season count
Seasons=7
if [ "x$2" != "x" ]; then
Seasons=$2
fi
# Get Episode count
Episodes=20
if [ "x$3" != "x" ]; then
Episodes=$3
fi
ThreeDig=0
[ "$Episodes" -gt 99 ] && ThreeDig=1
# add upper limit if given
if [ "$2" = "" ]; then
Limit=07
else
Limit=$2
fi
S=1
while [ $S -le $Seasons ];
do
# Prepare Season
Season="$S"
# Pad
if [ $S -lt 10 ]; then
Season="0${S}"
fi
echo Making \"${1}/Season ${Season}\"
mkdir -p "${Dir}/${1}/Season ${Season}"
E=1
while [ $E -le $Episodes ];
do
EpisodeNum=$E
# Support series > 100 episodes
if [ $ThreeDig -gt 0 ]; then
if [ $E -lt 100 ]; then
EpisodeNum="0$EpisodeNum"
fi
fi
if [ $E -lt 10 ]; then
EpisodeNum="0$EpisodeNum"
fi
if [ $Testing -gt 0 ]; then
echo Path = \""${Dir}/${1}/Season ${Season}/${1} - S${Season}E${EpisodeNum}.mkv"\"
else
echo $(uuidgen) $(uuidgen) $(uuidgen) `date` $1 this is must some stuff to make the file long enough to not be skipped `date` $1 > "${Dir}/${1}/Season ${Season}/${1} - S${Season}E${EpisodeNum}.mkv"
fi
E=$(($E + 1))
done
S=$(($S + 1))
done
echo Done
You want it bigger?
I’ve taken ‘Guiding Light’ as you requested and bump it up a bit.
How about I go to the extreme –
58 seasons each with 254 episodes (which is well beyond reality)
There will be metadata for those which really exist and nothing for those which don’t exist but PMS will parse them all.
Excellent, I have just recreated that result in my Incoming library also. There were no problems at all getting all the episodes right, I get the same result that you do. And this still precisely what I am used to see for a small library, no problems at all - a library with 14k items is still a small library in my world.
But, when I move it to the final library, I see the same pattern as I use to see - some episodes are skipped, in this case 4 episodes in each season. And again, with this curious similar distance between the skipped episode numbers.
This is the log for S58 and S57 (the first two seasons scanned), precisely episodes E42, E85, E162 and E205 were skipped for both seasons. And precisely the same episodes are skipped for all the other seasons as well. Consistently 4 episodes are skipped, and always the same exact episode numbers - no exceptions.
Season 58: E42, E85, E162, E205 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:53.411 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 58/Guiding Light - S58E001.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:53.412 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 58/Guiding Light - S58E041.mkv"
E42 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:53.412 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 58/Guiding Light - S58E043.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:53.413 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 58/Guiding Light - S58E084.mkv"
E85 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:53.413 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 58/Guiding Light - S58E086.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:53.425 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 58/Guiding Light - S58E161.mkv"
E162 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:53.425 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 58/Guiding Light - S58E163.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:53.425 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 58/Guiding Light - S58E204.mkv"
E205 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:53.426 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 58/Guiding Light - S58E206.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:53.428 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 58/Guiding Light - S58E254.mkv"
Season 57: E42, E85, E162, E205 skipped (Precisely the same pattern as for S58)
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:54.086 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 57/Guiding Light - S57E001.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:54.092 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 57/Guiding Light - S57E041.mkv"
E42 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:54.092 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 57/Guiding Light - S57E043.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:54.098 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 57/Guiding Light - S57E084.mkv"
E85 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:54.098 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 57/Guiding Light - S57E086.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:54.120 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 57/Guiding Light - S57E161.mkv"
E162 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:54.120 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 57/Guiding Light - S57E163.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:54.128 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 57/Guiding Light - S57E204.mkv"
E205 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:54.128 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 57/Guiding Light - S57E206.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 08:51:54.135 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 57/Guiding Light - S57E254.mkv"
So instead of each season having 254 episodes as it should, all the seasons end up with only 250 episodes.
I tried to add the Guiding Light series to another one of my libraries also, to a library that is considerably smaller.
And this time another, but still as consistent, pattern showed up. Now the episodes E42, E85, E128, E178, E221 were consistently skipped across all seasons.
S55: E42, E85, E128, E178, E221 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.691 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E001.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.693 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E041.mkv"
E42 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.694 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E043.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.695 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E084.mkv"
E85 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.696 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E086.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.698 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E127.mkv"
E128 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.698 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E129.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.712 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E177.mkv"
E178 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.713 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E179.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.714 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E220.mkv"
E221 skipped
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.715 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E222.mkv"
...
Oct 31, 2023 09:29:35.715 [140670833421112] VERBOSE - Adding file for scanner: "/plex/music-videos-series/Guiding Light (1952)/Season 55/Guiding Light - S55E254.mkv"
So, each season now ended up with 249 episodes, instead of with 250 each as in the larger library.
As previously asked for without having normal debug server logs (verbose disabled) and a plex dance of your issue we are unable to reproduce your issue. I have a large library and am not experiencing your reported issue. The key here is that your log excerpts may be showing secondary issues to a primary cause that isn’t in your excerpts.
EDIT, I am running the exact same make-series and I am getting 254 episodes per season (its still ingesting them atm) I did have to manually match the show.
Can you please remove Guiding Light outside of your current library, scan, and empty trash (Trying to remove any references to these files before the next step) Then create /plex/demo_issue and move guiding light into that folder. Create a new Plex Library Using the Plex TV scanner and the Plex series agent and just add /plex/demo_issue to it.
Because you were working in an existing library with naming issues my spider sense is telling me that its confusing the file names and marking them as duplicates.
This ensures that we have a fresh library, and a fresh scan.
Once thats done can you post the server logs again?
I don’t trust the database integrity nor am I’m certain of the host/networking.
There are a lot of variables in flight and I’ve never seen this type of random failure without the host or network having problems.
Regarding the databases, I’m not speaking to ‘integrity_check’ structure but actual data in the records.
That’s the easiest to prove out.
Sign out of Plex/web and restart the browser
Stop PMS
Rename Library to Library.keep
Start PMS and let it create a new empty server instance
Create a new server instance with “TEST SERVER” as the name to avoid conflict with the main
Create an empty directory solely for testing. Putting test files in existing structures does not provide any clarity
Create a make-series Flipper (in this new TV library directory)
Create a new TV section pointing ONLY to where “Flipper” is.
– Use ALL defaults for the library section
– Except select “TheTVDB” episode ordering.
It will create quickly.
When done, confirm season 1 has the same metadata as I’ve presented.
With this established, start creating a few more test cases.
DO NOT create a 58 season 254 episode behemoth for Guiding Light.
Pick something more reasonable like “Law & Order” 7 seasons 20 episodes
Law & Order should come up with TheTVDB episode matching and metadata