Sometimes 4K and 1080p movies are marked as duplicates and sometimes they are not

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
1

Server Version#: 4.34.2
Player Version#: 4.34.2

Noob to Plex, love it. First time poster.

For many movies I have 4k and 1080p versions in the same library. Sometimes these are combined as duplicates, and sometimes they are not. When they are marked as duplicate I can select “Play version” and choose. If they aren’t marked as duplicates I may not even know I have the 4K version when I am browsing for something to watch. Is there something I can do to make the 4k and 1080p show as duplicates? Thanks!

2

Please explain a bit further. If they don’t show as duplicates (1 entry with the option to Play Version) – does the other version not show at all or is it simply located “elsewhere” in that library of yours?

4

They both show, even when they are not marked as duplicates.

5

It probably is related to naming, but here is what I tried:

Here is an example showing as duplicates (which is what I want):
P:\Torrent\Movies\Unforgiven (1992) (2160p BluRay x265 10bit HDR Tigole).mkv
P:\Torrent\Movies\Unforgiven (1992) 25th Anniv (1080p BluRay x265 10bit Tigole).mkv

These are showing separately:
P:\Torrent\Movies\Casino.Royale 2006.1080p.Bluray.x264.DTS-HDMA.5.1-DTOne.mkv
P:\Torrent\Movies\Casino Royale (2006) (2160p BluRay x265 HDR SAMPA).mkv

So I tried renaming the odd one to match the naming convention of the others:
P:\Torrent\Movies\Casino.Royale (2006) (1080p Bluray x264 DTS-HDMA 5.1-DTOne).mkv

Then I re=scanned the library. No joy. Then I did a “fix match” on both versions, still no joy - they are still not showing as duplicates.

7

After renaming you might need to perform a “Plex Dance” to ensure Plex drops its cached information for those files.

  1. move the files outside the folder of your library
  2. Scan Library Files (library context menu: ... > `Scan Library Files´)
  3. Empty Trash (library context menu: ... > Manage Library > Empty Trash)
  4. Clean Bundles (Settings > [Server Name] > Manage > Troubleshooting > Clean Bundles)
  5. verify the files are named properly and return them to their target location
  6. Scan Library Files (see #2)
8

Ok, I tried that. Both movies are now in folder:
P:\Torrent\Movies\007 James Bond (series 1962-2015)\Casino Royale (2006)

I conformed the filenames to this standard (I think):

Casino Royale (2006) - (2160p BluRay x265 HDR SAMPA).mkv
Casino.Royale (2006) - (1080p Bluray x264 DTS-HDMA 5.1-DTOne).mkv

And then re-scanned. Both movies still show in their new directories, but not as duplicates. I just don’t understand what I am doing differently from the movie that IS showing as duplicates. Is there some metadata, something in an XML file somewhere - maybe the “fix match” source isn’t the same?

I will try the “Plex Dance” next as suggested by tom80H.

9

Ok, I tried that and it didn’t work. Strangely after step 4, the movies were still showing up. I moved them back and re-scanned and still separate.

BUT I THINK I FIXED IT! I then went into one of the Casino Royale movies, went to fix match, selected The Movie Database as agent, searched, matched, and now they show up as duplicates!

10

Assuming your library points to Movies, Plex does not support such subfolders. You need to eliminate the 007 James Bond (series 1962-2015) folder.

All the “extra stuff” in the file name should be in square brackets, so Plex will ignore it. As is, Plex will try to use it when matching the movie name, which means the probability of success is much lower. See this post for detailed info on how Plex matches things.

See also the Your Media documentation for how Plex wants media structured and named.

Try the following:

.../Movies  <-- Movie library points here
     /Casino Royale (2006)
       /Casino Royale (2006) [1080p yada yada].mkv
       /Casino Royale (2006) [2160p yada yada].mkv

or

.../Movies  <-- Movie library points here
     /Casino Royale (2006) [1080p]
       /Casino Royale (2006) [1080p yada yada].mkv
     /Casino Royale (2006) [2160p]
       /Casino Royale (2006) [2160p yada yada].mkv

Note: As mentioned in the documentation, not all apps are capable of selecting which version of a movie to play. Many users keep 4K/UHD media in a separate library to prevent inadvertent transcoding of 4K material (ex: Movies and Movies 4K). This also helps when sharing libraries with remote users who may not have 4K capable systems or the bandwidth to stream 4K media. If you don’t share the 4K library with them, then you never have to train them about “Play Version” to prevent transcoding and associated load on your system.

Note 2: If you use external subtitles, the subtitle name must match the movie name exactly, including what is in the square brackets (with obvious exception for language and extension).
Example:

/Casino Royale (2006) [1080 yada yada].mkv
/Casino Royale (2006) [1080 yada yada].eng.srt

https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/your-media/

12

Thanks for all that, it is very helpful and I think I’ve got it now. Just one caveat, the layered subfolders seems to work fine. Before I found Plex I was just manually organizing in Windows, and ended up with folders like:

P:\Movies\007 James Bond (series 1962-2015)\Casino Royale (2006)

and

P:\Movies\Star Trek (series 1979-2016)\Movie 1…

This seems to work fine.

14

So if I wanted to move them into the higher subdirectory, can I just move them and Scan Library, or do I have to do the full Plex Dance? Thanks

15

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