Longtime Plexpass user and for the most part, performance has been flawless. However, I have quite a few foreign television files that are not any part of a series but rather one off special events and when I try to sort them, Plex almost always adds them to the movies selection. This has been happening for at least since 2011 but just now getting to be really annoying.
Let me reiterate, these ARE NOT movies, rather live, one off television special events.
What if anything can be done about this incorrect sorting? And please don’t suggest to just live with it, my OCD won’t allow that.
Is this about files added to your local server or recordings from a connected DVR?
If it’s about your own server… make sure to keep your files separated for your different libraries and follow the naming conventions for movies/shows respectively.
If both libraries point to the same directory and you’re not naming that particular file according to the tv-show naming scheme, Plex won’t pick it up in your tv show library (and worse, it might even think this is a movie belonging to your movie library).
It is about my own server and religiously I keep my files separated. Movies in the movie folder, TV shows in the TV folder, Music Videos in their own separate folder.
As for the naming convention, I use the same convention that has worked successfully for years except for certain one off special event show files. I even have other one off shows which are named exactly the same way that DO get sorted correctly, that’s what makes this so frustrating.
Can you double check if the Add Folder tab of your movie library might point to the tv show directory (or a mutual parent folder)?
That’s usually an introduction to a back and forth leading to the point:
You might get lucky deviating from the official naming schema… until you don’t.
…
Movies
Movie A (2023)
Movie A (2023).ext
Movie A (2023).en.srt
Movie B (1997)
Movie B (1997).ext
…
TV Shows
Show A
Season 01
Show A - s01e01.ext
Show A - s01e02 - optional episode title.ext
Season 02
…
…
In Plex… point your movie library at Movies and your TV Show library at TV Shows.
Please share a specific example of:
folder(s) linked to that movies library
full path of one of a file which Plex isn’t adding.
Here is an example of a file path that isn’t getting picked up by Plex unless I add it manually to the Movies section.
/home/joe/TV Shows/Remembrance Sunday The Cenotaph 2023/BBC.Remembrance.Sunday.The.Cenotaph.2023.mkv
And here is an example that does get picked up by Plex and correctly added
/home/joe/TV Shows/Armed and Famous/armed.and.famous.s01e01.IgIt.ReLeAsE
While that would work, it isn’t truly correct as TVDB doesn’t list any other years and I have at least two other year’s editions (2022 and 2023) and I don’t have 2011 but do have 2013.
The year JaysPlex7 included in the show name is the year the show first aired… it’s not about which parts of the show you’ve got added to your library.
It will eliminate any type of questions you have about shows with a slightly odd naming format. It just pulls the info directly from the TVDB as Plex expects to see it for correct matching
Well, I have followed the suggestion of moving the files that Plex isn’t sorting correctly and it STILL isn’t sorting correctly. Now it has picked up the newest file, 2023, but dropped 2022 and 2013 for a different reason, incorrect formats.
One of the files was a .avi file and the other was a .x265 file. I can get around this by simple format conversion so I’m not too worried about it.
