Server Version#: 1.22.1.4228
Player Version#: Preview 3.0.0.32
I recently noticed a strange behavior with special episodes in TV shows. Sometimes when I play a special episode of a TV show, it will run a seasonal episode instead. I’m not new to Plex and I know how to name episodes. I also know that this is not a naming problem because some specials I added like a year ago used to work, now, all of a sudden, some work and some don’t. When I play the specials on the server or Plex Media Player, the same problem happens. I’m using latest versions BTW and I’m on a Windows Server although I don’t think the server matters here. The fetching works properly since all the specials and seasonal episodes get the right meta data and show up correctly. I can even download all the episodes and I get the correct episode/file. Same with “Get info” of the files. Everything is correct and shows the correct episode. So I’m puzzled how this can even happen and I’m not sure when this started to happen. When I only add the specials, so no seasonal episodes, it works fine. The correct file gets played. When I add seasonal ones in addition, the problem starts to happen again.
With some specials which are named Part 1 and Part 2 (just because of thetvdb, not because the file is named like that) it will run Part 1 when I actually want to run Part 2. This might be unrelated to the first problem but maybe it is related. I know that you can combine episodes when you name the file Part X but the file name isn’t named like that. Thetvdb has them as separate files (i. e. S00E01, S00E02 and so on) so just the name of it is labeled that way from the thetvdb which might cause the problem.
Also, it’s not a problem due to thetvdb. If I fetch them from another agent it’s the same issue which makes sense to me. So, I believe it’s a problem with Plex somewhere.
After some more testing I see the following. When I sync a problematic episode to one of my devices, the correct episode gets synced and I can watch the correct file. Same happens when I sync the whole series. Every episode, including all the specials, work correctly. The problem doesn’t appear then. So the behavior is the same as if I download. Just when I stream from my server directly the problem appears.
Plex Media Server v1.22.1.4275 (Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS)
This is occurring for me too, and it began somewhat recently I believe. I just upgraded to the newly released v1.22.1.4275 to test and the issue still persists. Specifically, for me if the TV series Specials episode has an “Originally Available” date of 1900-01-01 (which seems to be the default if no date is entered), then clicking on that episode’s play button plays the series pilot (S01E01).
If two or more Specials episodes share the same “Originally Available” date, then the earliest episode with that date is played when any of the later episodes are selected. If a Specials episode has a unique “Originally Available” date, then the correct file plays.
Plex Media Server Logs attached, where issue was reproduced with debug logging enabled.
Plex Media Server 1.22.1.4275 (Windows 2012 R2 and Windows 10)
Plex Windows Client 1.30.1.2115-81e1fc3f (Windows 10)
I’m having this problem happen to me too. It started for me somewhere between March 1st and March 12th. I see it on at least 18 of my TV series, examples are Star Trek - Next Generation (TNG), Star Trek - Deep Space Nine (but not Voyager) and Psych. Problem reproduces for all of these shows on two different plex servers. Some of the extras have been on the server since January 2019 and playing properly until last month. My instance of TNG has 300+ extras and only two play properly. The two that work, have a proper ‘Originally Available’ and are known on thetvdb.com. The other files start on a non-existing episode number but all have the 1900-01-01 date. Some tests:
If I play any of the 1900-01-01 dates, the series pilot plays instead.
If I set the dates for the extras to the same as the pilot, the pilot plays.
If I change the ‘Originally Available’ date to the same value (pilot date + 1) for a few episodes, only the first one changed plays.
If I leave the known two episodes with their real dates, and change the unknown extras’ dates to (pilot date + 1), the extra with the last date is played (one of the known ones) or another episode in the first season is played based on where the date lands between the season one episodes.
Reviewing the logs show no reference to the Extras playing (that have the 1900-01-01 date), instead it will show the pilot’s file being played.
Doing the Plex dance (moving the entire series out and back in with refreshes between) does not change the outcome any.
Optimizing, cleaning, analyzing, scanning, etc. in all of the utilities makes no difference.
Workaround:
The only way I’ve gotten around this for now is to sequentially set the ‘Originally Available’ dates on the not-known/custom extras starting with one day later than the last known (on thetvdb.com site) extra or last episode date if no extras are known. For example, the last known date is 2020-09-08. The additional extras would start with 2020-09-09 and go up by one for each file. Luckily, it has no problem with setting the date into the future from the real current date.
From a general glance, this issue impacts between 1,200 and 1,900 files on my environment.
Having the same problem, started recently (although I couldn’t pinpoint which specific update it was that broke it).
Go to play one special and some other episode in the same show plays instead. Only for specials, files prefixed with S00EXX
I also encountered the same problem. In Specials Season, if multiple videos have the same broadcast date, or the broadcast time of the following video is earlier than the previous video, when I click to play, the correct video cannot be played。
Same. This needs sorting, almost all my specials content is unavailable from the interface because of this, and modifying hundreds of file Get Infos manually to some imaginary date that has nothing to do with the program is not a reasonable fix.
Come on, Plex support, sort this out, there have been two Plex version updates pushed to my install in the time it’s taken me to find out that it’s a problem, not just me, and the cause. This should be regarded a pretty serious issue in what is a media server designed for this kind of usage and file naming, etc.
I also have seen this behavior with specials on most, if not all, specials attempting to be played. What seems to be the case for me at least, is that it will take the special air date and then play the most recent regular season episode to have aired at that date. For example, if the air order went like this:
2019-03-12: Show - s04e19
2019-03-15: Show - s00e42 - Ides of March Special
2019-03-19: Show - s04e20
If attempting to play the Ides of March Special episode, it will always play s04e19 regular episode instead, regardless of watched status of either.
I have just noticed this today as well, but the funny thing is it not all devices are affected. iOS (both iPhone and iPad) and my server (via Chrome) play the wrong episode if I select a special (usually the pilot) but my Android phone and Nvidia Shield are able to play the correct episode.
The weirdest one I have seen is Friends Special S00E01 Friends: The Stuff You’ve Never Seen, this has a airdate of 2001-02-15 so when you try and play it it plays episode S07E15 which aired on that same day.
Only noticed this today as I am going through my whole library and renaming some specials to take advantage of the new TV Agent that can now have items at season and show level and I wonder if this has now introduced a bug in to the mix.
It maybe. Last week I was able to communicate with someone at Plex and they said it was a known issue, and he poked around to find out if there has been progress toward a solution.
I really hope they fix this soon, I have no desire to go through all my specials are create fake dates so that the files will play again.
I am using the latest server for Windows and the latest version of the Plex Apple TV App.
So if you have a file in a TV Specials folder that will work as normal, select that file and let it run. Afterwards the next file will play as normal even if it is a file that would glitch if selected individually.
However, if you stop watching a file that would have glitched, it will glitch if you try and resume the file.
So it only works if Plex can first find one file it can play and then you have to let things auto run without stopping.
Given how specials can predate the TV Show it is connected to, this is a big issue, especially for those of us with large TV collections.
That update doesn’t yet appear available for the Netgear NAS version and in fact tries to make me download either the previous (annapurna DEB) version or some random-looking TGZ that I’m not going to try (not being DEB, it’s likely it’s not a proper package).
Hopefully the newer versions will roll out eventually.
Attention Plex, I spoke too soon. The problem seems to have stuck around. I ran into the problem with the Specials again after installing the latest update
