I've got quite a few shows on my server and have found that some have been merged. Splitting merged Movies is one thing but for some reason there is no way to split merged TV Show items. I've looked, searched, and pulled my hair out but still nothing. I've even found 2 other posts about this but they've never been answered.
here: https://forums.plex.tv/topic/91430-select-items-missing-from-tv-episodes/
and
here: https://forums.plex.tv/topic/24647-split-apart-for-tv/
What's up with this?
There is a "split apart" for tv shows but it splits apart whole shows based on show folders. not individual episode files. to fix episodes generally you just need to name them according to the guide. Or if you have all your episodes for different shows all in one big tv folder , i would highly suggest separating them as they are less likely to get mistakenly merged.
I'm running into this issue with a TV series that has bonus content from the Blu-ray included in its folder. Plex, without taking the very different video durations into account (90 seconds vs 24 minutes for a full episode), is merging standalone openings/endings in with the episodes.
For example, though the (24-minute) episodes are consistently named with just e.g. '05', '06', etc., Plex has decided that a (90-second) file named with 'ED05' instead must ALSO be a version of that episode. It really doesn't make sense, and I was as surprised as everyone else who's encountered this issue that individual episodes can't be split up in cases of incorrect detection like this. Not without moving the files, anyway—and it seems as though I'm going to have to move to a system wherein I point Plex to a separate folder that contains only hardlinks/symlinks (Windows can do that, yes) to folders and files in a structure that Plex is guaranteed to understand. Which is a lot of work and requires constant updating when I add things… unless I can figure out how to make the machine do the work for me, which is what Plex should do to be honest.
My Blu-Ray box set of Twin Peaks has two versions of the pilot episode. thetvdb.com does not provide any way for me to distinguish between these in any way. Plex won't let me split the episode. Of course, when I try to play the episode, I have the choice of which version I want to play. Except they're both called 1080p H264 - English (DTS 5.1)... The difference in playing time is half an hour.
My Blu-Ray box set of Twin Peaks has two versions of the pilot episode. thetvdb.com does not provide any way for me to distinguish between these in any way. Plex won't let me split the episode. Of course, when I try to play the episode, I have the choice of which version I want to play. Except they're both called 1080p H264 - English (DTS 5.1)... The difference in playing time is half an hour.
there is two alternate pilots as specials on the tvdb ( season 00 ). http://thetvdb.com/?tab=season&seriesid=70533&seasonid=18002&lid=7
there is no way to split episodes at the moment nor change what those popup say
I'm running into this issue with a TV series that has bonus content from the Blu-ray included in its folder. Plex, without taking the very different video durations into account (90 seconds vs 24 minutes for a full episode), is merging standalone openings/endings in with the episodes.
For example, though the (24-minute) episodes are consistently named with just e.g. '05', '06', etc., Plex has decided that a (90-second) file named with 'ED05' instead must ALSO be a version of that episode. It really doesn't make sense, and I was as surprised as everyone else who's encountered this issue that individual episodes can't be split up in cases of incorrect detection like this. Not without moving the files, anyway—and it seems as though I'm going to have to move to a system wherein I point Plex to a separate folder that contains only hardlinks/symlinks (Windows can do that, yes) to folders and files in a structure that Plex is guaranteed to understand. Which is a lot of work and requires constant updating when I add things… unless I can figure out how to make the machine do the work for me, which is what Plex should do to be honest.
you can put the bonus content in a season 0 folder or put S00 before the episode in the file names so plex treats them as specials
I am having this same issue but it's with TV shows that air two episodes in one day.
I have tv shows merging across folder, even when following naming conventions. PLEASE ADD THE SPLIT FEATURE TO TV SHOWS!!!! I have shows that won't list because they're merged some mysterious place. This gives me episodes and a couple of entire seasons I can't watch through Plex. This makes Plex unusable for some shows.
I have merging issues adding all the episodes into one so I can not watch any other episode apart from the first this also makes plex unusable for me too
I’m having an issue with The Flash 2014, S03E06 S03E07 S03E08, Plex has merged all three into Season 3 Episode 20 ?Can’t split them apart. Can’t even view them on xbox, only PC.
I got same or similar problem. A TV show launched a 2nd season and decided handle it as a new Show with an additional subtitle (story continues, but it’s a new show starting with season 1 : theTVDB).
Usually, I have following folder structure
[TV Shows] / [Show Kind] / [ Show Title ] / [ S(eason)# ] / [ Show Title ( - sub Title ) - S#E#.ext ]
But since there are 2 Shows with same main story… I had to change it to…
[TV Shows] / [Show Kind] / [ General Show Title ] / [ Specific Show Title ] / [ S(eason)# ] / [ Show Title ( - specific sub Title ) - S#E#.ext ]
But Plex is always stacking those 2 Shows and can not split them apart…
But my requirement is, that those 2 Shows are connected in some way in the folder system (since I browse media using the filesystem).
@Canaan said:
I got same or similar problem. A TV show launched a 2nd season and decided handle it as a new Show with an additional subtitle (story continues, but it’s a new show starting with season 1 : theTVDB).Usually, I have following folder structure
[TV Shows] / [Show Kind] / [ Show Title ] / [ S(eason)# ] / [ Show Title ( - sub Title ) - S#E#.ext ]But since there are 2 Shows with same main story… I had to change it to…
[TV Shows] / [Show Kind] / [ General Show Title ] / [ Specific Show Title ] / [ S(eason)# ] / [ Show Title ( - specific sub Title ) - S#E#.ext ]But Plex is always stacking those 2 Shows and can not split them apart…
But my requirement is, that those 2 Shows are connected in some way in the folder system (since I browse media using the filesystem).
And how’s that working out for you?
Not too good is it?
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220687-Naming-Series-Season-Based-TV-Shows <— until this morning that used to be a link, but today it’s what you have to copy and paste into your browser’s URL bar. Odd, but hopefully temporary.
A Drive/A Directory/A Sub Directory/A Sub-Sub Directory/A TV Show Library/ <— welcome to a valid TV Show Library
… A TV Show Name/
…Season 01/
…A TV Show Name - S01E01.xxx
A Drive/A TV Show Library/ <---- enter pain and suffering if what follows is:
…A Sub Directory/ <— Nope - won’t work
…A Sub-Sub Directory/ <---- Not getting any better
…A TV Show Name/ <— What’s that? Plex has no idea even if you do.
…Season 01/
…A TV Show Name - S01E01.xxx
Share the name of this mystery show and I’ll give you a few examples of proper naming and structuring and there’s a ‘special way’ you now have to deal with TV Show Remakes - and that’s NOT covered in the Handbook. Plex wants you to find that out on your own - or by asking a Volunteer Support Guy.
All calls for a remake were previously made simply by using the name at TVDB as it’s shown:
Father Brown (2013) - for instance
Now Plex defaults all calls for Father Brown to Father Brown (2013), so if you happen to have the earlier show (Father Brown (1974) ) you have to go to TVDB, get the date (not shown in the name) and inject that into your Folder and File Names before Plex can successfully find and match it with TVDB.
Plex was sure that was going to help matters - and I would really like to have some of what ever it is they’re smoking. Apparently that will really change the universe into what ever you want it to be, instead of what it really is and I could go for a triple-heaped-hookah full of that right about now.
@JuiceWSA said:
@Canaan said:
I got same or similar problem. A TV show launched a 2nd season and decided handle it as a new Show with an additional subtitle (story continues, but it’s a new show starting with season 1 : theTVDB).Usually, I have following folder structure
[TV Shows] / [Show Kind] / [ Show Title ] / [ S(eason)# ] / [ Show Title ( - sub Title ) - S#E#.ext ]But since there are 2 Shows with same main story… I had to change it to…
[TV Shows] / [Show Kind] / [ General Show Title ] / [ Specific Show Title ] / [ S(eason)# ] / [ Show Title ( - specific sub Title ) - S#E#.ext ]But Plex is always stacking those 2 Shows and can not split them apart…
But my requirement is, that those 2 Shows are connected in some way in the folder system (since I browse media using the filesystem).And how’s that working out for you?
Not too good is it?https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220687-Naming-Series-Season-Based-TV-Shows
A Drive/A Directory/A Sub Directory/A Sub-Sub Directory/A TV Show Library/ <— welcome to a valid TV Show Library
… A TV Show Name/
…Season 01/
…A TV Show Name - S01E01.xxxA Drive/A TV Show Library/ <---- enter pain and suffering if what follows is:
…A Sub Directory/ <— Nope - won’t work
…A Sub-Sub Directory/ <---- Not getting any better
…A TV Show Name/ <— What’s that? Plex has no idea even if you do.
…Season 01/
…A TV Show Name - S01E01.xxxShare the name of this mystery show and I’ll give you a few examples of proper naming and structuring and there’s a ‘special way’ you now have to deal with TV Show Remakes - and that’s NOT covered in the Handbook. Plex wants you to find that out on your own - or by asking a Volunteer Support Guy.
All calls for a remake were previously made simply by using the name at TVDB as it’s shown:
Father Brown (2013) - for instanceNow Plex defaults all calls for Father Brown to Father Brown (2013), so if you happen to have the earlier show (Father Brown (1974) ) you have to go to TVDB, get the date (not shown in the name) and inject that into your Folder and File Names before Plex can successfully find and match it with TVDB.
Plex was sure that was going to help matters - and I would really like to have some of what ever it is they’re smoking. Apparently that will really change the universe into what ever you want it to be, instead of what it really is and I could go for a triple-heaped-hookah full of that right about now.
Hi there,
My Plex is running on a NAS, so I’ll have no “Drive” Paths…
I kinda “fixed” it by now…
I renamed the the items so Plex couldn’t match them and matched it on my own. Afterwards I moved and renamed things right.
But your input may help me to prevent this workaround.
So, those "mysterious show"s ID(s) are
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=289882&lid=7
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=321670&lid=7
I got 3 Libraries, 1 Music, 1 Movies, 1 Series
In that case, the library ‘Series’ includes 5 folders…
(there are other folders at the same level where I don’t want Plex to interfere because there are files without proper name convention and will be sorted at their final location)
For example, family guy goes to
(series/)Animation/Family Guy/S10/Family Guy - S10E08.ext
while “How I met your Mother” end up at
(series/)Feature Film/How I met your Mother/S01/How I met your Mother - S01E01.ext
And unlike the movies library, where something like that work pretty good…
(Movies/)CGI/Pirates of the Caribbean/1 - The Black Pearl/Pirates of the Caribbean - The Black Pearl.ext
…does not at Series.
Well, according to that link you copy and pasted to your browser’s URL bar - you can’t have Movies and TV Shows in the same Library. They MUST be in their appropriate library and TV Shows MUST be structured according to the Handbook if you want any reliability - or have it work at all. I don’t make the rules. I just tell you what they are.
This may change my overall view of Anime, and here’s how I’ll add them if I find some somewhere:
A TV Show Library/
…Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon/ <— that question mark is illegal so just leave it out.
…Season 01/
…Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon - S01E01.xxx
…Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon - S01E02 - Episode Name Optional.xxx
and
A TV Show Library/
…Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon On the Side Sword Oratoria/ <— all those illegal characters - leave out
…Season 01/
…Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon On the Side Sword Oratoria - S01E01.xxx
…Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon On the Side Sword Oratoria - S01E02 - Episode Name Optional.xxx
These two shows aren’t ‘remakes’ - they’re two different shows so just name them like TVDB does and structure them according to the Handbook. Named and Structured as above produced two instant, fully populated matches:
Fiddling with names and structures while in the library will likely result in more pain and suffering so…
The Plex Dance®:
All Steps. In Order. No Shortcuts.
If you’re using MP4/M4V files:
Embedded metadata in the Title Field of MP4/M4V files will throw Plex into a tailspin. Plex will read this info and prefer it over a perfect file name/structure (you don’t have any of those yet), but you can combat that situation by moving Local Media Assets to the bottom of every agent list you can find. All tabs in TV Show and Movies here:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200241558-Agents
Just drag LMA to the bottom of the list and drop it. If you do have embedded metadata this will cure the issue, if you don’t it won’t matter. LMA will do what it has to from the bottom. This only applies (we hope) to MP4/M4V files that have embedded metadata within.
Yes, this might be a solution, but as mentioned before, Plex is not the only one looking at this file system.
I sometimes use DLNA on my TV to stream directly from the LAN.
The remote does not support fast scrolling, so I am happy to scroll through my movies by entry.
Like…
Movies/
…CGI
…[…]
…StarTrek
…StarWars
…Episode 1
…Episode 2
… […]
…Suicide Squad
Instead of
Movies/
…CGI
…[…]
…StarTrek
…StarWars - Episode 1
…StarWars - Episode 2
…StarWars - Episode 3
…StarWars - Episode 4
…StarWars - Episode 5
…StarWars - Episode 6
…StarWars - Episode 7
…Suicide Squad
Guess if that’s your solution, I’ll continue it my way 
You have a fair amount of ‘wiggle room’ for Movies (your file naming won’t work however) and Virtually Zero ‘wiggle room’ for TV Shows. It’s not ‘My Solution’, it’s the way Plex TV Shows work.
You now know the rules, so you won’t be surprised when your TV Shows don’t work.
Alternately, you can put your TV Shows (Movies as well) into an ‘Other Videos’ Library and name/structure them how you want to. Plex won’t try to match them and any structuring you can image will be acceptable.
Clearly Plex isn’t for you. Plex requires a few industry wide standards for reliable operation. If you can’t conform your life with Plex will be problematic. I will mention - as my parting shot - every media server solution on Planet Earth will work with Plex’s naming and structuring guidelines - because it’s kinda an industry standard. Plex has a DLNA server as well - and as long as everything Direct Plays (Your TV isn’t doing any transcoding on the fly - that’s certain) you could be using it I guess, but I’ll admit to not knowing anything about the Plex DLNA server.
Well, the Plex DLNA server is… or was at least … buggy, it offered dynamic folders like “Unwatched” which ended up to be empty (and it should’t be). In addition, any folder required more time to open than the built-in solution of my NAS.
The so-called industry standard isn’t made for my private use. If I had a data-base where I just want to store information about movies, I could go with that.
But since it’s a human to look through the files as well, it’s not an eye-candy with uncanny valley folder structure.
For example, I had an issue with “Avatar: The last Airbender” and “The legend of Korra” - both are from the same universe - but not strictly connected to each other - but the first one was sorted as “Avatar” and the other one as “Legend” and ended up pretty distant in the folder system and on plex as well. I had to edit the “sort name” with “Avatar: The last Airbender” and “Avatar: The legend of Korra” - in an folder “Avatar”. And - I hope you see my point - I felt good once my Kids watched it and said “oh gosh, look, there is another season.” - cause they explored it right away without any effort.
Plex is quite flexible with moving and renaming files. So i take that as advantage and try to do it my way.
However, the “Is it wrong to try to pick up chicks in a dungeon”-show ended up in 2 separate shows… however, I do not see an industrial standard here. As far as i read the plot, it continued through the shows. At my point of few, it should act at least as 2nd season. Happened before that another season run under different title - but in such cases Plex won’t display the proper “other show” which continues the previous one (like it does within seasons of a show). There for it would be really great to handle them in a pleasing way.
And, as i introduced such idea once before, I’d love to see the files organised by Plex (file naming, folder system, editing Metadata). That way the server/host is doing your job. Just like a checkbox in the setting-panel. ([ ] Let Plex organise your Media.) Like at iTunes.
But I experienced a hard resistance to it. So I guess I am one of few and have to continue deleting the “created with HandBreak” Metadata Tag / comment by my own all day long.
And one thing in addition… I had a name -convention like Plex wanted. But ever considered 15 seasons of Simpsons, hundreds of episodes… all within a single folder… and try to pick S12E08 - with just up and down keys on your remote? Rather have “simpsons” -11 times down “s10” - 7 times down “Simpsons - S12E08” and you are " done… still 18 arrow-navigations from the show to episode, but far more convenient than scrolling through season by season.
And to bring it on the next level, most TVs - including mine - just displays the first view letters of a file… and given example “Is it wrong to try to pick up chicks in a dungeon - S01E01” would be shown as “Is it wrong to try…”.
Imagine that show had 400 episodes all within a singe folder… you press ‘down’ like 200 times and wait until the TV is displaying the rest of the files name and go forth until you found it.
Or you realize the wonders of Plex as it was designed, use it as intended, conform to it’s wishes, take a knee and swear your allegiance to your Queen (lol) and 36 Episodes from Season 1 of The Twilight Zone (where much of this thread lives and breathes) are a few clicks away:
I can only get that many episodes on a single page of the web app and when using a device app it too offers a limited view of ‘the big picture’, but it can ‘scroll’.
Your reasoning behind the ‘picking up chicks in a dungeon’ show may be valid, but TVDB is the TV Show Database so no matter what you ‘think’ is right, or even what ‘you know to be true’ your options are:
As I said, Plex isn’t for you.
As you travel through this great land, go in peace, may you be bitten by very few fleas soft of fang and mild of disease, avoid the black death, have your belly filled with grog and meet many a fine maiden in only the best and least dank of dungeons.
~~Wow. I’m baffled that they aren’t able, after 3 years the problem was stated, implementing an easy “split episode” (but they mostly tweak around the UI…). ~~
~~There seems to be another problem lol. ~~
~~ Just stumbled across this while watching The Office S02E10 where it shows me an episode from S03E10. ~~
Strange: I just checked my drive. S02E10 on my Google Drive has only 1 File and it’s 20min long. When I play that file it is the right episode - S02E10. But when I’m in Plex I have a 40minute episode and it’s not the S02E10 as in google drive, it’s S03E10. When I check google drive S03E10 isn’t even existing - I checked the download source for Season 3 and the Episode is already missing in there.
So the question is: Where does that 40min S03E10 Episode come from if it doesn’t exist on my drive? And WHY does ~~Plex overwrite my S02E10 with that non-existing S03E10? ~~
~~I’m SO CONFUSED right now lool… ~~
omg I found the problem. Nothing to do with plex or the combining mechanism. The person who made the Season 3 folder fucked ■■■■ up with naming the episode which leads to Plex overwriting S02E10 with S03E10. (S03E10 was named S02E10 even though S02E10 already existed -so Plex just took the one from the Season 3 Folder and took it as the right episode and ignored the S02E10 in the right folder) … omg lol
I’ve been having problems with Doctor Who merging episodes. Splitting seemed the logical choice, but there’s no option to do that, obviously. In my case the naming convention is definitely not being followed. I pull the show off of my TiVo automatically, and it’s added to iTunes automatically. Plex finds the show and adds it to the library.
I have also found that sometimes an episode ends up in Season 0 (in iTunes - no Season 0 is shown in Plex) instead of the season they belong in.
I found a resolution in my case. To get shows out of Season 0, I edit the TV Show Info in iTunes and add the season and episode. It moves the episode to the correct season. However, I still had the issue where different episodes were being merged, despite the season and episode numbers being correct in the metadata. I thought I would have to fix it via the naming convention, but that wouldn’t help me for future automatic additions. I noticed, however, that the problem shows also had an “episode id” in iTunes. I removed the episode id from the problem episodes (leaving the correct season and episode id) and saved. I then scanned the TV Show library in Plex, and the episodes were split out of the merged episode correctly.
