Star Trek impossible to get right

[HaeSuse]

I’m on the newest versions of the software on Windows 10 64 bit, with all updates. I’ve tried everything with this one. I even just went so far as to delete all libraries, and completely uninstall plex server, and plex desktop app. I then put Star Trek (which in this case is the original series, but the next generation is also FUBAR) into its own directory, away from everything else.

I now have ONE library, a TV library. It has as its location, a directory called “E:\TV Test”. Under that is this structure: “E:\TV\Star Trek\Season 01” (and 02, and 03, and Specials). Under that is a collection of AVI files. They are named like this: “Star Trek - S02E02 - Who Mourns for Adonis.AVI”. The files have absolutely no tags in them. All files are named using the same naming convention. However, over half the episodes show up in Plex with titles like “Star.Trek.The.Next.Generation.S03E08.The.Price.1080p.BluRay.x264-ROVERS”, and so on and so forth. Always Star Trek the Next Generation episode names, with that goofy suffix. All other metadata is perfect. Year, directors, actors, writers, description, etc. Only the episode name is off.

Again, I DO have The Next Generation as well. However, they aren’t even on the same directory any more, and they also are not included in any library inside of Plex. They also do not have ANY tag information in them. I used 6 different mp3/mp4 tag editor programs to ensure that. They all agree. No tags. Windows file properties also agrees. No tags. This is a clean install of Plex, and Plex shouldn’t even know that I have Next Generation stuff. I checked, double checked, and triple checked, and my files and episode orders are identical to TVDB.

I’m attaching a screenshot of the mess inside of plex, so it’s more clear. Also, a screenshot of my directory structure. Both of these will be from Season 02 just so they match and can be more helpful to anyone looking at this post.

I’m at wit’s end, and have spent 4 hours, playing with structure, names, tags, and everything else. I even ran the files through MKVToolNix and Handbrake to try different formats, and nothing helped. No matter what I do, no matter how many Plex dances I do, no matter the names, folders, tags, file formats, this is exactly the output I get when I try to play them.

I’ve done some serious bending over backwards to get stuff to work in Plex before, tried all the tricks, read all the forums and tips. Nothing works.

Additional info is that, if I also try to get Star Trek The Next Generation working properly, it does a similar thing with the titles. All metadata is correct, but the episode names are that garbled up mess, like above. Why are both of these series somehow confused into taking this weird episode name from The Next Generation?

And, one final bit of weird info, is that Season 1, in both series, work fine. Everything after that is ugly.

[Xhaka]

This naming

Gives me this in Plex.

[shspvr]

@HaeSuse

“E:\TV\Star Trek\Season 01"

Try it this way and drop 0 from season
E:\TV\Star Trek The Original Series (1966)\Season 1\

[TeknoJunky]

/media/TV-Archived/Star Trek (1966)/Season 01/Star Trek (1966) - s01e01 - The Man Trap [x264 AC3 5.1].mkv

[Elijah_Baley]

@shspvr

Try it this way and drop 0 from season
E:\TV\Star Trek The Original Series (1966)\Season 1\

That is bad advice. The “season” should always be two digits. Other naming might work but it is always best to name exactly as Plex recommends and Plex recommends two digits for season numbers.

I do not know what could be wrong with “Star Trek” for the OP but it is not the two digit season numbers.

My “Star Trek” works perfectly and I use two digits. Also I do NOT have any extra things added to the name. I just use “Star Trek.” I do not have “TOS” or “The Original Series” or anything like that.

All the other “Star Trek” shows have additional info that uniquely identifies them so the default appears to be that “Star Trek” all by itself is a unique identifier for the original series.

[Volts]

@HaeSuse

The files have absolutely no tags in them … <snip> … titles like “Star.Trek.The.Next.Generation.S03E08.The.Price.1080p.BluRay.x264-ROVERS”

That’s a ‘scene’ encoding name. It’s in a tag in the file. For sure.

How are you confirming there aren’t tags in the files?

Are you using the “Local Media Assets” agent? If so, is it last in the list?

Edit: Hahahah there’s @JuiceWSA typing. He’ll back me on this one.

Edit2: Unless there’s - you said uninstall. And you said “Dance”. Hrm. Ghost metadata?

[JuiceWSA]

Your file names and structure as you have them are fine.

That ‘goofy’ name is from an embedded title field in an mp4. As far as I am aware Plex can ONLY read metadata inside an MP4. I expect I’ll be corrected if that isn’t the case.

Anywho - Do this and Plex won’t be able to react badly to ANY Metadata in ANY file it can look into… that’ll fix that:

Video File Naming

With LMA in priority, Embedded Titles within MP4/M4V files are preferred - even over a perfect file name. Local Media Assets should - AT ALL TIMES - remain enabled (unless specifically instructed to turn it off). Local Media Assets should be ‘Demoted’, to the bottom of the stack of active agents under ALL tabs in Shows and Movies, but should NOT be disabled. Local Media Assets is needed for many things - it doesn’t need to be given Tip-Top-Priority (as Plex has so hatefully placed it as it’s …

Regardless… there’s something very wrong if a Plex Dance doesn’t dump all the old, so you can load up the new - and that isn’t happening. For some reason.

A Plex Dance ‘should’ clear the bundle, but it has to be done right - all steps - in order - or it simply won’t work:

The Plex Dance ™

The purpose of this is to remove all cached metadata and xml data for an item that Plex usually keeps. This helps when you want to “start from scratch” for particular item move all files for the media item out of the directory your Library is looking at, so Plex will not “see” it anymore scan the library library (to detect changes) empty trash clean bundles (in menu next to server name, when accessed under ‘More’) double check naming schema and move files back scan the library Support articl…

… and the ENTIRE SHOW has to be danced - not just select seasons or episodes - for a clean sweep and complete ‘Do Over’.

Having said that, and assuming The Dance was correctly done, a ‘reinstall’ should be installing a new database location in the standard vanilla location for the Plex Files - UNLESS - something about the installation isn’t doing that and is possibly still looking for a database that was moved at one time - now those functions are buried in the registry. <— is Plex still looking for and finding that old database? Is that the reason why The Plex Dance doesn’t seem to be doing anything? I don’t know, but it seems like something to find out… with some Debug Logs I would imagine.

1. The Star Trek Bundle is never being dumped - so a new one can be written… for some reason.
2. The file names and structures as shown above should work fine.
3. if ‘The LMA Hack’ is done - no internal metadata will show up anywhere and after that, if that ‘goofy’ Title shows up - you got a problem - and will require advanced support.

Last Gasp…:
Make absolutely certain no other Star Treks exist in the old TV Show Library - or ANY TV Show Library.

Seek, Destroy, Dance - then grab those Debug Logs - they’ll lead to the truth.

[Volts]

@JuiceWSA

I expect I’ll be corrected if that isn’t the case.

I’ll have to see if I can find it, but somebody from Plex said “Oh and we can read Title from MKV now” somewhere in the forum.

[Volts]

Share a file that’s getting one of those funky names?

We can work out real fast if it’s the file - if it happens on other systems - or something to do with ghost bundles and cached metadata.

[JuiceWSA]

@Volts

I’ll have to see if I can find it, but somebody from Plex said “Oh and we can read Title from MKV now” somewhere in the forum.

I personally run 3 layers of protection:

1. I seek and destroy all metadata on arrival - or just don’t create it with MakeMKV.
2. Everything is muxed to an MKV.
3. The LMA Hack - Engaged.
4. I avoid AVI Files - like they were coated in CoronaJuice - for over a decade, but that’s not important…lol

Step 2 may be futile as far as “The Plex No Fly Zone” - nowadays - but Step 3 should keep my pants up - like when I wear suspenders and a belt - just to be safe.

As for File Naming and Structuring - Filebot just ‘Re-Named’ all of mine removing the (1966):

I mean - it can’t get no ‘righter’ than that…:

[shspvr]

@Elijah_Baley

That is bad advice. The “season” should always be two digits. Other naming might work but it is always best to name exactly as Plex recommends and Plex recommends two digits for season numbers.

I do not know what could be wrong with “Star Trek” for the OP but it is not the two digit season numbers.

My “Star Trek” works perfectly and I use two digits. Also I do NOT have any extra things added to the name. I just use “Star Trek.” I do not have “TOS” or “The Original Series” or anything like that.

All the other “Star Trek” shows have additional info that uniquely identifies them so the default appears to be that “Star Trek” all by itself is a unique identifier for the original series.

No that the way mine is setup even on Emby, SageTV and many other and they always pick it right

[Volts]

@shspvr

No that the way mine is setup

This shouldn’t matter significantly either way. It doesn’t appear to be related to OP’s Trouble with Titles.

The regex in the python Series scanner looks for one or more digits in season folder names.

season_regex = '.*?(?P<season>[0-9]+)$' # folder for a season

(The + means “one or more of the preceding characters”.)

Plex doesn’t say “use two digits” in the documentation, though all of the examples have two digits.

“Scene” rules specify two or more digits for SXXEYY naming, but Plex doesn’t enforce that, exactly. And season folders themselves are a Plex-ism.

One thing that does matter is that if you have over 123 episodes, you must name all episodes with three digits. If you have episode S01E125, then you must also name episode 17 with three digits: S01E017. That’s not called out in the support doc.

I’m hoping to be dead before The Simpsons reaches a 100th season.

[tramp78]

Try this. Take that first episode. Amok Time. Make a copy of it. Change the name of the second file to “Star Trek - S02E02 - Fake name here”.

Dump the folder you have and do the PLEX dance and put in a Season 02 with just these two files. If they come up right, the bogus name is in the file somewhere. If the bogus name doesn’t show up, it is working fine. Fake Name Here shouldn’t show up at all.

[Volts]

I like that idea. I’m not 100% if that will work.

Plex does some clever magic with file size + a partial (?) hash of the file, for files it has already seen, to avoid duplicating work. I’m not sure if that happens before/after/during the filename & matching analysis.

I think if it’s renamed how you describe, and definitely if it’s matched as S02E02, then I think that’s a great test.

[OttoKerner]

@Volts

Plex does some clever magic with file size + a partial (?) hash of the file, for files it has already seen, to avoid duplicating work.

That is what the Dance is supposed to clear out (if done properly).
Destroying and recreating the library in Plex will achieve the same.

[Volts]

I have wondered about that when testing things before - and maybe you’ve just answered. Is metadata isolated between libraries?

[OttoKerner]

Yes. Destroy the library, destroy the data.

Except playback history. If the new library uses the same metadata agent as before, the “played” status will survive.

[Volts]

@OttoKerner

Destroy the library, destroy the data

Thanks!

(Save the cheerleader, save the world.)