There are quite a few of them, the oldest starting in 1940. I tried the best I can to name them rigorously, but the problem ALWAYS arise beyond the first one.
It doesn’t really matter if Plex misidentifies the first one you copy onto the library, cos you can go in Fix Match and set it right.
But when I add another one, the disaster ALWAYS happen, no matter how rigorous I am with the naming, the second one “gets clumped” into the first one.
Let me make an example:
I place this: “The New Tom & Jerry Show (1975)”, all good, then I place this: “The Tom and Jerry Show (2014)” and the files end up “merged” with the one from 1975, so wwhen you go inside the season you see that the files have two sources, it shows the number “2” on all the episodes.
After 6 years handling Plex, I hit these rocks. I tried literally EVERYTHING. I even tried setting temporarily “personla video” for that library, in the hope that it leaves the newly added blank. NOTHING.
I wish I could pause the analysis and manually set the “Match” myself, otherwise it’s going to mix all of these together.
How are your files named?
How is the folder structure looking where these files are situated?
The above two things are of paramount importance when matching tv shows.
You can get by with Fix Match for a while, but as your library grows, it becomes unmanageable.
In fact, I recommend you to avoid Fix Match and try to solve these issues with file naming and folder structure first.
Thanks for the answer, but I am asking you to read carefully my post.
I matched to the letter the correct naming schema, and to the letter the TV Series name on TheTVDB website.
I even considered temporarily forced a completely random TV show on each Tom and Jerry series until I can then re match them to their correct ones. But Plex screws me on that too, clumping the second one I add into the fakely named one.
This sounds more intentional than a bug.
Anyway, since you asked:
Name of the Series (YEAR)/Season X/Series name (year) SXXEXX Name of the episode.ext
…the problem is that Plex kinda gets lazy and doesn’t follow the schema to the letter, but it rather clumps the new one (a different series) into the existing one.
I’ve been lazy, I actually used the dashes. So you can check that out.
If you “look around” for a certain “rivers” about Tom and Jerry you can easily find them all and test it yourself. It’s impossible, whatever series you place first, it will clump into the other one instead of identifying it as a separate one.
Plus, I cannot know what you think is a correct naming schema.
I cannot count the times when a user has stated that he uses correct namings which then later were revealed as actually not correct.
That’s why I am always asking.
Let’s start at the beginning:
Are your files in mp4/m4v containers?
Then they might contain embedded meta tags, which can interfere with the matching process.
This configuration change will make embedded meta tags less important for Plex:
Go to
Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheTVDB
In there, grab the line ‘Local Media Assets’ with your mouse and drag it downwards, so it ends up being at the bottom of the stack of active agents.
Repeat the same under
Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheMovieDatabase
Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - Plex Movie
Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - TheMovieDatabase
I recommend you to use a (year) in the folder name of the “original show” as well. In this case 1940.
If you already tried several naming schemas previously, the mismatch might be “too ingrained” in the Plex database already.
To clear that up, perform the Plex Dance with all Tom & Jerry material.
Only add back one series at a time. Not all at once.
The extension is AVI for one series and MKV for another, I haven’t started with all the other ones. (I know, it’s odd but that’s what I got for some old ones.
I did what you said about the Agents and triple checked the schema.
I was already doing the Dance.
Nothing. every single time Plex finds convenient to just clump it together with the other series, even though the correct two names (see first message up here) are different both in the folder and the filename (beginning of the filename).
This process is way too automatic, and I feel that if I could just stop Plex from “trying” to identify it and instead manually match it before it is incorrectly identified, this would all be solved.
See, with movies, these stubborn behaviors are solved by choosing “Split Apart”, with TV Series you are completely doomed when that happens.
That is assuming that the shows are in separate folders at the show level. You can not split individual episodes, but if 2 shows gets lumped together you can indeed split them and manually match. This needs to be done at the top level of the show, not the season or episode level.
Indeed. But it is only available at the top level of a show. i.e. you must be looking at the pre-play page of the whole show, where you see a list of the seasons.
Also if you have shows that are same name different year or similar name. You use an external media manager to write NFO files prior to scanning that will help to
I went through hell with Tom & Jerry a few years back, the main issue was that the seasons were setup by the decades S1940, S1950, S1960 & S00… never seen this setup before or since.
I’m glad you found a solution
\TV Toddlers\Tom And Jerry (1940-1967)\S1940 [AC3 2.0] -480p\Tom And Jerry S1940E01 001 (10Feb1940) - Puss Gets The Boot [AC3 2.0] -480p.mkv
\TV Toddlers\Tom And Jerry Kids Show (1990-1993)\S01 (1990-91) [AC3 2.0]\Tom And Jerry Kids Show S01E01 (08Sep1990) - Flippin’ Fido [AC3 2.0] -480p.mkv
