Looking for some suggestions on a tricky TV special I’m trying to get Plex to recognize.
It’s the “Family Ties Vacation” from Season 4 of the show. Here’s what I’ve tried:
- /Season 4/Family Ties s04e00
- /Season 0/Family Ties s00e01
- /Specials/Family Ties s00e01
- /Season 4/Family Ties s04e00 - Family Ties Vacation
Now I know it has an entry on theTVdb, but none of the above seem to work.
Any ideas?
Fiddling with an existing show while it’s in the library (under Plex’s all seeing eye) generally produces less than desirable results. Also, once Plex writes that bundle, you have to knock it out with a sledge hammer before it will drop it (like a stubborn Jack Russell with a rat).
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=season&seriesid=74409&seasonid=21871&lid=7 - Your second entry above is my method - never used the Specials Folder deal.
If you have all 11, 000 episodes of Family Ties you can try just removing the Season 00 folder and episode and doing what follows - if it doesn’t work - do the whole show:
The Plex Dance®:
- remove show from library (try the special folder and episode first)
- update library
- empty trash
- clean bundles
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200392106-Library-Actions <— update library, empty trash, clean bundles
- bring names and structures into compliance
- replace corrected show (episode - finger’s crossed) into library
- update library
All Steps. In Order. No Shortcuts.
I never had Family Ties in my library, so this was the the first time Plex saw one, but my test file just produced an instant match with:
F:\MCEB-TV
…Family Ties
…Season 00
…Family Ties - S00E01.mp4

Oh, and BTW - if you’re using MP4/M4V files, as I am, visit:
Plexweb/Settings/Server/Agents/
and move Local Media Assets to the bottom of every Agent list for Shows and Movies. Plex will read bogus and embedded Title Fields in MP4/M4V files and actually prefer them over perfect file names and structures borking a match every single time - unless you ‘Demote’ Local Media Assets to the bottom of those lists. Won’t affect other file types (we hope). Leave checked, just lower it’s priority.
Use the Force, Luke. And Good Luck.
