I’m in the midst of ripping a bunch of my old TV show DVDs, storing them in an iTunes library and pointing Plex at that. In a few cases, Plex lists an episode with a huge number (example - [Episode 318047406], and I have no idea where it’s getting that info. Also, I see cases where there’s a grey box with a number inside the episode photo. What is that?
The 23 means Plex thinks there are 23 copies of the same episode. Not sure about the episode number. Most likely faulty metadata inside the file.
Make sure you are using a TV Shows library and pointed only at the TV Shows folder within the iTunes library (…/iTunes Media/TV Shows).
Check Settings -> Server -> Agents -> Shows. If Local Media Assets (TV) is selected, make sure it is at the bottom of all selected agents in all three areas. If you move it, then refresh the metadata for the library.
Make sure the metadata is correct in each file. You can do this in iTunes. For each episode, look at the TV Show Info (in Windows, right click on episode). Make sure the Episode Title, Show, Season number, Episode number, and Year are correct. Plex matches against TheTVDB.com, so use their episode number/name/etc info. After you complete the changes, rescan the library and refresh the metadata.
While the above does not strictly conform to Plex standards (iTunes naming is slightly different), it should work for most TV shows.
If it fails, move the files outside of the iTunes library and rename / restructure to fit Plex’s standards.
Example:
/A TV Library <-- TV Library points here. Name unimportant.
/Untouchables
/Season 01
/Untouchables - s01e01.ext <-- .mkv/.mp4/.m4v/etc
See documentation for additional details:
Your Media -> TV Show Files (Naming and Organizing) -> Naming and Organizing Your TV Show Files
Thanks for all this info–that really helps explain things! I followed your steps, and the settings were already correct. So, I decided to remove the erroneous files from iTunes, rename them, and run them thru Subler (the metadata that was already there came from cTiVo originally). I then dropped them back into iTunes, and it seems to have fixed it.
Thanks again!
Subler rocks. I use it all the time.
You may know these, but here’s some additional info about using Plex and iTunes:
Use the Optimize function in Subler before dropping the files into iTunes. It re-orders some MP4/M4V header bits to require less client buffering when streaming starts. Details in Subler documentation or Google “MP4 Fast Start.”
Regarding Plex scanning the iTunes movie folder, I put the movie year in the Title field (ex: TRON (1982) vs TRON). iTunes then puts the movie year in the directory and file name (ex: \iTunes Media\Movies\TRON (1982)\TRON (1982) (1080p HD).m4v). This helps Plex match movies correctly. You can use Subler or iTunes to add the year to the Title field.
Plex will not play TV shows or movies purchased via iTunes. They have DRM, and Plex does not play any DRM protected media. If you try to play one in Plex you’ll see a pop up with “Plex doesn’t play DRM media” or some such message.
You can use a .plexignore file to have Plex bypass the shows/movies with DRM. See Special Keyword File/Folder Exclusion for details.
A portion of my .plexignore file in /iTunes Media/Movies:
# DRM
Big/*
Big Hero 6/*
Ghostbusters/*
This is bad practice. iTunes uses unique identifiers in filenames, not human language or conventional S00E00 structure. This could cause all kinds of problems. If you look up the filename and folder path of the problematic episodes (Get Info), you’ll see.
Even if you tagged and named your files properly when you added them to iTunes, if you have iTunes organizing media turned on, iTunes will copy those files into iTunes media library folder and rename them.
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