I have a problem with the first 9 episodes of Impractical Jokers Season 05. It seems that overnight something is running and causing the database to recognize these episodes as season 08. I’ve tried a couple times to remove the files, scan the library, empty trash, return the files, an scan the library. Each time the files are recognized by their filenames and correctly associated with season 05. I suspected that some part of that was incomplete so I monitored it for an hour or so and after that time they remained associated with season 05. Fast forward to the next day, and here I find the files have been re-associated with season 08.
Check the file metadata. Make sure it does not have any information that might throw off the Plex scanners (ex: The ‘Title’ field might have s08e01 instead of s05e01). MediaInfo is a good tool for viewing metadata. You can also view the info in Plex’s Get Info window and via Plex XML. See Investigate Media Information and Formats.
Also, how do you have the files named & organized? Can you share a directory listing, screen snap, etc?
Plex can be picky when it comes to TV show naming & organization. Best to follow the recommended structure, including each season in a separate folder, two digits for season & episode numbers, and spaces before/after dash: /TV Shows/ShowName/Season 02/ShowName – s02e17 – Optional_Info.ext
Thanks FordGuy61. I forgot to mention that I had checked the metadata using MetaX and in VLC Media Player, but your mention about the Naming got me to look at that again as well as the meta. I do follow the naming recommendation but I realized after reading your suggestion, that in this case the files were being created from the PlexDVR. While I was looking at them in MetaX I realized that the data wasn’t comprehensive; just basic info that was provided by the DVR. For some reason this triggered me to think that it could be a metadata corruption. So I populated and wrote new metadata into the files using MetaX and re-scanned the library without moving the files around. This seems to have worked because previously a re-scan wouldn’t get it. I think I’m happy now, but hopefully tomorrow I’m not back where I was.
Check the order of scanning agents in Settings -> Agents. Make sure Local Media Assets is below other agents which scan for metadata. This will tell Plex to use the online sources for metadata before using embedded metadata. In theory, the embedded metadata could be incorrect and Plex would still correctly match things (but it is best to have correct embedded metadata).
Pic below is for Settings -> Shows -> The TVDB. Repeat for Shows -> The Movie Database. Also for Movies -> Plex Movie andMovies -> The Movie Database.
NOPE! I thought all was good, but a day or two later 2 of 9 were back to the wrong season. So I sat those two in the corner overnight (moved them out of the Plex directory) and rescanned and deleted the errant library entrie. Going back now to return those two, only to find the other 7 are now errant too. Oh boy!
