TV show episodes all lumped into the same series

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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Server Version#: 1.24.2.4973
Player Version#:

I am setting up a Plex server for the first time - a Synology NAS running DSM-7. I have put multiple movies on it with success, but TV shows are rather a different story. The first TV series I put on there was Red Dwarf - this uploaded and synced well enough; however, any other TV shows I put up don’t index as the actual shows, but rather as episodes of Red Dwarf. (So for example, The Simpsons S03E15 will show up on Plex under Season 3 of Red Dwarf, rather than The Simpsons).

The show episodes are all named in the same format - e.g. ‘The Simpsons - S03E15 - Homer Alone’ or ‘Father Ted - S01E01 - Good Luck, Father Ted’. Why is it, then, that my Plex server doesn’t seem to understand that there are other TV shows than Red Dwarf (as amazing as Red Dwarf is)?

Any tips would be very gratefully received - thank you.

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Would you mind sharing the full path of one such example and which folder(s) is (are) linked to your tv-show library?
I take it this isn’t mp4/m4v files with embedded metadata that all says it’s part of Red Dwarf?

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Here is an example:

[Server name]/Media/TV shows/Father Ted/Season 1/‘Father Ted - S01E01 - Good Luck, Father Ted’ - but then this shows up on Plex as Series 1 Episode 1 of Red Dwarf, rather than Father Ted. Very weird. AFAIK there is no embedded metadata. There are currently three folders inside my TV show directory - Father Ted, Malcolm in the Middle and Red Dwarf.

4

You should not point the library directly to individual tv-show folders but to the parent folder that contains all those shows.

Wrong

/Media/TV shows/Father Ted/
/Media/TV shows/Malcolm in the Middle/
/Media/TV shows/Red Dwarf/

Correct

/Media/TV shows/
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The library is pointed to the Media folder. I tried again, rescanning the library. I put Season 1 of Father Ted back in the Father Ted folder (/Media/TV shows/Father Ted/Season 1/) and got Plex to scan the library - but the episodes still come up under Red Dwarf. This is really strange - I can’t have been the only person to have had this issue?

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If the show folders are in /Media/TV shows/ you should not point the library at /Media/

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The library was pointed at /Media/TV shows/, and then I changed it to point at /Media/ - either way, it gave the same result.

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Have you already done a Plex Dance since you moved all those things around?
Library folder needs to be /Media/TV shows/ for Plex to properly recognize stuff.
I can only guess that Plex had initially mismatched the files due to the perceived wrong structure – when you shifted things, Plex still remembered that those files are known and had previously been (incorrectly) matched. The way the agent/scanner is build, it’ll try to maintain existing structures – the Plex Dance is “designed” to make Plex forget any previous bad associations.

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I did the Plex Dance - and that worked, so thank you! Everything is now as it should be (for now, at least…) Thanks again.

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