When I add a new episode of any TV Show, the category for the given TV Show is created as a new folder containing only the latest episode. I have to go into the TV Shows category and merge the folders in order to get them together and to have metadata on the episodes.
- Look up your show on TheTVDB
- Take the title as it is used on TheTVDB. If there is something in parentheses, take that too. If the title contains invalid characters (depends on your file system), like
§ : % *, simply leave them out. - Check the naming and the folder structure of your show. Name the top folder of the show exactly after the title on TheTVDB. No abbreviations. No additional subfolders. No aliases.
- Name the episode files according to the above linked naming guide. Use the same title as for the top folder.
Show's Title - s01e01 - additional info.ext(’- additional info’ can be left out) - After you corrected the naming and folder structure, perform the Plex Dance with all files for this show.
Current issue: if your tv show title contains a dot . as part of its offical title, plex has a problem with it currently. You’ll get better results if you strip that dot from all folder and file names.
Correcting file and folder naming for whole tv shows is a breeze with Filebot
Seems to be the dots causing problems lately.
There are way too many files to start renaming them now, as it has worked fine earlier.
I’ll rather just wait for a update that fixes the issue, I assume it is on its way
I have exactly the same problem as stevencas. The show folder is named “Fear the Walking Dead”, exactly the same as on Thetvdb and for example the episode is called “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.S02E11.PROPER.720p.HDTV.x264-KILLERS”. This has always worked for me earlier, no problems with season 1 for example. Now I have this problem for all tvseries with dots.
Plex adds a new show everytime calling it “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.”
When trying to manually match the series, the default search is “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.”
If I just remove all the dots and search again, it finds the show.
But its extremely irritating to have to do this for all episodes added, for all shows.
This started maybe 1-2 months ago, its definitely something wrong after an upgrade of Plex.
We need to get a fix for this…
@sebbe1985 said:
I have exactly the same problem as stevencas. The show folder is named “Fear the Walking Dead”, exactly the same as on Thetvdb and for example the episode is called “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.S02E11.PROPER.720p.HDTV.x264-KILLERS”. This has always worked for me earlier, no problems with season 1 for example. Now I have this problem for all tvseries with dots.Plex adds a new show everytime calling it “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.”
When trying to manually match the series, the default search is “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.”
And the files are in mp4 / m4v format, right?
If so, they could contain internal metadata which can potentially throw off Plex’s scanners.
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.
Afterwards, perform the Plex Dance with the affected episodes.
@sebbe1985 said:
I have exactly the same problem as stevencas. The show folder is named “Fear the Walking Dead”, exactly the same as on Thetvdb and for example the episode is called “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.S02E11.PROPER.720p.HDTV.x264-KILLERS”. This has always worked for me earlier, no problems with season 1 for example. Now I have this problem for all tvseries with dots.
The correct name is “Fear the Walking Dead - s02e11 - Pablo & Jessica.ext” other names may have worked in the past and may work from time to time now but they are not the standards the Plex uses for TV shows.
See: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220687-Naming-Series-Based-TV-Shows
You can use FileBot to correct the names with little or no problems. The format string I use for FileBot is “{n.replaceTrailingBrackets()} - {s00e00.lower()} - {t}” there are more complicated strings that can be used but I find that to be quite enough.
Also if you do not have them you should have separate season folders under the TV show’s folder.
I use what I have detailed above and I have zero problems with “Fear the Walking Dead” or any other show.
Remember that just because something that is non-standard with Plex worked in the past does not meant that it will continue to work. If you want to use Plex and want it to work correctly then you need to conform to its desires. Fighting the Plexosaurus is simply not worth the effort as the destruction to the visualization of your media could be as great as that of Tokyo after certain large lizard like creature paid a brief visit.
@OttoKerner said:
@sebbe1985 said:
I have exactly the same problem as stevencas. The show folder is named “Fear the Walking Dead”, exactly the same as on Thetvdb and for example the episode is called “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.S02E11.PROPER.720p.HDTV.x264-KILLERS”. This has always worked for me earlier, no problems with season 1 for example. Now I have this problem for all tvseries with dots.Plex adds a new show everytime calling it “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.”
When trying to manually match the series, the default search is “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.”And the files are in mp4 / m4v format, right?
If so, they could contain internal metadata which can potentially throw off Plex’s scanners.
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.Afterwards, perform the Plex Dance with the affected episodes.
They are mkv, I will check the settings and try next time I have something to add.
@Elijah_Baley said:
@sebbe1985 said:
I have exactly the same problem as stevencas. The show folder is named “Fear the Walking Dead”, exactly the same as on Thetvdb and for example the episode is called “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.S02E11.PROPER.720p.HDTV.x264-KILLERS”. This has always worked for me earlier, no problems with season 1 for example. Now I have this problem for all tvseries with dots.The correct name is “Fear the Walking Dead - s02e11 - Pablo & Jessica.ext” other names may have worked in the past and may work from time to time now but they are not the standards the Plex uses for TV shows.
See: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220687-Naming-Series-Based-TV-ShowsYou can use FileBot to correct the names with little or no problems. The format string I use for FileBot is “{n.replaceTrailingBrackets()} - {s00e00.lower()} - {t}” there are more complicated strings that can be used but I find that to be quite enough.
Also if you do not have them you should have separate season folders under the TV show’s folder.
I use what I have detailed above and I have zero problems with “Fear the Walking Dead” or any other show.
Remember that just because something that is non-standard with Plex worked in the past does not meant that it will continue to work. If you want to use Plex and want it to work correctly then you need to conform to its desires. Fighting the Plexosaurus is simply not worth the effort as the destruction to the visualization of your media could be as great as that of Tokyo after certain large lizard like creature paid a brief visit.
That means that everytime when adding an episode of any show, I would have to rename them?? That sounds just plain stupid 
Things should strive to be more automatic and easy, not more manual work…
@sebbe1985 said:
@OttoKerner said:
@sebbe1985 said:
I have exactly the same problem as stevencas. The show folder is named “Fear the Walking Dead”, exactly the same as on Thetvdb and for example the episode is called “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.S02E11.PROPER.720p.HDTV.x264-KILLERS”. This has always worked for me earlier, no problems with season 1 for example. Now I have this problem for all tvseries with dots.Plex adds a new show everytime calling it “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.”
When trying to manually match the series, the default search is “Fear.the.Walking.Dead.”And the files are in mp4 / m4v format, right?
If so, they could contain internal metadata which can potentially throw off Plex’s scanners.
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.Afterwards, perform the Plex Dance with the affected episodes.
They are mkv, I will check the settings and try next time I have something to add.
Unfortunately that did not have any effect at all
Plex has, and has had, a consistent naming schema for years. To expect them to change it just for you and possibly screw-up the 10,000+ existing users before you is, and I quote, “just plain stupid”.
And you can look at Filebot to automate the renaming AND automatically move the files to your Plex media folders.
@sebbe1985 said:
They are mkv, I will check the settings and try next time I have something to add.
Unfortunately that did not have any effect at all
Yes, those have only an effect on mp4 / m4v files.
In this case I can only recommend to go completely Plex-compliant in your file naming.
That means that everytime when adding an episode of any show, I would have to rename them?? That sounds just plain stupid
Filebot supports drag & drop operation and it is also a part of some widely used postprocessing scripts which automate things pretty much completely.
@sebbe1985 said:
That means that everytime when adding an episode of any show, I would have to rename them?? That sounds just plain stupid
You could, as others have said, set up FileBot to automate the process or you could install Sonarr and use its automated features. As long as your structure is pretty standard Sonarr will take file from a designated directory and rename it and place it in the appropriate folder structure.
While Sonarr has the ability to use various “indexers” (BitTorrent clients) it does not have to and can be used just to monitor a folder and rename and relocate files.
Although I have not tried to use it in that way I think FileBot can be set up so as to do the same thing.
Both of the above do require that your TV files be in a standard structure but the structure is the same as what Plex requires so that should not be an issue.
@sGarver said:
Plex has, and has had, a consistent naming schema for years. To expect them to change it just for you and possibly screw-up the 10,000+ existing users before you is, and I quote, “just plain stupid”.And you can look at Filebot to automate the renaming AND automatically move the files to your Plex media folders.
Then why did it work for the past 3 years without removing the dots? And why don’t the change the naming process for movies then? Movies still work with dots in the folder-names.
I don’t have an authoritative answer, but speculating… keep in mind the Plex does rely on third-party providers such as theTVDB. if theTVDB changes their api for matching, this can have an adverse affect on us. BTW, I use an alternate format, and I hope the Plex keeps allowing it, of Show - 00x00 - Episode.ext
Movie metadata is scrapped from other sources.
I don’t know if god has answered my prayers but the two latest episodes I added worked perfectly fine, with dots in their folder and filenames. This make no sense at all.
Folder “Marvels.Agents.of.S.H.I.E.L.D.S04E01.720p.HDTV.x264-AVS”
File “Marvels.Agents.of.S.H.I.E.L.D.S04E01.720p.HDTV.x264-AVS.mkv”
Folder “The.Big.Bang.Theory.S10E01.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION”
File “The.Big.Bang.Theory.S10E01.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION.mkv”
