Plex Documentation → Your Media
→ Naming & Organizing Your TV Show Files
→ Naming & Organizing Your Movie Files
You need to follow Plex naming & organization guidelines.
After renaming, Plex Dance the show (or movie). This removes incorrect matching information from the Plex Media Server database.
/TV Shows <-- Folder added to Plex TV show library
/The Office (2005) {tvdb-73244} <-- Show Name (year); ID optional, but helps with matching
/Season 01
/The Office s01e01.mkv <-- consider sXXeYY mandatory
The TMDB/TVDB ID is optional, but tells Plex exactly which show to match. It is especially helpful with shows such as The Office where there are UK and US versions. Also with reboots such as Magnum PI, Hawaii 5-0, etc.
Note that Plex uses TMDB or TVDB IDs for TV shows and TMDB or IMDB IDs for movies.
If you need to rename many files:
Many people use Filebot. It is quite powerful and can rename an entire library in minutes.
Tiny Media Manager is also very useful, and free.
Example TMM Renamer Patterns:
- Show Name:
${showTitle} (${showYear}) - Season:
Season ${seasonNr2} - Episode Name:
${showTitle} (${showYear}) s${seasonNr2}e${episodeNr2} ${episode.title} - Movie Name:
${title} (${year}) {imdb-${imdb}}
PowerRenamer in Microsoft Power Tools is helpful for simple renaming with pattern matches or regular expressions. It makes quick work of tasks such as adding a year to file names, removing undesirable text from multiple files, etc.
