TV Shows Scanning Incorrectly

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 3.57.1
Player Version#: N/A

I’m still getting used to this new forum software, so I hope I’m posting in the right section and that I didn’t miss a solution to my problem posted before. (btw, I’ve posted on these forums before, but it must have gotten lost in migration)

Anyway, I’m having an peculiar issue. I’ve had a TV section on my server for years now, but with Netflix kicking ass and all, has fallen into disuse a bit. I recently dusted it off added a new show to it, but it is not appearing in my list. After trying to re-add the show, changing the scanner agent from (and back to) the TVDB, I searched these forums and the web for solutions, but all to no avail.

What happens is that when I add the new show, it is recognizing them as duplicates of TV shows already in my library. I’ve used the same naming convention as I did with the shows that were already in my library, but since they deviated slightly from your recommended naming convention, I altered some to see if that would fix it, but again, no luck.

I ended up emptying out the directory that Plex scans entirely, re-scanning the library, Optimize the databases, Clean bundles, and then copy just the new show into the folder and re-scan. This worked…but only for the new show. When I tried adding back the previous shows, it all made it part of the same show (making up new seasons and episodes to make it work).
So, Plex considers the following two files to be copies of the same show/ episode:

TV\HD\The Handmaids Tale\S01\The.Handmaids.Tale.S01E01.720p.BluRay.x264-YELLOWBiRD\The.Handmaids.Tale.S01E01.720p.BluRay.x264-YELLOWBiRD.mkv
TV\HD\Fringe\S01\Fringe.S01E01.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS\Fringe.S01E01.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.mkv

The Handmaids Tale is the new show, so both currently show as S01E01 for that. Fringe is exactly the way I had it in my library for years. Again, changing it to the following didn’t split the shows apart:

TV\HD\Fringe\Season 01\Fringe - S01E01.mkv

What has changed in the scanner since I last used Plex to watch new TV shows? And what do I need to do to get it back to work again?

Thanks in advance,

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Renaming files after they have been recognized incorrectly won’t solve the issue in many cases. They need to be correct from the start, according to these rules: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200220687-naming-series-season-based-tv-shows/

Before you perform the Plex Dance to resolve this, do 2 other things first:

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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.
Repeat the same under

  • Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheMovieDatabase
  • Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - Plex Movie
  • Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - TheMovieDatabase

2

  • Edit your tv shows library
  • go to the ‘Add Folders’ tab
  • verify that it points exactly to your folder TV\HD. Not one folder level above, nor one level below it.
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OttoKerner: thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Your help fixed the issue. Let me, however, reply in full in case other people experience the same issue.

To clarify, I did not simply rename files, but always remove it from the scanned folder entirely, and then optimize database, clean bundles, etc before moving it back using the new convention.

  1. I performed this action even before posting here, but it didn’t help. On a side note, when dragging the items to be bottom, they usually didn’t stay there, but they always stays below the last ‘selected’ item.

  2. This is what fixed my issue. I didn’t realize that the server these days allows multiple folders to be added per library. This completely solves my problem where I want to keep HD and SD quality content separate on my drive, but combined on my server. For the scanner, this means it is considering all top-level folders as separate series, however.

I have my movie collection ordered in a similar fashion on my hard-drive (separating SD, HD, and UHD), but all scanning into the same library because I have their parent directory as the scan directory for the library. This works well because, if I remember correctly, the movie scanner will only consider the file name of the video file or the file’s parent directory name and as such has fewer issues with nested folders, correct? Or should I be concerned that this file structure convention becomes defunct (incompatible) in the future as well?

Thanks again.

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That’s fine, because the ‘disabled’ lines won’t matter anyway.

Correct and
no, I don’t know of any future changes of the movie scanner which would require suddenly the same structual ‘folder discipline’ for movies.

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