TV shows with incorrect episode data

General Discussions
1

Plex server 1.10.1 running on Mint 18

I cannot get episode names on TV shows to come up correctly. They just come up with generic names - not the ones on the TV DB names. This worked perfectly well with Kodi, but I cannot make it work with Plex.

I have tried and tried to make this work, and it just won’t.

I have read pretty well every thread on this forum and others.

I have been through the plex dance (all variants); I have deleted whole libraries; I have cleared out the library and restarted; I have uninstalled the server, deleted by hand the whole /var/lib/plexmediaserver directory and reinstalled the server from scratch, and it STILL won’t work.

I have now reduced my system to a single library with exactly TWO TV programmes, one with one season and seven episodes, one with one season and thirteen episodes.

They are both named EXACTLY as recommended by Plex.

MH
├── Fortunes of War
│   └── Season 01
│   ├── Fortunes of War - s01ep01.m4v
│   ├── Fortunes of War - s01ep02.m4v
│   ├── Fortunes of War - s01ep03.m4v
│   ├── Fortunes of War - s01ep04.m4v
│   ├── Fortunes of War - s01ep05.m4v
│   ├── Fortunes of War - s01ep06.m4v
│   └── Fortunes of War - s01ep07.m4v
├── Merlin
│   └── Season 02
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep01.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep02.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep03.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep04.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep05.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep06.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep07.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep08.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep09.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep10.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep11.m4v
│   ├── Merlin - s02ep12.m4v
│   └── Merlin - s02ep13.m4v

They both come up with the correct number of episodes but with the wrong episode names - but differently.

Fortunes of War season 1 (the only season) names the episodes as Fortunes Of War.1x1 etc.

Nothing I can do changes this. The “1x1” bit seems to reflect an error I made when I first created the filenames - this works for Kodi but apparently not for Plex. But I’ve deleted the original library, and I don’t use that naming any more. So where on earth does Plex get that name from?

It’s as if, once you get something wrong, it’s pretty well permanent.

Merlin season 2 names the episodes as Merlin - s01ep01 etc.

The naming convention for Merlin has never been wrong - and I can’t get the episode names correct at all.

Everything else with Plex seems brilliant - really impressed with it. But this seems to be just hopeless.

Any suggestions? Or do I just accept that Plex is pretty rubbish at episode naming and live with it?

2

Those are not named quite correctly.
Instead of: Fortunes of War - s01ep01.m4v
It should be: Fortunes of War - s01e01.m4v

I know you said that it worked in the past but improper naming can suddenly stop working.

Also be sure you have gone into settings/agents on your server and moved ‘Local Media assets’ below everything else except in “personal media” particularly for “Movies” and “Shows.” Embedded metadata can screw up even the best named shows.

3

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220687-Naming-Series-Season-Based-TV-Shows

Plex says SxxExx and not SxxEPxx

4

OK - that was a bit careless of me. Never mind. I’ve now renamed them all, and recreated the library from scratch.

And nothing has changed. To the extent that the Merlin episodes are named s01ep01 etc even though I have renamed them s01e01 etc

And I don’t have Local Media assets, so far as I am aware.

5

YES - solved. Thank you Elijah Baley!

It was indeed that stupid Local Media Assets setting.

I mean - why on earth is it there? Why should it affect anything? Why doesn’t deleting the library get rid of it?

Oh well. I’ll know if that problem happens in the future.

Thanks again. All working now.

6

There is a known bug that Plex refuses to acknowledge that places “Local media assets” at the top by default on every new install. Plex has known about the problem for years and has taken absolutely no action to prevent the problem from impacting many many users.

It is a STUPID move by Plex to prioritize local media assets over the agents by default. Yes it is easy to fix but it should not be necessary to perform a fix for a problem created by Plex’s stupidity.

The fix is easy but Plex will not do it as they are too arrogant to admit they could have made a mistake in their installer setup and they are too stupid or lazy to fix this simple bug.

7

Plex doesn’t use MP4 files - and they know nobody else does either - so for Plex… it doesn’t matter.