I have begun to have problems with new TV Shows that are not matching data for specific episodes despite them being named consistently with others that are matching correctly.
One of the shows that isn’t working is Mrs. America. My folder structure is /Mrs. America/Season 01/Mrs.America.S01E0# for each of the files which are all .mkv, valid files from the same source. Only episodes 1, 2 and 7 are being identified.
I have attached the log that indicates:
2020-09-19 15:20:18,691 (7f0ac0ff9700) : INFO (init:926) - No media for season 1 episode 3 - skipping population of episode data
2020-09-19 15:20:18,692 (7f0ac0ff9700) : INFO (init:926) - No media for season 1 episode 4 - skipping population of episode data
2020-09-19 15:20:18,692 (7f0ac0ff9700) : INFO (init:926) - No media for season 1 episode 5 - skipping population of episode data
2020-09-19 15:20:18,692 (7f0ac0ff9700) : INFO (init:926) - No media for season 1 episode 6 - skipping population of episode data
2020-09-19 15:20:18,693 (7f0ac0ff9700) : INFO (init:926) - No media for season 1 episode 8 - skipping population of episode data
2020-09-19 15:20:18,693 (7f0ac0ff9700) : INFO (init:926) - No media for season 1 episode 9 - skipping population of episode data
Thanks for clarifying the issue at hand and for taking the time to test on your own. What I don’t understand is why it matches some but not all of the episodes when they are all named in the exact same manner. The only difference is some contain the phrase REPACK but 2 of those are matched while the 3rd is not.
While I understand having consistent naming I must respectfully disagree and suggest that having Title.S01.E# with periods instead of spaces should be sufficient. There might be some cases where users want to preserve original file names that adhere to a consistent format such as this or avoid spaces all together. What is surprising is that I have not had any other problems with the hundreds of other shows named in this manner in my Library. Is there anything else that can be done with the matching algorithms to navigate punctuation and other media identifying tags in the filename when the title and season/episode numbers are present?
The important bit in the file name is the appropriate season and episode number notation s02e17 which in this example means Season 2 Episode 17 It does not matter if you use dashes, dots or just spaces.
as well as
Many of our naming instructions mention having Optional_Info at the end of the file name. As the label suggests, it’s optional, but many people like to use it for things such as an episode title; such optional info is ignored by Plex when matching content.
Again, apologies for pressing this matter but not being able to scrape shows named with periods and with optional info after the title and episode number is a deal breaker for my library!
While I can appreciate wanting to get rid of spaces if one’s using the command line all the time but there MUST be a clear delimiter in the sequence.
The problem with making it all one token is precisely that — It’s all one token (blob of characters).
May I offer this script?
This is what I use to test user matching problems.
To use it:
Create a new directory somewhere to hold the test files
Edit Dir= at the top of the script to point to it.
Create a new “Testing” library section - type TV Shows - pointing to it.
In the command line:
make-series 'Quoted name the exact way you want it to appear' [Num_seasons [num_episodes]]
By default, it stamps out 7 seasons and 20 episodes each.
[chuck@lizum tv.343]$ cat ~/bin/make-series
#!/bin/sh
# Make a fake TV series for match and metadata debugging
Dir=/vie/qa/tv
if [ "x$1" = "x" ]; then
echo Usage: $0 Name \(Remember to use \" or \' as needed \) \[number of seasons\] \[Episodes/Season\]
exit 1
fi
Name="$1"
# Get Season count
Seasons=7
if [ "x$2" != "x" ]; then
Seasons=$2
fi
# Get Episode count
Episodes=20
if [ "x$3" != "x" ]; then
Episodes=$3
fi
# add upper limit if given
if [ "$2" = "" ]; then
Limit=07
else
Limit=$2
fi
S=1
while [ $S -le $Seasons ];
do
# Prepare Season
Season="$S"
# Pad
if [ $S -lt 10 ]; then
Season="0${S}"
fi
echo Making \"${1}/Season ${Season}\"
mkdir -p "${Dir}/${1}/Season ${Season}"
E=1
while [ $E -le $Episodes ];
do
EpisodeNum=$E
if [ $E -lt 10 ]; then
EpisodeNum="0$EpisodeNum"
fi
echo $(uuidgen) $(uuidgen) $(uuidgen) `date` $1 this is must some stuff to make the file long enough to not be skipped `date` $1 > "${Dir}/${1}/Season ${Season}/${1} - S${Season}E${EpisodeNum}.mkv"
E=$(($E + 1))
done
S=$(($S + 1))
done
echo Done
[chuck@lizum tv.344]$
As for space mitigation – the tab key works very nicely.
In:
[chuck@lizum tv.344]$ cd /vie/qa/tv/Mrs.\ America/Season\ 02/Mrs.\ America\ -\ S02E
I tapped the tab key three times to get this far. Now it’s waiting for a digit selection
Thanks @ChuckPa your script is very cool. I also understand that the tab key works to navigate files and directories with spaces but the part I am struggling with is the requirement for spaces. The support page indicates:
Standard, Season-Based Shows
Most television shows have episodes organized into seasons. To name season-based shows create files with the season and episode notation SXXEXX
This is only an example. The important bit in the file name is the appropriate season and episode number notation s02e17 which in this example means Season 2 Episode 17 It does not matter if you use dashes, dots or just spaces.
I understand the need for a clear delimiter but I am still not understanding why
“Mrs.America.S01E03” is not scraping correctly with a period as outlined on the support page.
If all Plex needs is the title, season and episode number isn’t a period a fair request as a delimiter?
Thanks @ChuckPa that is much more clear. SeriesName has to be a text string without a delimiter.
I am not entirely convinced that is the only problem at hand however. I am also experiencing the issue with the last show I added. Plex only shows 7 episodes as being identified
But there are clearly 10 episodes in the /DAVE/Season 01/ folder:
Check the file permissions. Make certain PMS can read them
If permissions are fine, “Plex Dance” the series.
(move out to an unmonitored area, scan files, empty trash, clean bundles, move media back, scan files again and allow to match)
Thanks @ChuckPa. I just wanted to follow up on this thread in case it can benefit anyone else.
As it turns out it was a permissions issue with Sonarr hence some episodes resolving (manually moved) while others did not (imported automatically).
In Sonarr’s settings under “Media Management” which requires “Advanced Settings” to be toggled there are options to set file permissions which I have updated to suite my needs. Everything is now working as intended and Plex has no problem managing all of the filenames mentioned in this thread.
Thanks again @ChuckPa I sure appreciate your tireless effort in supporting questions here. I have read through many that seem as silly in retrospect as mine was but the reality is I would not have come by the solution as easily as I did without your help, something I am very grateful for!
