Another thing to watch out for is the folder STRUCTURE for how to add media and shows. I see that your library you created (called “MFCSShared Folder”) is a TV Show, so you must use a particular structure for organizing shows. You must point to a folder that itself is NOT the base folder of a show.
So, if for example you have a show called The Shield on your I:/TV/ drive, then the entire path to the show will be I:/TV/The Shield/Season 01/The Shield.S01E01.EXT. For this show to show up properly, you must NOT add I:/TV/The Shield folder to your library, you must instead add I:/TV/. How Plex works, is it will look at the /TV/ folder for more folders within that. Every single folder within it Plex assumes is a show all by itself. It will use the folder name to identify the show, so make sure you name that folder (The Shield) EXACTLY as it appears on TVDB or TMDB, depending on which source you pick (under the advanced page in Edit Library… The default is TMDB).
If this works, any other show you add to your I drive in the /TV/ folder will automatically be picked up by Plex when it does its next scan.
As is ChuckPa, I am confused about which Plex server you are doing all this on. You mention a Synology NAS server, which definitely uses different pathnames than on Windows.Do not type in by hand or paste in paths to media folders, you should almost always use the BROWSE FOR MEDIA FOLDER button in the “Add Folder” menu.
Please browse and follow the naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files article. Not only does the organization scheme it suggests work for Plex, but it’s great in general to keep everything organized outside of Plex.
I’m writing a more detailed and lengthy response to your’s and ChuckPa’s responses, but I have a very simple first question that no one I’ve found in almost 2 weeks of searching has clearly answered. For TV shows that are several seasons with multiple episodes per season what is the naming convention? Is it:
Shared Folder> (MFCSShare Folder)>
Series Name (The Shield)> (The Shield is a folder?)
Season number (The Shield Season 01) or just (Season 01 within “The Shield” folder)>
Season number Episode number name of Episode (S01E01 Pilot)
Please spell it out line-by-line with every single enter click listed.
Any Share Folder You want/
Series Name/
Season N/ (1,2,3, etc --or-- 01, 02, 03 --- 10, .. whatever)
Series Name - SxxExx - Optional Title.ext
Another Series/
Season 01/
Another Series - S01E01 - Pilot.mkv
How it works:
This folder is where I put my TV Series. I can have as many as I want.
In each Series folder, I put each series, structured as I show above
We then create a library section
– of type TV Shows
– Give it the path to “Any Shared Folder” – (e.g “/volume1/Any Shared Folder”)
– Change any of the options you’d like
– OK it and let it start
If you find it’s not seeing your media -AND- it’s named as it should
– Control Panel
– Shared Folder
– EDIT the shared folder containing the media
– If “PlexMediaServer” isn’t on the list of users with permission, you’ll need add it.
There is a whole FAQ here with tips and ways to do things. Don’t hesitate to help yourself to it.
My top level is different because I have a different NAS.
[chuck@lizum tv2.2011]$ cd /vol/media/tv2
[chuck@lizum tv2.2012]$ ls
1066 - A Year to Conquer England/ Modern Marvels/
A History of Scotland/ Our Planet (2019)/
Air Disasters/ Parks and Recreation/
Almost Human/ Quantum Leap/
[chuck@lizum tv2.2013]$
[chuck@lizum tv2.2013]$ cd 1066\ -\ A\ Year\ to\ Conquer\ England/
[chuck@lizum 1066 - A Year to Conquer England.2014]$ ls
Season 01/
[chuck@lizum 1066 - A Year to Conquer England.2015]$ ls *01
1066 - A Year to Conquer England - S01E01 - Prelude to War.mp4
1066 - A Year to Conquer England - S01E02 - England Under Attack.mp4
1066 - A Year to Conquer England - S01E03 - The Battle of Hastings.mp4
[chuck@lizum 1066 - A Year to Conquer England.2016]$
Every episode file provides the necessary info to guarantee identification. (using my method). PMS also supports not including the series name when the media files are in the Season folder.
ChuckPa and Divideby0
I think I need to go back to the very beginning. I have a brand new (less than 2 weeks old) Synology DS-220+ that I have used an RJ45 cable to connect to my router. I have installed Plex media server on the DS-220. I followed the “Installation and Setup of Plex Media Server on Synology” instructions. I was able to successfully setup a shared folder “Movies” with over 100 movies and then access them on my smart TV (my ultimate goal for all my video media). I used “Media Server 01” as my media server. When I attempted to setup a shared folder “TV” following the same instructions, it continually came back as “empty” I tried a different shared folder “TV Shows” and got the same results. I eventually tried setting up “MFCSSHared Folder” which gave me the same results (nada) until today when it worked once and then dissappeared.
I am working on a Windows 10 home box, with a very recent DSM upgrade. I am using an external drive (I:) as a primary source for the media that I have ripped from my personal DVDs. So all the TV Shows that I have ripped thus far are on my I Drive. Once they are on the I drive I try to upload them to Media Server 01 without success. I tried to set up a folder “TV” for my tv media, but “Media Server 01” will not set up a shared folder “tv” or “TV Shows”, but it did setup a shared folder “MFCSShared Folder”. Despite this I was never able to add any media to MFCSShared Folder until this afternoon when the media showed up once and then disappeared and the folder was “empty” again according to Plex.
File Station refuses to allow me to add a folder “TV’ or “Tv Shows”
Plex on the other hand shows multiple “TV Show” folders. But I can’t add anything to these folders.
What gives? I don’t understand how this is supposed to work.
If I sound cross, I apoligise but I just can’t understand the difficulty of this. I have worked with home PCs since 1993, I have set up numerous windows networks, I have had some experience with Linux systems and yet I am completely baffled by this. Please help.
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