Unable to frefresh Meta Data

[pzh201]

Server Version#:1.42.1
Player Version#:
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

I updated to server on my QNAP NAS and then when I opened the browser UI, I seemed to have 3 servers, all with the same name. I deleted them all then added in thwe actual server, added thye Libraries, updated the settings to point at the meta repositories and tried to refresh the meta data. This worked on some entries, but left more than 50% of thre entries with no posters (before the update, all my films, TV Series and Music had pposters). No matter how many times I try, the refresh runs for a few seconds and doesn’t update any further posters.

Also, after adding the TV library, those programmes with multiple seasons are showing as individual seasons and not being consolidated as they were before.

Any ideas as to what I might have done wrong or how I might get the config back to as it was would be greatfully appriciated.

[dbirch]

First guess is you are not following the standard naming schema, and plex cannot match your media. Without logs I cannot confirm this, but its the top 9 of 10 reasons for this issue.

[pzh201]

Thanks, but they were all ok before I removed then added the libraries back in.Are the logs permanently active?

[FordGuy61]

Plex Media Server version
Please verify the Plex Media Server version installed on your NAS. The current version of Plex Media Server is 1.42.1.10060.
Settings → server_name → General


Movies
Edit the library → Advanced.
Which scanner and agent are selected? Both should be Plex Movie.

For one of the problematic movies:
Edit the movie ( ) → Info. This shows the path, filename, etc.
Take a screenshot and post it to the thread.


TV Shows
Edit the library → Advanced.
Which scanner and agent are selected? You should have scanner = Plex TV Series and agent = Plex Series.

For one of the problematic shows:
Edit an episode () → Info
Take a screenshot and post it to the thread.


Log Files
Verify Plex Media Server is configured for debug server logs. Do not enable verbose logs.
Settings → server_name → General + Show Advanced.

Enable Scan my library automatically in Settings → Library. This adds some additional information to the log files.

Stop Plex Media Server and wait 30 seconds.

Start Plex Media Server and wait 3 minutes for Plex to log the startup sequence.

Play a movie or tv show episode for ~10 seconds.

Pull the log files and upload the zip file to the thread.

[dbirch]

@pzh201

but they were all ok before I removed then added the libraries back

Going to bet that its because they were scanned with an older version of the scanner, Over the last 5-10 years Plex has gradually dropped support for more and more non-standard naming schemas. The current scanner is more strict on what it matches, but has support for things like the {tvdb-xxxxx} functionality and new features that make matching less error prone. As FordGuy suggested please upload a copy of your server logs, those are always enabled unless you disable them.

[ChuckPa]

@dbirch

Going to bet that its because they were scanned with an older version of the scanner, Over the last 5-10 years Plex has gradually dropped support for more and more non-standard naming schemas.

Just over 2 years ago, the scanners were rewritten to be C++ and the Python was removed.

This resulted in much faster matching, fewer mismatches, and faster metadata retrieval.

The downside of this is C++ IS less tolerant than the previous Python scanner.

To that end, the documented naming standard (which has not changed) needs to be adhered to.

e.g.

Series/
  Season xx/
    Series - SxxEyy - Optional title

Some variants of this do work but are not guaranteed.

May I see the actual naming for Series / Season 01 / Episodes ?

An example PMS does best with is:

[chuck@lizum tv2.2000]$ ls -la 11.22.63
total 12
drwxr-xr-x  3 chuck chuck   31 Aug 17 13:48 ./
drwxrwxr-x 90 chuck chuck 4096 Aug 17 13:48 ../
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 Aug 17 15:06 Season 01/
[chuck@lizum tv2.2001]$ ls -la 11.22.63/Season\ 01/
total 34812928
drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck chuck       4096 Aug 17 15:06 ./
drwxr-xr-x 3 chuck chuck         31 Aug 17 13:48 ../
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chuck chuck 6037052078 Aug 17 15:06 11.22.63 - S01E01 - The Rabbit Hole.mp4
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chuck chuck 4691175872 Aug 17 13:50 11.22.63 - S01E02 - The Kill Floor.mkv
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chuck chuck 3811259223 Aug 17 13:48 11.22.63 - S01E03 - Other Voices, Other Rooms.mp4
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chuck chuck 4690390579 Aug 17 15:06 11.22.63 - S01E04 - The Eyes of Texas.mkv
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chuck chuck 3517948647 Aug 17 13:50 11.22.63 - S01E05 - The Truth.mkv
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chuck chuck 3516785545 Aug 17 13:50 11.22.63 - S01E06 - Happy Birthday, Lee Harvey Oswald.mkv
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chuck chuck 4692391578 Aug 17 15:06 11.22.63 - S01E07 - Soldier Boy.mkv
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chuck chuck 4691413701 Aug 17 13:52 11.22.63 - S01E08 - The Day in Question.mkv
[chuck@lizum tv2.2002]$ 

If you have a renaming tool, I’ll help you with the renaming rule to make everything be named correctly.

I use FileBot with a series naming rule of

/nas/tv/{n}/Season {s.pad(2)}/{n} - {s00e00} - {t}

where:

{n} - Name
{s} - Season number
  .pad(2) - pad the seson number with leading zeros to be 2 digits
{s00e00} - Create SxxEyy season/episode identifiers
{t} - Episode title.

When renamed, it looks like this:

[chuck@lizum Star Trek.2004]$ ls  *01 *02
Season 01:
Star Trek - S01E01 - The Man Trap.mkv                   Star Trek - S01E16 - The Galileo Seven.mkv
Star Trek - S01E02 - Charlie X.mkv                      Star Trek - S01E17 - The Squire of Gothos.mkv
Star Trek - S01E03 - Where No Man Has Gone Before.mkv   Star Trek - S01E18 - Arena.mkv
Star Trek - S01E04 - The Naked Time.mkv                 Star Trek - S01E19 - Tomorrow is Yesterday.mkv
Star Trek - S01E05 - The Enemy Within.mkv               Star Trek - S01E20 - Court Martial.mkv
Star Trek - S01E06 - Mudd's Women.mkv                   Star Trek - S01E21 - The Return of the Archons.mkv
Star Trek - S01E07 - What Are Little Girls Made Of.mkv  Star Trek - S01E22 - Space Seed.mkv
Star Trek - S01E08 - Miri.mkv                           Star Trek - S01E23 - A Taste of Armageddon.mkv
Star Trek - S01E09 - Dagger of the Mind.mkv             Star Trek - S01E24 - This Side of Paradise.mkv
Star Trek - S01E10 - The Corbomite Maneuver.mkv         Star Trek - S01E25 - The Devil in the Dark.mkv
Star Trek - S01E11 - The Menagerie (1).mkv              Star Trek - S01E26 - Errand of Mercy.mkv
Star Trek - S01E12 - The Menagerie (2).mkv              Star Trek - S01E27 - The Alternative Factor.mkv
Star Trek - S01E13 - The Conscience of the King.mkv     Star Trek - S01E28 - The City on the Edge of Forever.mkv
Star Trek - S01E14 - Balance of Terror.mkv              Star Trek - S01E29 - Operation - Annihilate!.mkv
Star Trek - S01E15 - Shore Leave.mkv

Season 02:
Star Trek - S02E01 - Amok Time.mkv               Star Trek - S02E14 - Wolf in the Fold.mkv
Star Trek - S02E02 - Who Mourns for Adonais.mkv  Star Trek - S02E15 - The Trouble with Tribbles.mkv
Star Trek - S02E03 - The Changeling.mkv          Star Trek - S02E16 - The Gamesters of Triskelion.mkv
Star Trek - S02E04 - Mirror, Mirror.mkv          Star Trek - S02E17 - A Piece of the Action.mkv
Star Trek - S02E05 - The Apple.mkv               Star Trek - S02E18 - The Immunity Syndrome.mkv
Star Trek - S02E06 - The Doomsday Machine.mkv    Star Trek - S02E19 - A Private Little War.mkv
Star Trek - S02E07 - Catspaw.mkv                 Star Trek - S02E20 - Return to Tomorrow.mkv
Star Trek - S02E08 - I, Mudd.mkv                 Star Trek - S02E21 - Patterns of Force.mkv
Star Trek - S02E09 - Metamorphosis.mkv           Star Trek - S02E22 - By Any Other Name.mkv
Star Trek - S02E10 - Journey to Babel.mkv        Star Trek - S02E23 - The Omega Glory.mkv
Star Trek - S02E11 - Friday's Child.mkv          Star Trek - S02E24 - The Ultimate Computer.mkv
Star Trek - S02E12 - The Deadly Years.mkv        Star Trek - S02E25 - Bread and Circuses.mkv
Star Trek - S02E13 - Obsession.mkv               Star Trek - S02E26 - Assignment - Earth.mkv
[chuck@lizum Star Trek.2005]$

[pzh201]

OK, I checked some of my folders, not all will be in the correct format, I’m sure. Here is an example of a structure that is not finding the meta data for.

[dbirch]

Change the parent folder name to The Artful Dodger (2023) {tvdb-429915} Should get you close enough to the naming schema to match. I would however do the Plex Dance to ensure it didnt have a previous false match.

[pzh201]

So It didn’t seem to matter what structure I had, nothing worked. I decided to remove the libraries, reinstall Plex and readded the libraries, but without changing any settings, and low and behold, all of the meta data was found and series consolidated, and back to normal. I don’t remember which setting might have caused the problem, so I’ll put this down to experience.