Unable to locate local assets, unable to match

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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Server Version#: 1.31.0.6654
Player Version#: Web -4.87.2

I have been having problems getting some TV Shows to show up properly in the library. These are not typical TV shows but rather sporting events and are date-based. Quite a while back I found a page explaining how to structure the folder hierarchy and name the files to get them to show up. I followed that guide back then and it worked great. I recently had to setup a new Plex server and move all my media to a new machine. Now when scanning, these shows have no information. For further explanation, I have football games saved on my drive as follows…

  • TV Shows/
    • NFL/
    • poster.jpg
      • 2016/
        • NFL - 2016.11.16 - Packers @ Eagles - 720.mp4

I also have races saved as follows…

  • TV Shows/
    • NASCAR Sprint Cup Series/
      • poster.jpg
      • background.jpg
      • theme.mp3
    • 2015/
      • season-2015.jpg

In both shows, none of the local assets are discovered or applied when scanning the library. The posters are not applied nor visible as an option when manually editing. The background images are not applied and are not visible. And in the cases where I have a theme tune for the show it does not play that either (and yes player is set to play theme music for shows).

I know that the examples I gave are from dates long ago, but when I scanned the show at that time with the agent that was available then, it worked. I know there is a new Plex TV Series scanner in todays versions. Yes I checked to make sure the “use local assets” box was checked.
So, I tried to go under advanced options for the library and choose “Plex Series Scanner” which allowed the problematic sports shows to appear correctly in the library with all of the local assets applied, but then all the other shows lost their information (I read later that this may have been a separate issue caused by the order of agents in the server settings and I have since reverted the ordering to default).

The shows are also now split into strange “seasons” based on recurring text in some titles (such as race lap length for the NASCAR series, example: “Season 125” or “Season 200”), where as it used to be grouped into “seasons” based on the year of the folder nested directly below the title (example: “Season 2015” or “Season 2016”)

To further frustrate the situation, after switching to the “Plex Series Scanner” and scanning the library, I was unable to return to using the “Plex TV Series” agent. Any time I attempted to revert back I was given a “Changes cannot be saved” error.

I ended up deleting the entire TV Shows library and adding it back, having it set to “Plex TV Series” agent. However after scanning the whole folder again, the problematic shows are having the same issue as I originally had.

I have a large library and do not want to keep deleting and adding and changing settings as it takes a long time to test and undo changes made while troubleshooting. Can anyone offer assistance on how to get local assets to appear with the new TV show scanner?

Cheers

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Has anyone else had similar issues with local assets not being used/detected by Plex automatically? I had to manually browse for the poster.jpg image located in the root folder of the show in order to get it to show as an option.

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“Changes cannot be saved” is a recent error for many newly-created libraries (might affect older libraries), try updating to the most recent version ( 1.31.2.6810 or later) of PMS.

Your season-2015.jpg should be season2015.jpg. And you would need episode numbers, not dates to match to an online database.

Plex’s main TV scanner uses TVDB as the default. I couldn’t find NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at all in their database. Nor TMDB or anywhere else I looked. Closest was NASCAR Cup Series in TVDB, but it starts at S2020. So, I don’t think there’s anything for you to link to and pull anything from for matching.

You might need to add this as an Other Videos library instead of TV Shows. Someone else might have found more.

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Do you have a TVDB or TMDB link to this? I’m not seeing anything listed at all with that name

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I am not going to revert back to the old scanner for the library again just to test if it works. Especially if it doesn’t work again and I end up having to delete my entire library again to fix it.
However this was not a newly created library anyway so this wouldn’t apply to my situation. I think you are not focusing on the proper issue. This issue is with getting information to populate for certain series, this is not an issue with the entire library.

I’m not trying to match against an online database.

I’m attempting to add a date based series using the format Plex provides and match using local assets, not an online database.

Maybe I wasn’t thorough enough in my explanation or maybe the first paragraph is not being read, but this used to show up properly before the new scanner…

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Which is why you need to use “Other Videos” for the library type. TV Shows is used to try to match your episodes to online databases and organize that way. Other Videos is for other types of videos that are your own or not typical videos.

You could keep it in TV Shows, enable all local media asset options, name the files how you want them to show in Plex, and keep it super organized. It’ll show the files as named but not match to anything, but I’m not sure if Plex can return season posters if there’s no match and I’m not near my server to test that. You’ll have to play around with it.

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No this is not necessary. According to Plex’s own naming convention guide found here…

Naming and Organizing Your TV Show Files | Plex Support

they list that date based shows can be listed under the TV Shows library and even list how to do so. Furthermore I think you are still overlooking the fact that this USED TO work just fine…

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The date based episode naming is a guide for tv shows that you’re trying to match to an online source

There is no guide to name shows if you don’t want them matched to something

This is THE reason why an other videos type library exists

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That is not THE only reason it exists. If I recall correctly, the original intention was for hosting “home movies” and other recorded video. I highly doubt that this was created with the sole intention as a dumping ground for series not listed on TVDB/TMDB/IMDB.

Furthermore, I will reiterate once again that this USED to work just fine with or without a match to any online data base. If it was required to be under “Other Videos” then how was it working before?

-The poster.jpg USED to be immediately and automatically applied
-The theme.mp3 USED to play upon opening the series page
-The background.jpg image USED to be immediately and automatically applied
-This all USED to work while the series was located under the TV Shows library as they used local assets

Now I have to browse for and apply the poster and background manually. The theme.mp3 file still does not play at all.

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I wasn’t saying it’s an either, or…

Home movies and videos that won’t match to anything (not typical videos) on a database are in the same category and should be put in the same kind of library

These are both items you don’t want in a regular tv library so they won’t accidently get matched to incorrect metadata from an online source
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200288916-overview/

  1. Movies — Feature movies like “Gone with the Wind (1939)”
  2. TV Shows — “Dexter”, “Days of our Lives”, etc.
  3. Music — Your music collection
  4. Photos — Images from your hard drive or applications like Aperture and iPhoto.
  5. Other Videos — Videos you’ve made at home or noncommercial material that has never been broadcast (e.g., media not appearing in online databases). You can also use this type for obscure content or arbitrary video files, clips, etc. Items in Home Videos Libraries will not download artwork or other metadata from internet sources.
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-The poster.jpg USED to be immediately and automatically applied
-The theme.mp3 USED to play upon opening the series page
-The background.jpg image USED to be immediately and automatically applied
-This all USED to work while the series was located under the TV Shows library as they used local assets

Fun fact, once you’ve manually linked/changed something, it won’t go back to being automatically selected unless you do the Plex Dance or run some scripts. Never manually select things if you want it to use local assets.

Maybe try changing the seasons folders to say “Season 2015” instead of just “2015”. And play around with it to try and get it to work with the naming. Otherwise, Other Videos is what you need now with the new scanner. You can always select the older scanners.

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