Unmatch Duplicate Episodes in TV SHOW

General Discussions
1

Hello all,

Plex as created a DUPLICATES in my TV SHOW. Unfortunately, this is a false case. I have many like these. IS THERE ANY TO UNMATCH THESE? I can’t find any place to do this.

As per example, it mixes up Animal.Kingdom.2016.S01E07.FRENCH.BDRip.x264-SODAPOP and Belfer.2016.S01E07.FRENCH.HDTV.x264-CHiLL.mkv. Strange but true.

This is probably caused because of the year in the name.

Thanx.
Regards.

2

Step one: Correct your naming.
Step two: Plex Dance.

Your folder structure and naming should end up looking something like the following:

TV Root Folder/        <--- Name not important, but your library should point here
    Animal Kingdom (2016)/
        Animal Kingdom (2016) - S01E07 - Episode Name [useless details].mkv
    Belfer (2016)/
        Belfer (2016) - S01E07 - Episode Name [useless details].mkv

“Episode Name” in the file names is completely optional. The [useless details] portion of the filename will be ignored by Plex.

1 Like
3

I find that the default release group naming scheme for shows to work fine when dropped into a (correctly Plex schema named) folder. However, Plex will NEVER create duplicates of different shows if you are using the correct structure. Most likely, you are not targeting the root folder of your shows (as @pshanew instructed you to do) or you are using sub-SUB folders to organize your shows, which is a huge no-no as well. Lastly, maybe you are just dumping all your newly (ill-)gotten gained episodes into one lump folder and hoped that Plex would figure out which show it belongs to based on the name (also a no-no)

I’d like to take a look at your library Add Folders menu to see how your folder structure is to see what might be the issue. At the very least, go to one of these episodes, click on Get Info in the triple dot menu for the episode, and share the path that Plex found the file at (if this is one of the duplicate episodes, both paths would be good).

4

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The only thing I can add is this happened only since the 2 last upgrades of Plex Server. Didn’t happened before

5

I have renamed like said but still the same issue. Is there anyway to rollback Plex?

6

Can you edit your TV library and show a screenshot of the “Add folders” tab, similar to the following?

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Given your example above, yours should be pointing to (at least) “K:\Series\Autre\480p” for these to be detected as distinct series.

7

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I have a shitload of subfolders. Like said previously, never had any issues. I am running Plex since many many years and never had this issue.

Thanx.
Regards.

8

That may well be the case, but you were always building a house of cards with that structure; the table finally shook sufficiently for it to fall down.

To ensure the best possibility of the scanner functioning correctly, your library should be pointed to the folder level immediately above where your series are stored, per my example above.

9

I will give it a try. My library is pretty big and everytime I try to add or remove a folder, I get a message that my CHANGED CAN’T BE SAVED.

Do you have any workaround for this?

10

Unfortunately, this is caused by performance issues on the db due to your files not being named according to the plex naming convention. Its having trouble saving as it does not like what its detecting when you try and edit the library.

Plex has made major changes over the past 18 months or so to how the scanner/agent/matcher all work. In the past using unsupported naming may have worked it may now not anymore. Your files are poorly named for plex, sorry, no point beating around the bush :frowning:

I would recommend taking this opportunity to fix your naming and ensure they match what plex expect. For a bit of upfront work it will save you a huge amount of hassle into the future.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/

11

I have rollback to a version in April 2022 and everything works pretty good. So there is an issue with this version.

So there is no issue with my naming convention.

12

I understand why you would think that given the behavior you’ve seen. And I’m not trying to pick on you for how you’ve structured your filesystem or named your files. However, there are real issues with how you’ve done so; I’m pointing these out in the hopes that you can adopt these best practices and have fewer issues in the future.

  1. Extra information in your filenames can potentially confuse the scanner. If you’re going to include a year, it should be enclosed in parentheses, immediately following the series name. Other information which the scanner doesn’t care about should be enclosed in square brackets so that it will be ignored. Or, you can just place it at the end of the filename after the final hyphen.
  2. The folder structure where your series are stored should be consistent, and should included only folders representing the show name and the season. Extra folder levels in the hierarchy can confuse the scanner.
  3. The library should be configured to point to the directory which holds the various series directories. If it points higher in the hierarchy the scanner can incorrectly merge series, such as what you’re experiencing.

After correcting any of these issues, you will likely need to Plex Dance the affected series.

Again, it’s not my intent to browbeat you over this; there are just some things which you can do to make your experience with Plex matching more consistent and supportable.

I hope this helps, and good luck!

13

Thanx for your help. I have to underline that since the NEW TV AGENTS scanning, things have improved a lot.

Cheers.

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