Upgrading file results in duplicate

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
1

I’m not sure when it started but I’ve been having issues upgrading movies on my server.

What I would do previously would be to Rename the new file to Movie.Title.(year).x265.XXX and drop it in the folder next to the old version. Then I would run a library update and it would pick up the new file. The movie would show up with the little 2 on it indicating there are two files. I would then delete the old, rescan again and I would be good to go.

Now it is picking up an entirely new entry. Someone elsewhere suggested I run a full metadata update on the library and tried again. This made sense. Some of these films have been in my library for years and the agents have likely changed since then. However, I ran a full metadata update on the library and the issue persists.

It’s not the end of the world but I would love to retain watched stats and not have movies that have been in my library for years show up as recently added.

Thoughts? If there are any logs I can provide let me know.

Server Version#: 1.18.4.2164
Player Version#: 4.12.3

2

That’s a brand new movie - it’s also a bogus File Name:

Movie Title (year) [.x265].XXX
(Plex ignores all in [Brackets])

Would be correct, but if it’s an MP4 file Local Media Assets in the top slot is probably indicating an entirely different movie:

Do this, in that case, under ALL tabs in Shows and Movies:

LMAHack-Year20
LMAHack-Year201029×372 90.5 KB

Red: Where it was
Green: Where it goes

3

actually if a new version of a same video is put in, and plex shows it as a separate movie, this means that your metadata AGENT has changed at some point.

You will have to manually ‘fix match’ or ‘combine’ the 2 separate instances.

you can verify that each movie has different agents by doing ‘get info’ > view xml > 'guid="

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="13" librarySectionTitle="Movies 4K" librarySectionUUID="b1bf05b5-514a-4b05-872b-7a9d8e7a8409" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1576606642">
<Video ratingKey="780508" key="/library/metadata/780508" guid="com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb://458156?lang=en"

versus

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionTitle="Movies" librarySectionUUID="6856841a-4b51-44fe-ac37-99249eb51561" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1576606642">
<Video ratingKey="762389" key="/library/metadata/762389" guid="com.plexapp.agents.imdb://tt6146586?lang=en"
1 Like
4

True - unless the file is named so badly Plex can’t find it’s ■■■■ with both hands…

The way I’ve been upgrading shows and movies - for ever - is to simply name the new file the same as the old file and overwrite it - then analyse - if you don’t need new Video Preview Thumbs. If you do - Plex Dance - your ‘New Movie/Show’.

5

I can’t remember the last time I had to do a plex dance.

‘unmatch’ + ‘match’ usually clears up any metadata/agent issues.

assuming proper naming to begin with.

plex should update previews automatically at some point, it might be deferred until ‘maintenance’ schedule runs though.

6

You can safely assume that with yourself, or me.

Given the name @relentless_d has already quoted (the bogus one):

Assume only makes an ASS-U-ME…lol

8

This got it for me. I’m sure there are other reasons and fixes (as have been suggested in here) but this works.

Obviously I had an issue with the file names on my replaced files. Typically I just do movie.name.(year).xxx but I was thinking I had to have the files side by side and I was doing that wrong. Simply overwriting it worked.

Thanks all!

1 Like
9

It absolutely does… until I manually trigger the analysis by clicking the right button…

:wink:

10

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