I’ve renamed everything and tried to put my TV series up but I am having a hell of a time here:
I upload something like “Breaking Bad”, then “Ash v. Evil Dead”…except “Ash v. Evil Dead” is nowhere to be found and “Breaking Bad” is. So, after doing some digging, I found that the episodes for “Ash v. Evil Dead” are, for some reason, grouping themselves in the “Breaking Bad” so that seasons 1, 2 and 3 all end up in 1, 2, and 3 of the BB season folders. Ok. I delete everything and start over, resyncing with just AvED…and that works…except the AvED eps are listed as “Breaking Bad Season 1-3”. ARGH! SO…I take that series out completely and upload “Revenge”…great! Everything looks good! Re-add AvED…AND AvED SHOWS UP IN SEASONS 1, 2 AND 3 OF REVENGE. So, I blank it out, then re-add Ash v. Evil Dead…but it shows up as “Revenge”. At this point, I’m ready to pull my hair out. So I start a new TV Show library and upload Ash v. Evil Dead - voila! It’s up and correctly tagged! I add “Revenge”…AND IT GROUPS WITH ASH V. EVIL DEAD.
W. T. F.
I have ZERO idea why this is happening, if it’s a glitch or what. I killed my last Plex subscription over hiccups like this but gave it another chance because my friends keep telling me that it’s a great system to remotely access my media from anywhere…except it continues to not work correctly.
Additionally, is there a way to add multiple folders instead of manually entering every season one at a time (which seems to be the only thing Plex understands and correctly processes)?
Like a drag-and-drop method instead of “browsing for media folders”? I’ve Googled and searched forums but I can’t find anything that would allow this.
how have you organized those shows/episodes?
you should have 1 folder e.g. for tv shows where you add the individual shows – no need to add every single tv show itself to the library.
a working example should look like this:
TV Shows ← this is the folder added to the Plex library .. / Breaking Bad (2008) ← the year isn’t mandatory but can be helpful to avoid confusion .. .. / Season 01 ← 2-digit season number .. .. .. / Breaking Bad (2008) - s01e01 - Pilot.ext ← episode prefix matches the series name as in the series folder; ext is the file extension of your file… could be mkv, avi, mp4, m4v… .. .. .. / Breaking Bad (2008) - s01e02.ext ← as the episode title is optional… you’re free to drop it (no value add within Plex) .. .. .. / Breaking Bad (2008) - s01e03.ext .. .. .. / ... .. .. .. / Breaking Bad (2008) - s01e07.ext .. .. / Season 02 .. .. .. / Breaking Bad (2008) - s02e01.ext .. .. .. / Breaking Bad (2008) - s02e02.ext .. .. .. / ... .. .. .. / Breaking Bad (2008) - s02e13.ext .. / Ash vs Evil Dead (2015) ← make sure to name it as it’s known in TheTVDB.com (not Ash v. Evil Dead – this could already make a difference!) .. .. / Season 01 .. .. .. / Ash vs Evil Dead (2015) - s01e01.ext .. .. .. / Ash vs Evil Dead (2015) - s01e02.ext .. .. .. / ... .. .. .. / Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015) - s01e10.ext
Another factor which could impact the matching is the “Local Media Assets” agent. If your files are in mp4/m4v format and this agent is ranked high in Settings > Server > Agents > TV Shows, Plex will use whatever show name it finds as a reference instead of using the actual file names. This can result in your well formatted files being “overruled” by some fake title created during ripping.
I have it like you’ve laid out. Here’s the problem:
I run my shows/movies off iTunes as well which is probably neither here nor there, except some folders contain “extras” and “special features” that I really don’t feel like adding to Plex. It’s just unnecessary “fat”, so to speak. Plex does not seem to have an option where you can take these extras off BEFORE adding them to the TV Shows library which means I get to go and manually delete them one by one.
This is what I mean by wishing there was an app that added things in bulk and at one’s choosing.
I really don’t want to resort to making another folder full of shows, adding those shows without extras and keeping a folder full of random special features from 100+ shows. Doesn’t Plex have some sort of feature which allows you to pinpoint and choose what you want and don’t want to add?
Yes, my files are in mp4/m4v format. The agent for “Local Media Assets” is underneath “Personal Media”.
Messing with this doesn’t really fix things. Unless “American Horror Story” changed its name to “Pokemon Indigo League” and FX didn’t tell us. The “fix match” makes sure it’s fixed but that’s really about it.
That, and the Remote Access server is down and won’t come back up. Port Forwarding doesn’t work…and Googling that, I can see that nobody seems to resolved that issue, either.
##1. iTunes vs. Plex organization
If you use your media as it’s organized by iTunes, you’re not in line with how Plex requires them to be organized!
iTunes Organization: iTunes Media .. / TV Shows ← I suppose you’ve added this folder to your Plex library .. .. / Breaking Bad .. .. .. / Season 1 .. .. .. .. / 01 Pilot.m4v .. .. .. .. / 02 Cat's in the Bag....m4v .. .. .. .. / 03 ... And the Bag's in the River.m4v .. .. .. .. / ... .. .. .. .. / 07 A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal.m4v
Plex Organization: TV Shows .. / Breaking Bad .. .. / Season 01 .. .. .. / Breaking Bad - s01e01.m4v .. .. .. / Breaking Bad - s01e02.m4v .. .. .. / Breaking Bad - s01e03.m4v .. .. .. / ... .. .. .. / Breaking Bad - s01e07.m4v
Notice the difference?
.plexignore file in iTunes Media > TV Shows > Breaking Bad > Season 1: # ignore the making of 101 Making of Breaking Bad.m4v # ignore the pilot with commentary 102 Pilot With Commentary.m4v
(file names need to match the actual names… I could only check this in iTunes but don’t have the correct names)
##3. The Right Agent
If you’re using Personal Media (TV) as your agent, Plex will ONLY consider embedded metadata. So if that’s what you got you definitely need to check the metadata embedded in your “Ash vs. Evil Dead” episodes!
##4. Remote Access
You’ll need to share some more details on this…
Do you have port forwarding enabled on your server and is the respective port accessible from the public internet? You can check this e.g. via http://canyouseeme.org
##1. iTunes vs. Plex organization
If you use your media as it’s organized by iTunes, you’re not in line with how Plex requires them to be organized!
iTunes Organization: iTunes Media .. / TV Shows ← I suppose you’ve added this folder to your Plex library .. .. / Breaking Bad .. .. .. / Season 1 .. .. .. .. / 01 Pilot.m4v .. .. .. .. / 02 Cat's in the Bag....m4v .. .. .. .. / 03 ... And the Bag's in the River.m4v .. .. .. .. / ... .. .. .. .. / 07 A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal.m4v
Plex Organization: TV Shows .. / Breaking Bad .. .. / Season 01 .. .. .. / Breaking Bad - s01e01.m4v .. .. .. / Breaking Bad - s01e02.m4v .. .. .. / Breaking Bad - s01e03.m4v .. .. .. / ... .. .. .. / Breaking Bad - s01e07.m4v
Notice the difference?
I do. I don’t have my TV Shows folder set up in “iTunes” Media because I have turned off the “add new files to your iTunes library” function which simply means that I have set up all my media files into one folder. Regardless, Plex has no problem reading the files from the folder containing my media. It’s when it misidentifies the content or adds the content to another show’s folder that’s frustrating.
.plexignore file in iTunes Media > TV Shows > Breaking Bad > Season 1: # ignore the making of 101 Making of Breaking Bad.m4v # ignore the pilot with commentary 102 Pilot With Commentary.m4v
(file names need to match the actual names… I could only check this in iTunes but don’t have the correct names)
I will try the plexignore text file and report back…adding a bunch of programming language to a text file seems rather maddening and inconvenient for a program that requires adding tons of media.
##3. The Right Agent
If you’re using Personal Media (TV) as your agent, Plex will ONLY consider embedded metadata. So if that’s what you got you definitely need to check the metadata embedded in your “Ash vs. Evil Dead” episodes!
The metadata in AvED is correct. As is Revenge and every other show. AHS’s metadata doesn’t have Pokemon anywhere in it. AvED doesn’t have Revenge in it or vice versa. I know that because I used TVDB on Subler to grab it all. I don’t even own a single Pokemon episode so how in the world Plex thinks AHS is Pokemon or that AvED belongs with Revenge or Breaking Bad is beyond me. It’s a Plex glitch. That’s the only explanation for it.
##4. Remote Access
You’ll need to share some more details on this…
Do you have port forwarding enabled on your server and is the respective port accessible from the public internet? You can check this e.g. via http://canyouseeme.org
This set-up has been a headache. I have the UNUP or whatever it’s called enabled. It was working for a day, then just stopped working. I tried port forwarding using Plex’s instructions. That didn’t work. I tried instructions from five different forums. That didn’t work. CanYouSeeMe doesn’t see me no matter what I do. Whether or not I use any settings within the route, nothing can see the server. Disabling the firewall on my Mac doesn’t fix it. Setting a manual IP doesn’t fix it. Setting DHCP doesn’t fix it. Looking on several forums, Remote Access seems to be a major issue to many users and I’ve heard it still doesn’t work for them.
