Weird issue with episode metadata for a specific show

General Discussions
1

I’ve been running into some problems with metadata and I was hoping the kind folks here could help me out. Specifically, I’ve been having a ton of trouble getting correct information for Arrow season 5. For about a month now, the latest episodes would not grab data on refreshes. I ended up doing the entire Plex Dance® several times, as recently as an hour ago, and starting with the first time I did it, that just resulted in the entire season losing its episode metadata. But the odd thing is that the show itself is clearly pulling something down; all the posters and actors are there just fine.

The current TVDB log file from my server (inside the attached zip) throws up a number of errors during a show refresh process, the most common one being “Season Extra XML is empty - therefore, no episode XML”, which makes me assume the problem here is actually with the entry for the show at TVDB, not Plex itself. That would jive with how no other thing I’m pulling from TVDB for on my server is having any problems with its own individual episode data, as you can see in the same logs in which several dozen seasons of Super Sentai update totally fine. But I can’t figure out what data, in the matching Arrow episodes over at TVDB, would be parsed incorrectly to need to be fixed. For example, episodes from season 3 of The Flash use the exact same layout, as far as things like how the guest stars, writers, and production codes are put in, but none of the episodes from that show are running into metadata problems here.

Any ideas?

(Just to clarify, I do not have Arrow seasons 1-4 on my server. I assume the whole show would run into the same metadata problem as I’m describing here, but can’t know that for sure.)

3

With respect, I don’t think that’s it. Having the folder called “Arrow (2012)” has been perfectly fine for years with my media collection.

The log demonstrates that it’s got the right show (that’s the correct TVDBID):
Refreshing GUID: 'com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://257655?lang=en'

I don’t know what the problem is, I’m not that much of a ninja with the logs, but it appears that it’s not the folder name or an associated tvdbid issue.

5

I’m just saying, if it works for you with “Arrow” and it works for me with “Arrow (2012)” (and the log shows the TVDBID is correct) then it’s probably something else.

800n8q6hqlnx.jpg1146×625 143 KB

There’s been massive debate recently (and possible for some time) about whether there is any value in including the year in folder names even when on the surface it shouldn’t be required. It’s probably beside the point here - I don’t need help, the OP does, and with the exception being that they don’t include " (2012)" in the individual episode file names it’s the same as mine, so should work.

By all means, have @Arrowned remove (2012) from the folder name and do the dance, but if that does actually fix it then all it does is demonstrate inconsistency. I just think it’s a red herring.

6

@trumpy81 said:
Maybe your eyes are better than mine, but I don’t see any listing for Arrow (2012).

The only time one actually ‘needs or should use’ (YEAR) is when the show has several ‘Versions’.

Nor do I have any issue with season 5.

No issues here either:

A TV Show Library
…Arrow
…Season 05
…Arrow - S05E01.mp4

1275×507 66 KB

@jungwirth said:
Having the folder called “Arrow (2012)” has been perfectly fine for years with my media collection.

‘perfectly fine for years’ does not mean ‘correct’.
Non-Compliance breeds unpredictable results.

8

You know what - I don’t have a problem. Forget I said anything, and carry on.
I’m sure it’s the folder name causing it.

ed: perhaps we should all remove our “see it works for me” posts and focus on the OP? I was trying only to lead away from a red herring solution as the folder should not be the issue given the logs already demonstrate that the series has been correctly identified

9

Hunh. Every single TV show and movie in my library has the year in the either the show top foldername or the movie filename, and I would swear that was given as part of the instructions in this support article some time ago, but it sounds like that was changed at some point and I was just never aware? Clearly the article doesn’t show that now, and I’m a sysadmin by day and pretty big on compliance, so I guess I’ve got a lot of work to do.

That said, I tried the suggestion to remove the year from the folder name and redo the Plex Dance, but that didn’t help. Exact same problem on a show refresh afterwards. As @jungwirth mentions, it’s definitely matching against the correct show TVDBID, with or without the edit to the foldername. It’s still successfully pulling down all the cast data, posters, banners, backgrounds, etc for the show at large. It just does not seem to be pulling down any info for the season in particular.

10

Apr 07, 2017 09:58:40.887 [6004] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Arrow', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.

You have to do all the steps in the Plex Dance.
You have to remove the entire show from the library
You have to empty trash
You have to clean bundles

Plex is like a Jack Russell with a rat in it’s teeth - only it’s a bundle - and Plex WILL NOT let go unless you destroy that library item, obliterate that bundle so a new bundle with the right stuff in it can be written.

11

This is actually getting really confusing, as that’s exactly what I did. Here’s what happened, step by step:

  1. I moved the Arrow folder off to an entirely different section of that E drive that Plex does have any libraries touching (E:\Audio-Video\Video\Uncategorized, for the record)
  2. I updated all libraries
  3. I emptied the trash
  4. I cleaned the bundles

Only after all that was done did I move the Arrow folder back to the TV Shows folder, followed by updating all libraries again.

Attached are two log zips taken just now, when I attempted that whole process yet again. The earlier set of logs came immediately after the bundle cleaning, and then I grabbed a second set of logs after I’d re-added the show and re-updated the libraries. In the newer bundle, Plex Media Scanner.log doesn’t seem to show any differences from before though; it’s still got that “Skipping over directory ‘Arrow’, as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.” line you quoted. The earlier bundle seems to accurately not show any trace of Arrow at all, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed something somewhere.

EDIT: Honestly, I’m starting to wonder if maybe I shouldn’t just try deleting that whole library, emptying the trash, cleaning the bundles, and then recreating a new TV Shows library from scratch, and see if that works.

12

There is something not happening - that’s certain.

  1. Move Arrow out of Plex’s view, update library, empty trash, clean bundles.

  2. Check Agents:
    https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200241558-Agents

  3. Move LMA to the bottom of every list - preventative measure.

  4. Under each tab in ‘Shows’ make sure that tab’s primary agent is in the top slot - TVDB on top, TMDB on top, etc. Do the same for Movies (preventative measure).

  5. Edit Library (roll mouse over library in Plexweb’s left pane/under dots - edit)/Advanced/
    Check that the agent is TVDB, if it is good (replace Arrow, update library and report results or continue to ‘4)’ ), if not make it so, save. Repeat Placement of Arrow, update library. Report what happens.

If it’s ‘Same-0, Same-0’…

  1. Move Arrow out of Plex’s view, update library, empty trash, clean bundles.

Create a new TV Show Library, TVDB as the Agent, Drop Arrow into it, update library, post results.

Note: Depending on how many seasons and episodes of Arrow you have this ‘rediscovery process’ could take a while. If the drive light is flickering and Plex is whirring and buzzing (task manager reports a Plex operation in fully engaged) you have to wait for Plex to do it’s work (or do it’s worst work - undetermined at this time).

14

@trumpy81 said:
EG:

Macgyver … The original aired in 1985 but we do not use that in the title.
Macgyver (2016) … The year is used to distinguish from the original series, if you omit the year, your files will match Macgyver.

Actually, the rolling nightmare that is the current Plex requires (1985) in the Title for the Original. Macgyver without the year will default to the newest version - and that’s not in the handbook. ‘Research’ was done, then quickly crated up and sent to that warehouse with The Ark of the Covenant:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/254362/tv-series-name-matching-research
Extra! Read all about it! Extra!

If there are two ‘Versions’ of the show, FileBot will dutifully match TVDB correctly - then Plex promptly pukes up the Melon - unless the hapless user happens to see one of these threads - or the Volunteer Support Staff tells them what to do.

Employees steer well clear of this iceberg - it’s on the charts as something to be avoided at all costs.

Right now they’re trying to spin doctor their way out of the decision to incorrectly identify every properly encoded DVD title for NTSC and that could be 3/4s of the DVD rips on the planet:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/266445/why-is-plex-identifying-sd-video-as-576p

16

I’ll test as well when I get time, but I checked something yesterday - Hawaii Five-O I think - and the issue persists.

17

I don’t know, but how much scope the PMS bound by in checking date modified on files when scanning new content?
I looked through my own logs about a week ago and realised that Battlestar Galactica (2003) S01E08 (and 2 others in that season) kept popping up being scanned - even though they’ve been in the library for years. I had a look at the modified date and realised that three episodes had a modified date that didn’t match the rest of the files in the folder, I simply ran touch * and the episodes haven’t come up again, afaict.

Perhaps the issue with these Arrow episodes is more esoteric than just the folder name? I’m not aware of a Windows equivalent of the ‘touch’ command, I think the last time I had to do anything like that I used a vbs script. <- that is definitely a random suggestion, but you gotta try something new, right?

I have to go back about 18 mths, but the last time I had a brain scratcher with scanning new files in (well, someone I work with had the problem) I copied the troublemaking folder over to another machine, installed PMS there and had it scan - they scanned fine. The person at the time couldn’t be arsed working it out, so they just wiped their PMS completely and installed/scanned from scratch. Not suggesting you should do that, but perhaps copying the files over to a test machine and a clean PMS could help isolate the issue to the files or the PMS database.

ed: I do sysadmin, database and distributed software support - nothing I find more frustrating than when I watch someone in the team doing the same thing over and over. IMO if you’ve tried twice and the results haven’t changed then you need to change the method so you can at least start to isolate the components.

18

The matching issue with or without years MIGHT be fixed recently, but just for fun try matching “Time After Time (2017)” I tried it with and without the year several times, plex dancing in between attempts, and got the show posters and season posters for the new series and the episode information and thumbnails for the old version each time.

Each time I could get all of the correct information by using “fix incorrect match” I lost interest in the show, so haven’t experimented in the last couple of weeks to see if it still completely mixes up everything.

19

It’s still all messed up as far as I can tell. I used @trumpy81 's show MacGyver (I had never matched either previously) without the (1985) in the hopes that it would match to the old one - as it should - but:

F:\MCEB-TV
…MacGyver
…Season 01
…MacGyver - S01E01.mp4

Resulted in an instant, fully populated:

3bqw3ynv38uk.jpg1281×549 85.6 KB

Now, that’s how FileBot is going to name it because when FileBot asks the user to pick the right show, the user, wanting the old MacGyver is going to pick simply MacGyver and FileBot is going to do what it does so well and match the name to TVDB just like it should. At that point Plex Horks up a bucket of dragon snot and matches it to the New MacGyver (2016).

The bewildered user, not knowing anything about Plex’s mystery naming scheme comes to the forum or uses ‘Fix Match’ then wonders why they spent that 20 bucks on FileBot that used to be The Miracle Worker when naming files and developing structures for use in Plex.

This nightmare all started for me back in the early summer of 2016 when I started recording Father Brown (2013) (go easy on me, I actually like The Father) blasting down here from the local PBS tower 3 miles from here. The sad state of affairs at the place where the PBS idiots create the EPG never result in any of them actually looking at TVDB - so they take a wild guess (the wrong guess) and list the show as ‘Father Brown’, not ‘Father Brown (2013)’, so MCEBuddy, like FileBot, just does what it’s told and creates a ‘Father Brown’ directory structure and ‘Father Brown’ file names. Knowing this is going to happen I’m ready to fix those names when MCEBuddy has done it’s work, but… no need. Father Brown matches to Father Brown (2013).

Plex has Plex DVR spread eagle on the bed trussed up like a roasting pig - trying desperately to make Plex DVR work with the idiots at the places creating EPGs and this is the solution they come up with. Plex makes a good show of it and does their exhaustive ‘Research’: ( https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/254362/tv-series-name-matching-research ) then whisks that research off to sit next to The Ark of the Covenant and the Patent for that carburetor that’ll make your car run on a tank of water (if you drop one rat turd in the tank) - instead of developing a proper method (the same way FileBot does - by asking the user to pick the right show) that matches properly to TVDB like it should.

The forums fill up with hapless users unable to get anything to match and employees point out 'it only takes a few moments to Fix Match so what’s the problem?

The hapless user still doesn’t know they have to actually go to TVDB and extrapolate a (YEAR) to inject manually into ‘MacGyver (1985)’ (not listed at TVDB) in order to get a match to happen without a ‘Fix Match’.

Plex HQ is happy, but nobody else is.

20

@JuiceWSA Finally got the chance to get back around to this, and tried all your suggestions step by step. Still nothing. The brand new library has the same issue with the show.

I can’t help but think something must be going wrong with the Plex Dance on my server. Like, those bundles aren’t really getting cleared out or something along those lines. There’s honestly not much more explanation for how nobody else is having any sort of problem with this exact same show. But I can’t think of what I could do besides just blowing away the entire metadata folder wherever it is in the install, which I’m incredibly hesitant to do.

21

Well, if @OttoKerner checks in and recommends ‘The Nuclear Option’ - then by all means light the fuse.

You didn’t see me say that and I won’t even tell you where the fuse is so you can light it and run.

:slight_smile:

22

No, a small tactical warhead might suffice. :wink:
I suppose you already did the agent configuration according to Juice’s recommendations above? If not, do it please.

Have you ever run the Plex Server ‘As Administrator’? (Big mess - never ever do it)
If so, there may be some portions of your Plex data folder unaccessible or ‘write protected’.

Stop Plex Server
Clear your agent caches
start Plex server
wait 3 minutes, don’t do anything during that time
fetch logs
attach them here

Plex Dance
each of the offending shows.
Cleaning Bundles may take a few minutes, depending on the size of your library and the speed of your Plex Data disk (by default C: )
only add the show back in one by one

23

Attaching logs just because you asked, but it looks like the agent caches were the culprit, because Arrow season 5 correctly grabbed all metadata back down this time, episode titles and everything. It’s finally fixed. Huge thanks to everyone for the help!

That said, I will still be removing years from folder names later for compliance.

24

Logs looking good so far.

25

I was having this problem as I added Episode(s) I would scan whilst other Episode were being converted, each subsequent scan would add new episode(s) correctly, but information for the ones before were lost, this happened whether I had added additional details (Tags, poster, title, sort tittle).

When I scanned with all episodes loaded on file store and not previously scanned no problems

tried this on 4 different single and multi season tv shows