Server Version# 1.40.4.8679
I always recommend that Plex Server owners strictly adhere to Plex’s naming rules in the official naming support articles, which say to use either the {imdb-ttxxxx} or {tmdb-xxxx} source ID in a movie folder name, or {tmdb-xxxx} or {tvdb-xxxx} as the source ID in a TV Show’s folder name.
I ran an experiment yesterday, where I used dummy video files to create structure for one movie and three episodes for a show, both of which won’t match properly in Plex Server without a source ID added to the folder name, and tried out all the listed Emby Naming schemes in Plex.
To avoid a placebo effect, I needed a movie and show that would fail to scan properly with simple Plex naming rules, and used the following.
$ (1971)/$ (1971).mkv
Echo (2024)/Season 01/Echo (2024) – S01E01.mkv
The $ movie didn’t match to anything, and the Echo show brought in a weird poster, who’s entry didn’t have any metadata associated with it.
In my own large personal Plex media library, these two examples are unique in that they do not scan in with simple Plex folder structure and file names.
I use Filebot to add the TMDB source ID to my movie folder names, but do not add any source ID to my series folder names.
In the series library, all the following Emby source ID conventions scanned properly.
Echo (2024) {imdbid-tt13966962}
Echo (2024) {imdb-tt13966962}
Echo (2024) [tmdb-122226]
Echo (2024) {tmdb-122226}
Echo (2024) [tvdb-412431]
Echo (2024) {tvdb-412431}
These folder names scanned in incorrectly.
Echo (2024)
Echo (2024) {tmdbid-122226}
Echo (2024) {tvdbid-122226}
The test in the movie library was the same, with only the {tmdbid-xxxx} & {tvdbid-xxxx} and the plain $ (1971) folder name failing to make the correct match.
What was a bigger mystery is why the {imdbid-ttxxxx} source ID worked in both a movie and series library, when the {tmdbid-xxxx} and {tvdbid-xxxx} did not work.
Today I spun up a new test Docker container on my older Syno DS1019+ NAS, with server version 1.24.5.5.5173 from about three years ago, and had the same results as yesterday.
My question to someone at Plex is why are the naming support articles not updated to reflect the tests I’ve run.
The series naming guide says that extra info in brackets is ignored by the Plex series scanner, and now I’m wondering if that’s only true if the brackets are used after either the season episode formula, or after the episode name part of the file name.
The info in brackets in Echo (2024) [tvdb-412431] scans perfectly fine, which means the brackets are not telling the scanner to ignore what’s inside of them, while Echo (2024) as a folder name fails to make a match at all.
I’m a rule follower, and now the Plex naming support articles do seem accurate any longer.
