Step 1) name the file EXACTLY as it is found at https://www.themoviedb.org/ (or use FileBot - it’ll find it for you and name it)
Step 2) strip metadata
Step 3) place file in library
Step 4) edit Title Field and Sort Title in Plex - make sure to lock the fields (orange = good)
Repeat for other items.
Example:
A Movie Library/
…Bride of Chucky (1998).m4v <— as it’s listed at TMDB = instant match
…Edited Title: Child’s Play 4 (lock field = orange is good)
…Sort Title: Child’s Play 1998 (lock field - orange is good)
episodes we can put the name in (Like so) and it knows the actual name is like so, even though it gets sorted by s01e01.
Maybe if i could do something like:
Be Cool (2005) - (Get Shorty 2).m4v
Plex doesn’t work like that. Naming convention is naming convention. You just have to fix your metadata issue and then edit the movie titles and sort title manually.
The Naming conventions are not robust enough to handle every situation.
Nor should they come in mutually exclusive varieties.
I should be able to mix and match them as needed.
Furthermore…
If Plex would overwrite metadata when supplied new information, or ignore metadata on its own to begin with, it seems like none of this would be an issue.
Why are things more difficult then they need to be?
You have the information necessary to get you started. If you just can’t make the transition, but still want to use Plex throw everything you have into a ‘Other Videos’ Library and Plex won’t care how you have anything named or structured. It also won’t try to match anything with any online database. You won’t get any posters or descriptions. You’ll get blank icons. Edit all you want. Nothing will ever change.
The other option is to connect a wire from your computer to your TV, drag Windows explorer over there and an instance of VLC. Everything will be just as you want it.
Your Indiana Jones titles are the perfect example: The Movie Database specifies the correct title as “Raiders of the Lost Arc,” without any mention of I Jones. Yet your example shows it adjacent to other I Jones titles, without comment. How can that be?
My solution: enter a Sort Title for Raiders, to begin with ”Indiana…”. Result, adjacent sorting all I Jones titles. Problem, that custom sort evaporates.
Did you MIS-name the Raiders title or add a custom sort? I’ve be absolutely religious, naming all Plex movie content, to match DVD labels from content owners. Maybe some variation with Plex reference DB, oh well. But before I return to custom sorts on the 30 or so titles I’ve done, now lost, maybe some suggestions on how to REALLY save?
PS: I didn’t understand where to get FileBot. A link in your signature? Or can you re-post?
Indiana is unique in that TMDB has many ‘alternate titles’ - any of which will work - and when I put Indiana(s) on it was WAY before FileBot (which would have found the alternate name I have and matched it to the official name).
(I couldn’t live without using Google daily - some people have never used it - or anything else, apparently…lol)
BTW: If you aren’t using FileBot and want to use, or have an alternate name - you have to go to TMDB and make sure you’re naming correctly. If you are using FileBot it goes to TMDB (in a half a second) and does all the leg work for ya.
