There are a number of us who are Plex because Synology closed down their video server software. One of the things that I miss is the ability to add files that aren’t found automatically. I am constantly facing the issue where a newish show is not showing in either imdb or tvdb and so you are basically SOL. You have to use a file client and play from a directory listing. I have searched several times and can only find the “add an IMDB tag” suggestions (which BTW often don’t work either).
Current Example: BBC Winterwatch in Wales. Not in IMDB or TVDB (yet?) so no go.
Since Plex seems to be refusing to implement this very basic feature, has anyone coded a utility to force things into the DB?
If a show isn’t listed at all… verify if it’s listed on TheMovieDatabase… if it isn’t, you can contribute the records and they should be ingested into Plex‘s backend after a few days.
Now if the show won’t show up after scanning the library (use the web app to check this, not one of the big screen apps),
then it most likely has been merged with another show on your server.
To determine which, switch your library view mode to “Episodes”, then engage the Duplicates filter.
Inspect the Plex media info of the shown duplicates which shows you the file names at the top.
If you’ve found the show into which the new files have been merged, click on its show title. This will bring you to the show’s preplay screeen. From there, enter the context menu and trigger the Split command.
This will create two separate show items, which have still the same titles and poster. Now enter each of these and again look at the plex media info of the episodes.
If you have identified which is the newly added (and still incorrectly titled) one, enter the context menu again and issue the Unmatch command.
Now you can manually change the show title and assign a poster if you have the file.
If your files use the mp4 format, you can embed the episode titles directly as meta tags for Plex to read.
Can’t get the poster stuff to work. Tried show.jpg and <actual show name>.jpg[mod-edit: tagged for the snippet to properly show] and it never shows. Fairly typical of the Plex Scanner.
Meanwhile the Synology app had a simple web form to add meta data and a checkbox to block the scanner from updating it. Far superior solution IMHO.
Did you refresh the movie’s metadata after adding the files, for Plex to pick them up (iirc, Analyze should achieve the same)?
Hover over the movie in the Plex Web app and click or bring up the movie’s context menu and select the Edit option
Switch to the poster tab
Pick or upload whatever poster you prefer
… or edit/overwrite the metadata if you don’t like what Plex found.
As for locking it… manually typing in any of the fields should activate the orange icon and lock that particular field from being automatically changed. You can also toggle the locked state by manually clicking the icon.
Let’s start with… that’s a tv movie, not a show. As such, Plex won’t be able to match it in a tv-show type library (=no metadata found from the online agents).
As for Plex not finding the files at all… would you mind sharing how your files are named ad organized inside the folder linked to your library?
This isn’t all that much about subjectively liking or disliking the app. Most such issues can be resolved by sticking to the naming conventions posted above by Otto.
@johne_jellenberger_org often times as Tom is stating this is a naming issue, Even if something does not exist in a metadata source, as long as its named correctly it will show up in plex. Just as an unmatched item without metadata.
Yes well I am tempted to create a folder named “Not Really Movies” because putting Casablanca and a Disney documentary on building the first theme park in the same folder just feels wrong.
You ca have as many libraries as you like (even for the same media type). I have a movie-type library for actual movies and one for shorts. I know users who keep standalone documentaries in their own Documentary library…
Just make sure not to mix different media types in the same library.
Yes I actually called it “TV Movies” because I have to explain any Plex changes to my wife since she favors these TV documentaries and needs to be able to find them on the menu.
or bring up the movie’s context menu and select the Edit option
icon and lock that particular field from being automatically changed. You can also toggle the locked state by manually clicking the 