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Yes, for something that is so full-featured and sophisticated, I found the media filename issues to be exasperating. For those that aren't familiar with it, Pl

Yes, for something that is so full-featured and sophisticated, I found the media filename issues to be exasperating. For those that aren't familiar with it, Plex REQUIRES a particular filename format. If you happen to have a media file that is named "wrongly" it either won't show up or it will try to randomly guess what it is so that it can display DVD-title image in your library. There appears to be no way to just force it to accept whatever filename you want. (This might have changed in the last year or so since I uninstalled Plex).

ishields 10y ago
Actually there are various ways to get proper matches without the exact filenaming convention they recommend. There's a feature where you can "Fix Incorrect Match" described here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201018497-Fix-Incorrect-Match-Match https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201018497-Fix-Inco... This lets you pick the movie/show/whatever manually from a few different sources. If your media isn't immediately recognized, you can do this to correct it. Additionally, they have a "Personal Media" metadata agent you can select for media that's your own personal media (like home videos) which will allow plex to read the metadata directly from the file instead of searching for a match. There's more info on that here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200265246 https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200265246 I have never had the issue you described where something doesn't show up at all, just that it's incorrectly matched (in which case the tile will just show a screenshot and the title will just be the filename) Additionally, I've found that if you use their recommended folder structure, the filenames matter much less. For example, if you have this directory: /Media/TV Shows/Show Name/Season 1/ It seems like as long as the file contains the season/episode like "S01E01" it will match correctly based on the directory information. I haven't messed with it much but I have never had to rename a file to get plex to recognize it when I use directories like this
- crispyambulance 10y ago
  Thanks, this makes me want to give Plex another try.
  - phusion 10y ago
    It is really great, I have it running on two cheapo linux VMs as well as my gaming box back home. It's great to be able to watch on my phone, iPad, netbook, laptop, desktop etc and the Fix Incorrect Match feature works just fine.. I don't even create the Season XX folders, just /media/TV/ShowName/Filename.SxxExx.mkv{or whatever} and most multi-worded series dont match correctly by themselves, editing it once and putting spaces in works 95% of the time.
calinet6 10y ago
Most of the workflows that feed into Plex handle this pretty seamlessly. To be honest, I never even knew it had an issue, so I'm speaking out of a state of blissful ignorance of filenames—but that's how I want it to be, so can't complain.
cookiecaper 10y ago
Agreed that the rigidity around library matching is disappointing; I've found this is the case with most of these media scanners, and not just Plex specifically. XBMC allowed the user to add his/her own regexes to the matchers last time I tried it, but I don't think that Plex does. I understand that there are potentially infinite permutations, but I think at least a slightly broader set of default regexes and/or a better way to fingerprint would be a lot nicer. Seems one could hash chunks of the file and compare against a database to identify media without considering the filename at all; that'd be the most convenient. If Plex isn't matching what you want, mark the media type "Home Videos". That matches everything.
- mistermann 10y ago
  > If Plex isn't matching what you want, mark the media type "Home Videos". That matches everything. Does it do wildcard search then? Last time I checked Plex wasn't capable of "select * from movies where filename like 'whatever', and from reading the forums this was very much not accidental, it seemed to be a matter of principle to them for some reason. Even if that works, the inability to view long filenames is a deal breaker anyways for me (again, I have a feeling the answer to this would be "you're doing it wrong").
pyre 10y ago
I know that there are extensions to accept XBMC/Kodi-style .nfo XML files for metadata. I would think it possible to use those to tell Plex to use whatever you explicitly set as the title.
dv_dt 10y ago
I moved from Plex to Emby for exactly that annoyance. (Emby is better but not perfect on that issue...)
- degenerate 10y ago
  Thanks for introducing Emby, never heard of it. The retarded handling of filenames was exactly why I stopped using Plex!
  - dv_dt 10y ago
    TBH, I might have used something else entirely, but I had a Roku hooked to my TV which I've been completely happy with for the other channels it provides, and so Emby won out for me because it also has a Roku channel.
- nirav72 10y ago
  As a long time plex user, I'm tempted to try out Emby simply for one reason.- that is the GPU assisted transcoding. Plex still doesn't have hardware transcoder support.

ishields 10y ago

Actually there are various ways to get proper matches without the exact filenaming convention they recommend. There's a feature where you can "Fix Incorrect Match" described here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201018497-Fix-Incorrect-Match-Match https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201018497-Fix-Inco... This lets you pick the movie/show/whatever manually from a few different sources. If your media isn't immediately recognized, you can do this to correct it. Additionally, they have a "Personal Media" metadata agent you can select for media that's your own personal media (like home videos) which will allow plex to read the metadata directly from the file instead of searching for a match. There's more info on that here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200265246 https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200265246 I have never had the issue you described where something doesn't show up at all, just that it's incorrectly matched (in which case the tile will just show a screenshot and the title will just be the filename) Additionally, I've found that if you use their recommended folder structure, the filenames matter much less. For example, if you have this directory: /Media/TV Shows/Show Name/Season 1/ It seems like as long as the file contains the season/episode like "S01E01" it will match correctly based on the directory information. I haven't messed with it much but I have never had to rename a file to get plex to recognize it when I use directories like this

crispyambulance 10y ago
Thanks, this makes me want to give Plex another try.
- phusion 10y ago
  It is really great, I have it running on two cheapo linux VMs as well as my gaming box back home. It's great to be able to watch on my phone, iPad, netbook, laptop, desktop etc and the Fix Incorrect Match feature works just fine.. I don't even create the Season XX folders, just /media/TV/ShowName/Filename.SxxExx.mkv{or whatever} and most multi-worded series dont match correctly by themselves, editing it once and putting spaces in works 95% of the time.

calinet6 10y ago

Most of the workflows that feed into Plex handle this pretty seamlessly. To be honest, I never even knew it had an issue, so I'm speaking out of a state of blissful ignorance of filenames—but that's how I want it to be, so can't complain.

cookiecaper 10y ago

Agreed that the rigidity around library matching is disappointing; I've found this is the case with most of these media scanners, and not just Plex specifically. XBMC allowed the user to add his/her own regexes to the matchers last time I tried it, but I don't think that Plex does. I understand that there are potentially infinite permutations, but I think at least a slightly broader set of default regexes and/or a better way to fingerprint would be a lot nicer. Seems one could hash chunks of the file and compare against a database to identify media without considering the filename at all; that'd be the most convenient. If Plex isn't matching what you want, mark the media type "Home Videos". That matches everything.

mistermann 10y ago
> If Plex isn't matching what you want, mark the media type "Home Videos". That matches everything. Does it do wildcard search then? Last time I checked Plex wasn't capable of "select * from movies where filename like 'whatever', and from reading the forums this was very much not accidental, it seemed to be a matter of principle to them for some reason. Even if that works, the inability to view long filenames is a deal breaker anyways for me (again, I have a feeling the answer to this would be "you're doing it wrong").

pyre 10y ago

I know that there are extensions to accept XBMC/Kodi-style .nfo XML files for metadata. I would think it possible to use those to tell Plex to use whatever you explicitly set as the title.

dv_dt 10y ago

I moved from Plex to Emby for exactly that annoyance. (Emby is better but not perfect on that issue...)

degenerate 10y ago
Thanks for introducing Emby, never heard of it. The retarded handling of filenames was exactly why I stopped using Plex!
- dv_dt 10y ago
  TBH, I might have used something else entirely, but I had a Roku hooked to my TV which I've been completely happy with for the other channels it provides, and so Emby won out for me because it also has a Roku channel.
nirav72 10y ago
As a long time plex user, I'm tempted to try out Emby simply for one reason.- that is the GPU assisted transcoding. Plex still doesn't have hardware transcoder support.