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Plex doesn't add movies!

T

Transporteur

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 30, 2008
2,729
3
UK
Hi there
I've got a 'little' problem with Plex.
After adding my movie folder and selecting the IMDB to get some info, they don't show up in 'Watch my movies'.
I can see them under the section 'Watch my videos' though.

I'm completely new to Plex, so please go easy on me! :p
 
you need to go into the video section, highlight the source where you're movies are, then if you're using the Apple remote hold the Menu button or if you're using a keyboard press C, scroll down to scan for new content then just give it a few minutes and they should appear in your Movie section.
 
Transporteur said:
Hi there
I've got a 'little' problem with Plex.
After adding my movie folder and selecting the IMDB to get some info, they don't show up in 'Watch my movies'.
I can see them under the section 'Watch my videos' though.

I'm completely new to Plex, so please go easy on me! :p
Click to expand...

Under the preference section you can also set Plex to search for new content every time to you start Plex. I am adding content almost everyday, so I have it scan anytime I open Plex.
 
Thank you very much guys!
Works just fine now, at least with my movies. ;)

Unfortunately it still doesn't add my TV series. I've got DVD rips of the first 4 seasons of 'Two and a half men' on my disk, but I can't add them to Plex.

IMDB TV, TV Rage and TVDB.com can't find any reliable content information.
 
Transporteur said:
Thank you very much guys!
Works just fine now, at least with my movies. ;)

Unfortunately it still doesn't add my TV series. I've got DVD rips of the first 4 seasons of 'Two and a half men' on my disk, but I can't add them to Plex.

IMDB TV, TV Rage and TVDB.com can't find any reliable content information.
Click to expand...

When you set content information are you telling plex to use folder names for lookup? I find this is the most effective way especially if you have full rips of movies/tv shows where there are ts_video folders etc in there.

I've had great luck with IMDB but there are occasional outages when you won't get any scrapes at all. It'll show up eventually...

For TV shows I usually do the following.

-Big Love (folder)
--Season 1 (folder)
---Big.love s01e01.avi
---Big.love s01e02.avi (and so on)
--Season 2 (folder)
---Big.love s02e01.avi
---Big.love s02e02.avi (and so on)
 
srexy said:
-Big Love (folder)
--Season 1 (folder)
---Big.love s01e01.avi
---Big.love s01e02.avi (and so on)
--Season 2 (folder)
---Big.love s02e01.avi
---Big.love s02e02.avi (and so on)
Click to expand...

That's exactly the structure on my disc, but still, it does not work.

Folder names for lookup work only with the movie based sources, I guess.
I tried to gather information using the IMDB for movies, which ended up by putting every single episode in the Movie section of Plex. Uses the same cover and text for every episode though.

So still not the way I want it to be.
I don't know what the problems is. Is there simply no information about 'Two and a half men'?.
 
I have plex pull my tv show info from theTVDB.com, go on theTVDB.com and lookup the show you want to add. Make sure the name of the folder on your computer is EXACTLY the same as it appears on theTVDB. I had the same problem with Eastbound and Down: The folder was named "Eastbound and Down" but on theTVDB they have it as "Eastbound & Down". I changed it to that and it showed right up.

After you change the name, go into plex->videos->tv show source and scan for new content manually.

Also, plex has their own wiki and forum that are both very helpful to new users. There's a bit of a learning curve with Plex but once you get it working the way you want it's great. Check out the Wiki, and if you still cant figure it out, search the forum, then post on the forum.
 
reebzor said:
I have plex pull my tv show info from theTVDB.com, go on theTVDB.com and lookup the show you want to add. Make sure the name of the folder on your computer is EXACTLY the same as it appears on theTVDB. I had the same problem with Eastbound and Down: The folder was named "Eastbound and Down" but on theTVDB they have it as "Eastbound & Down". I changed it to that and it showed right up.

After you change the name, go into plex->videos->tv show source and scan for new content manually.

Also, plex has their own wiki and forum that are both very helpful to new users. There's a bit of a learning curve with Plex but once you get it working the way you want it's great. Check out the Wiki, and if you still cant figure it out, search the forum, then post on the forum.
Click to expand...

+1 for this suggestion. TheTVDB.com is great for scraping TV data but TV show file structure and naming must match perfectly for it to work. Common hangups are use of symbols and punctuation--colons are a big no-no (use - instead). You'll also see, as others have mentioned, the site is often down so if you try to scan when it's down, it'll look like it didn't work. Also, after it comes back up, I think you'll need to go to your TV show source folder under the Watch My Videos category and manually scan for new content, even if you have it set up to scan automatically when you open Plex. If the scan didn't appear to work, check the website to see if it's down and if not, make sure you have your naming spot on.

I really like Plex but it definitely is a bit finicky and takes some getting used to. Check out the forums over at the Plex site--very helpful and you'll likely already find an answer to any question you may have. Be sure to also read through the Plex Getting Started Wiki--tons of useful info to ensure Plex works as intended.
 
i don't have this in front of me right now, but if you browse to the folder with your tv shows under videos (not under tv shows), then hit c, select series information or something like that, once in the pop-up select refresh.
it will give you the option to type in the name, you can type in part of the name which should help, you might try "men" because 2 1/2 could be "2 and a half" "2 & 1/2" "two and a half" etc.

also goto thetvdb.com and look up the show in question, rename the folder exactly as it is listed there, that could help you out. or use that to manually type in the name

i've had to do that with Dr who, even though the folder was named correctly it set it to the origional series.

thetvdb works great for me, except there have been a couple times in the last months where it was offline for a couple days.
 
I just checked theTVMB.com (which is online atm) and my folders are named exactly like it's on this website.

But the scan doesn't seem to work.

When I try to re-scan the separate season folders a window pops up in which I can type in the TV show name. It says 'Two and a Half Men Season 1' and that's exactly what it's named on theTVMB.

Edit:
It finally worked! After searching for 'Two and a half men' (without the season) under the section 'TV Show Information', it found the right show.
Glad that it works now. I really love Plex, way better than old crappy Front Row!

Thank you very much for your help guys!
 
the top folder should only be the show name,
you can then break stuff up by season in sub-folders if you want to, but that's not necessary.
 
Beginner to Plex

When I try to upload my video content to Plex I am able to add the location of the files however when I get to the set content screen when I click the arrows on the top up and down nothing happens as if I didn't add anything. Can someone please help? Are their certain files Plex doesn't accept? I am attempting to upload .avi and .mkv

Thanks!
 
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