The Plex integrates material from many sources, organizes it, streams it to various devices, and makes it ready for you to enjoy at home. Plex continues to be an excellent method for organizing your media library.
Plex is known for its user-friendly UI and near-seamless streaming and performance. On the other hand, Plex isn’t without its oddities, one of which being the naming conventions for TV episodes and movies on the platform, and Plex names show based on information from thetvdb.com.
If the media isn’t there, or if it’s formatted differently, Plex won’t recognize it. The good thing about this is that there’s a solution.
You must use a specified naming convention when uploading media to your Plex Material Server for the system to arrange and identify the media appropriately.
TV series, movies, and music should all have their files to minimize confusion, and none should appear in the folder meant for another. if you have been using your Plex for some time, the mislabeling and filing can cause a lot of frustration and take up more time than you’d like to spend looking for shows and movies.
Plex may have problems detecting media if it is not uploaded with the correct folder and filename. If the filename does not follow the norm, rename it according to your platform’s instructions. For example, in Windows, right-click the file and click Rename, or in MacOS, pick the file and hit Return and type in the new name.
Naming Standards For Plex Media
Plex requires that you arrange your material in a specified way to be recognized. Plex recommends this format to ensure that the link to TVDB and its metadata crawling software appropriately recognizes and categorizes material.
Categorize TV Shows and Movies in Plex
The Proper Name Convention, According To Plex, Is As Follows:
/Media
/TV Shows
TV content
/Movies
Movie content
/Music
Music content
However, especially when it comes to television shows, that isn’t the complete story. To minimize confusion and chaos, arrange your Plex if you have content covering numerous seasons.
A Fuller Picture Would Look Like This:
/Media
/TV Shows
TV Show Name
Season 01
Episode 01 Name (S01e01)
Episode 02 Name (S01e02)
Season 02
Episode 01 Name (S02e01)
Episode 02 Name(S02e02)
/Movies
Movie Name
/Music
Album or Artist Name
You can include the TV episode title and release date, and the S01E01 is optional, but it can help TVDB accurately identify each episode you upload. If the show or season you’re attempting to name is similar to another, including the season date will aid TVDB in retrieving the correct information.
Plex may grow perplexed if this is not done. You must use the correct syntax when naming TV shows in Plex that are categorized by date, and these are typically used for podcasts, news stories, or other episodes with no specific name.
Because every episode is titled The Colbert Report, identifying it by date makes your job and Plex’s job much easier.
To separate the dates, use dashes, periods, or spaces. Dashes (2010-01-20)
Periods (2010.01.20)
Spaces (2010 01 20)
The same rules apply to naming movies and music. Music can be organized by album, artist, and/or track, while movies normally follow the Movie/Title pattern.
The following is an example from Plex:
Music and TV programs are treated in the same way. Separate albums and, if necessary, add tracks. Many MP3s have metadata built-in so that you won’t do anything, but some don’t.
Plex will search up the essential information and precisely identify the content if you utilize the suggested format, allowing you to maintain a better organized, usable Plex for music, movies, TV shows, and other stuff. While Plex Media Server is simple to use, it does require some attention when it comes to set-up.
It will rapidly become second nature once you’ve become accustomed to using the naming standard and double-checking it while uploading media. Once put onto Plex, the easiness of use makes the extra effort worthwhile!
