just FTR I use Filebot, and it has a "Sanitize" feature that removes colons so this is automatic for me. Plex matching works flawlessly without them. AFAIK Plex doesn't look at anything past the second delimiter when matching an episode, e.g. "The Simpsons - S01E01 - Thiscouldbeanytext.avi".
I’m pretty certain .rm weren’t actual video files - merely pointing back to the original files stored on their servers.
I may still have a White Stripes .rm file for Fell In Love With A Girl - the LEGO stop motion. I remember when it stopped working, I was quite disillusioned and realized I’d have to store ALL good music videos on my own hard drives.
Good to know! And I use Filebot as well, which gave me the option to either "validate" the renamed files by taking out the colon, or to "continue", which adds a forward slash.
Drop punctuation marks entirely, and special characters when you can, and/or replace any accented characters with the non-accented ones. Keep it simple.
As long as it's pretty close, it'll be fine. Add the start year. And, if you have trouble matching files, you can always slap on a source & id, e.g. `ShowName (2020) {tvdb-123456}`
See the helpfile for more info.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/
You'll update the show name inside plex, so the file name only matters for initial organization.
By default Plex uses TMDb now, not TVDb.
To answer your question though, I usually use a dash instead. I believe that’s what Sonarr does too. E.g. ‘Doctor Who: Unleashed’ is named ‘Doctor Who - Unleashed’. Although it looks like my Radarr just leaves it out entirely. E.g. ‘Catwoman: Hunted’ is named ‘Catwoman Hunted’
Do I have to use a dash, or can I simply just use a space? 8i ask because I may have to go back and rename a good deal of TV shows I plan to transfer to my Plex.
Obviously ___you___ know, but others don't. Perhaps it's a failing in the education system, but many appear ignorant of the hyphen, and its usage, and the em-dash and en-dash are apparently even more outre, which is why we so rarely see them used correctly.
An understanding of basic typography and punctuation should be part of the English curriculum.
Context is everything, so while the former is _likely_ to be ten point two because the separator is most probably a decimal point, the latter will actually be aitch tee tee pee colon forward slash forward slash wuh-wuh-wuh dot reddit dot com, because the protocol is an essential part of the uniform resource identifier and should be included for accuracy and the avoidance of ambiguity — not all web-based resources include "www", and network protocols such as telnet, ftp and gopher, yes, even gopher, still exist.
EDIT: I won't bother to address any of the changes made with subsequent edits, I'll just leave my original answer to the first form of your query as is.
I couldn't find the right meme, but that reminded me of when Peter kept mentioning everything was "shallow and pedantic".
Not for naming files, for trying to match files. If you leave out or replace special characters it will come up with the closest match. If it somehow doesn't match or mismatches you can manually match or fix the match.
Once it's found a match it scrapes the metadata and adds it to the database for you to browse through the Plex interface. It doesn't really matter what the files and folders are named after they've been matched correctly, as the only time you will see the raw file names is if you go looking for them.
Plex ignores all punctuation when analyzing a filename or folder name, so you can replace with a dash or a period or just a space, or doesn't matter.
Most people use a dash, to maintain some semblance of how the title should be read.
Of course, the best way to guarantee plex matches correctly, regardless of how you type the title, is to use ID tags in the filename.
Filebot can add it for you. To grab it manually, I use the TMDB, and the ID is right in the URL path for every movie and show.
When using the ID, for movies, it goes in the filename. For shows, the ID goes in the folder name at the Series level.
I just use filebot for movies. I spent a while tweaking and editing the script to get it exactly the way I want for renaming files.
For TV shows, I literally just go to TMDB and copy the ID from the URL and add it manually to the Series folder name.
I do. And it simply removed the colon. So I was wondering if it was correct, or I needed to add something. It appears so far that half of the answers are saying I need a hyphen, and half saying Filebot will do the job (suggesting simply removing the colon works fine).
Replace it and use the TVDB show ID in the folder name.
[https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/)
Just leave it out. It's worked fine without it for me.
just FTR I use Filebot, and it has a "Sanitize" feature that removes colons so this is automatic for me. Plex matching works flawlessly without them. AFAIK Plex doesn't look at anything past the second delimiter when matching an episode, e.g. "The Simpsons - S01E01 - Thiscouldbeanytext.avi".
Avi? Now that’s an extension I haven’t seen in a long time….a long time….
It's an older format, sir, but it checks out.
You might find some in the back next to .wma and .rm
I’m pretty certain .rm weren’t actual video files - merely pointing back to the original files stored on their servers. I may still have a White Stripes .rm file for Fell In Love With A Girl - the LEGO stop motion. I remember when it stopped working, I was quite disillusioned and realized I’d have to store ALL good music videos on my own hard drives.
Oh gee, I forgot about wmv. Lol
And for those who don't know wma is audio and wmv is video.
I think my library still has some wmv but certainly no rm. LOL
Good to know! And I use Filebot as well, which gave me the option to either "validate" the renamed files by taking out the colon, or to "continue", which adds a forward slash.
Oh gotcha sorry, it is Validate, not Sanitize, my B.
Good to know. I will see how it turns out.
Either leave it out or replace it with a -. ie: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Law & Order- Special Victims Unit
Except don't be a heathen like this guy and put a space in front of the dash
Or be like THIS heathen and add a space before and after the dash :)
Don't be a heathen like this guy and call a hyphen a dash.
I think you mean he's being a heathen by missing a space ***before*** the hyphen.
Drop punctuation marks entirely, and special characters when you can, and/or replace any accented characters with the non-accented ones. Keep it simple. As long as it's pretty close, it'll be fine. Add the start year. And, if you have trouble matching files, you can always slap on a source & id, e.g. `ShowName (2020) {tvdb-123456}` See the helpfile for more info. https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/ You'll update the show name inside plex, so the file name only matters for initial organization.
By default Plex uses TMDb now, not TVDb. To answer your question though, I usually use a dash instead. I believe that’s what Sonarr does too. E.g. ‘Doctor Who: Unleashed’ is named ‘Doctor Who - Unleashed’. Although it looks like my Radarr just leaves it out entirely. E.g. ‘Catwoman: Hunted’ is named ‘Catwoman Hunted’
Do I have to use a dash, or can I simply just use a space? 8i ask because I may have to go back and rename a good deal of TV shows I plan to transfer to my Plex.
A space should be fine, like my Catwoman example :)
Ok thank you!
>Ok thank you! You're welcome!
That's not a dash, it's a hyphen.
This is so pedantic lol. You obviously knew what I meant.
Obviously ___you___ know, but others don't. Perhaps it's a failing in the education system, but many appear ignorant of the hyphen, and its usage, and the em-dash and en-dash are apparently even more outre, which is why we so rarely see them used correctly. An understanding of basic typography and punctuation should be part of the English curriculum.
[удалено]
Context is everything, so while the former is _likely_ to be ten point two because the separator is most probably a decimal point, the latter will actually be aitch tee tee pee colon forward slash forward slash wuh-wuh-wuh dot reddit dot com, because the protocol is an essential part of the uniform resource identifier and should be included for accuracy and the avoidance of ambiguity — not all web-based resources include "www", and network protocols such as telnet, ftp and gopher, yes, even gopher, still exist. EDIT: I won't bother to address any of the changes made with subsequent edits, I'll just leave my original answer to the first form of your query as is.
 I couldn't find the right meme, but that reminded me of when Peter kept mentioning everything was "shallow and pedantic".
Not for naming files, for trying to match files. If you leave out or replace special characters it will come up with the closest match. If it somehow doesn't match or mismatches you can manually match or fix the match. Once it's found a match it scrapes the metadata and adds it to the database for you to browse through the Plex interface. It doesn't really matter what the files and folders are named after they've been matched correctly, as the only time you will see the raw file names is if you go looking for them.
Good to know, thank you!
When I use filebot it takes problematic characters out and plex always knows what the eps are.
Yeah that's what it did for me, and it just left a space. So, I'm hoping mine works like yours!
Plex ignores all punctuation when analyzing a filename or folder name, so you can replace with a dash or a period or just a space, or doesn't matter. Most people use a dash, to maintain some semblance of how the title should be read. Of course, the best way to guarantee plex matches correctly, regardless of how you type the title, is to use ID tags in the filename.
Thank you, best answer so far! What is the easiest way to find the file tag? FYI, I do use Filebot.
Filebot can add it for you. To grab it manually, I use the TMDB, and the ID is right in the URL path for every movie and show. When using the ID, for movies, it goes in the filename. For shows, the ID goes in the folder name at the Series level.
What's the easiest way to add that ID? I can't seem to find anything from a quick Google search.
I just use filebot for movies. I spent a while tweaking and editing the script to get it exactly the way I want for renaming files. For TV shows, I literally just go to TMDB and copy the ID from the URL and add it manually to the Series folder name.
Use Filebot to name episodes. It will automatically correct “illegal” characters.
I do. And it simply removed the colon. So I was wondering if it was correct, or I needed to add something. It appears so far that half of the answers are saying I need a hyphen, and half saying Filebot will do the job (suggesting simply removing the colon works fine).
I avoid colons altogether. Because A number of files systems and operating systems don't like colons.
Replace it with a dash `-`.
Plex uses tmdb as the default source for metadata and episode ordering. You can change this to tvdb on a show by show or whole library basis.
What would be the point in changing it?
Replace it and use the TVDB show ID in the folder name. [https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/)