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Plex shows not showing up: Quick Fix

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  • 4 min read

Plex is an American online streaming service and also a client-server media platform. Plex allows its users to watch movies and TV shows for free and it also has a paid version known as PlexPlus. The Plex Media Server helps its users to organic movies and TV shows from the user’s own collection and even lets them watch from other online services.

In this article, we have discussed the causes of Plex shows not showing up and five ways to help you fix the issue.


What are the causes of Plex shows not showing up issue?

Here are a few possible reasons that might be causing the Ple shows not showing up issue:

  • The shows are not named properly.
  • The contents are excluded.
  • Contents are in an archived folder.
  • Files are not copied properly.

Also read: How to fix Plex not skipping intro issue?


How to fix the issue?

Here are five fixes that might help you resolve the Plex shows not showing up issue:

Name the shows properly

The main cause of the Plex shows not showing is that the content in the folder is not named properly, the Plex scanner is pretty good and can also scan and put the shows and movies in the right places even though the shows and movies don’t follow the naming recommendations, However, sometimes the scanner cannot read the file names properly and that can be solved by naming and organising the shows and movies properly.

The movie scanner will skip the files that are named like a TV show and the TV scanner will skip the files if they are not named like a TV show.


Find files through the Manage Library option

Many users who were unable to find the shows in Plex have found this method helpful in finding the TV shows. To look for the TV shows that you were not showing up on Plex, go to Manage Library> Edit…> Advanced> Scanner> Plex Video Files.


Convert the content into a compatible format

Files that have some special word in their names or are of a different format will be ignored by the Plex scanner. Files formats like ISO, IMG, VIDEO_TS, BDMV and similar disk image files are not supported by the Plex media server. So, if you have any disk image files then make sure to convert the files to a compatible format.


Extract Archived files

Files that are in an archived folder like ZIP, RAR, GZIP, TAR, or similar files will be ignored by the Plex media server as it does not support reading files that are stored in an archive folder or files. So if you have your content in an archived folder then extract your files and then start the scanner again.


Copy the files properly

When the user copies the files to the drive and directly in the file location, then the Plex media server scanner starts looking for the change and waits for 60 seconds, if nothing else changes then it starts a library scan. If the files are copying and takes more than a minute, the Plex server scanner will start the scan in the middle of the copying and cause this issue.

So make sure not to copy the files directly to the file location on the drive, instead copy it to a temporary folder and then move it to the standard file location.

Also read: What is the script to restart Plex media server?

Akash Singh

Akash Singh

Akash is a law graduate who likes to go for bike rides on the weekends soul-searching for answers to his many existential questions. You can contact him here: singhakash95@pm.me

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