Organizing Plex Media

[CallClear]

So now that I'm using Plex, I was hoping to pick folk's brains on this forum for tips on how they group tv shows and movies.

The problem I'm having with Plex is even though it is nice for most things...it seems like it isn't very good at logical separation of media. Media has to be physically separated into different file folders, which are then defined as different libraries. For instance, I'd like to have my daughter’s tv shows and my tv shows grouped separately. With MrMC managing the library, it was easy. Media was physically in the same folder, I created tags in MrMC with our names and created a Favorite for each tag. Then I would just tag a show accordingly, and it would show up in the right Favorite folder. It doesn't seem like it is that easy now. There are only two ways I can see how to group media in Plex. Physically separating libraries or creating smart playlists.

1) Physically separating libraries: This seems like the simplest solution. But the problem I have with this is that my DVR doesn't know whose shows are whose, so it couldn't physically write to different folders depending on the recorded show. I'd have to manually move files around...which isn't ideal but doable I suppose. Honestly, it is silly to me that this is the best way Plex can organize media this day and age. But also, MrMC displays different libraries oddly.. like Plex(0):TV. I understand why it identifies libraries this way, but it would be nice if you could rename it and just keep Plex(0):TV as the internal identifier. It would also be nice to select which libraries from Plex for MrMC to pull...since I have other random media that isn't necessary for MrMC to waste it's time loading and displaying but I'd still like it archived in Plex.

2) Create smart playlists: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think MrMC has implemented Plex playlists yet? But even that aside, Plex fails hard at this anyways...since it simply lists out the shows in the playlist and doesn't present the media in any organized fashion like a library.

Does anybody have any clever ways of accomplishing what I'm trying to do? Thanks all!

[amet]

What I have done is add tags, one for main library and one for my daughter. Then assign the tags in show info, ones she can watch get her tag. It's a bit easier for movies , those were limited by mpaa rating... < pg13 and it's listed for her.

As for limiting the libraries shown in MrMC, You can add the user "MrMC" and assigned which libraries can be seen for that specific user

[CallClear]

What I have done is add tags, one for main library and one for my daughter. Then assign the tags in show info, ones she can watch get her tag. It's a bit easier for movies , those were limited by mpaa rating... < pg13 and it's listed for her.

When you say you add tags, do you mean tags in the metadata via Plex or the library tagging functionality that MrMC has? I guess I never bothered to check if tagging in MrMC worked with Plex. I just assumed that it was a MySQL/SQLite thing.

As for limiting the libraries shown in MrMC, You can add the user "MrMC" and assigned which libraries can be seen for that specific user

Hmm...I didn't even think about restricting library access server-side...which is a much better approach anyways. That's perfect! Thanks!!

[amet]

All tagging is done on plex, create a tag and assign it to a user.

[CallClear]

As for limiting the libraries shown in MrMC, You can add the user "MrMC" and assigned which libraries can be seen for that specific user

Hmm...I didn't even think about restricting library access server-side...which is a much better approach anyways. That's perfect! Thanks!!

Well, as great of a suggestion that was, it doesn't work for me. Unfortunately, only the primary user can delete with Plex. I'm starting to have a serious love-hate relationship with Plex. It isn't healthy.

All tagging is done on plex, create a tag and assign it to a user.

Sorry to keep bugging you on this one but I guess I don't understand. When you refer to tagging what tag do you use? Collections? How does that translate into grouping in MrMC? Or are you talking about the Sharing label in Plex? Then you switch user in MrMC which would be associated to different users in Plex?

[amet]

Sorry to keep bugging you on this one but I guess I don't understand. When you refer to tagging what tag do you use? Collections? How does that translate into grouping in MrMC? Or are you talking about the Sharing label in Plex? Then you switch user in MrMC which would be associated to different users in Plex?

hehe, and when I said tag I meant label

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articl ... the-Shares

you restrict the user with the label that has to be manually associated with the content they are allowed to view, I don't mind doing this manually as it gives me time to actually check what I am allowing my 11 year old to watch

after that you can setup new user under MrMC profiles and log in the different Plex user for it. Down side is as you said, only main plex user can delete... but I don't delete anyway, just add more HDDs

[CallClear]

That makes sense. Thanks for explaining.

I may have figured out a way to accomplish grouping the media without changing users...but it is a bit unorthodox and I do have an issue. Basically I added a unique genre for myself and my daughter in the tags of our shows and movies. Then I created a favorite for these genres in MrMC. It works great for Movies...

...but unfortunately I'm having a problem with viewing genres in TV. If you navigate to any genre in TV Shows, it displays the shows for that genre exactly as expected...but if you navigate further into any of the shows, it is empty with random text up at the title bar. Have you noticed this? I'm not sure if this is something that is fixable or if it is a hold-over from how MrMC worked with the old library..

[amet]

I'll check it out, sounds like a bug

EDIT: found it and fixed it it will be in next version, thanks!

[CallClear]

Thank you so much. It has been an interesting exercise working around Plex's limitations. I started with Kodi and now I'm realizing I was spoiled with the amount of customization I was able to achieve. Luckily get the best of both worlds with Plex and MrMC.

[amet]

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