Check unmatched media at season and episode level

Checking only shows and movies was hiding the larger problem. Battlestar
Galactica has a real plex:// GUID, a poster, and passes a show-level audit,
while all 74 of its episodes and all 5 of its seasons carry local:// GUIDs and
display as "Episode 1", "Episode 2" with no titles or artwork.

Surveying every level found 97 unmatched episodes of 11531 and 7 unmatched
seasons of 954, across four shows — none of it visible before.

Also adds known-issues.conf, an accepted-findings list. The unmatched movie in
the Movies library is the first entry: the 2003 BSG miniseries is catalogued as
television, so the movie agent has no record to match it against and the item
cannot be fixed in place. Listed entries are still printed, as [info] rather
than [warn], so they stop counting as unresolved faults without ever being
silently suppressed.

The episode list is a ~30MB response, so it is written to a temp file before
parsing rather than piped into jq.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Lucas Berger
2026-08-15 21:27:56 -04:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent 3df1cca91c
commit 829bf009df
4 changed files with 163 additions and 11 deletions
+14 -2
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@@ -11,6 +11,11 @@ Reached at `https://plex.bergerhouse.net` (DNS resolves to odin's LAN address
| [bin/poster-audit](bin/poster-audit) | Finds items whose poster is missing or does not resolve | no |
| [bin/poster-repair](bin/poster-repair) | Re-selects the poster for items the audit flags | **yes** |
[known-issues.conf](known-issues.conf) lists findings that have been reviewed and
accepted. `plex-health` still reports them, but as `[info]` rather than `[warn]`, so a
known-and-accepted item stops making the whole run read as failing. Nothing is ever
suppressed silently.
## Prerequisites
- **Where it runs:** this workstation (`dev`), targeting odin over Tailscale. Nothing
@@ -97,8 +102,15 @@ which for a local candidate is the `metadata://posters/...` string, not the `/li
path from the same object's `key` field.
**Season and episode posters were not affected** — only show-level ones, and only in the
TV Shows library. The movie libraries sampled clean. Worth re-checking rather than
assuming if this recurs.
TV Shows library. Every other library was later checked in full (not sampled) and came
back 100% clean. Worth re-checking rather than assuming if this recurs.
**A matched show can be full of unmatched episodes.** Checking only the top level of a
library is not enough: Battlestar Galactica has a real `plex://show/...` GUID and looks
healthy in a show-level audit, while all 74 of its episodes carry `local://` GUIDs and
display as "Episode 1", "Episode 2"… with no titles or artwork. `plex-health` therefore
checks show, season, *and* episode level. The episode list for a library this size is a
~30 MB response — it is written to a temp file before parsing, never piped into `jq`.
**The 2-minute tool timeout will kill a full repair run.** Run it with `nohup ... &` and
tail the log, or use `--limit`.
+63 -9
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@@ -117,26 +117,80 @@ check_libraries() {
done < <(jq -r '.MediaContainer.Directory[]|"\(.key)\t\(.title)\t\(.type)\t\(.refreshing)"' <<<"$sections")
}
# Is this ratingKey listed in known-issues.conf? Echoes the reason if so.
known_issue_reason() {
local rk="${1:?}"
local conf="$COLLECTION_DIR/known-issues.conf"
[[ -f "$conf" ]] || return 1
awk -v rk="$rk" '
/^[[:space:]]*(#|$)/ { next }
$1 == rk { $1=""; sub(/^[[:space:]]+/, ""); print; found=1; exit }
END { exit !found }
' "$conf"
}
# An unmatched item keeps a local:// guid instead of a real agent guid, so it
# will never receive metadata or artwork. Checked at every level: a show can be
# matched while all of its episodes are not.
check_unmatched() {
section "Unmatched media"
local sections
sections="$(plex_get /library/sections)"
local key title type code items unmatched
[[ -n "$WORKDIR" ]] || WORKDIR="$(mktemp -d)"
local unmatched_filter='.MediaContainer.Metadata[]?
|select((.guid//"")|test("^(local://|com\\.plexapp\\.agents\\.none)"))'
local key title type code
while IFS=$'\t' read -r key title type; do
case "$type" in
movie) code=1 ;;
show) code=2 ;;
*) continue ;;
*) info "${title}: skipped (${type} libraries are not match-checked)"; continue ;;
esac
items="$(plex_get "/library/sections/${key}/all" --get --data-urlencode "type=${code}")" || continue
# An unmatched item keeps a local:// guid instead of a real agent guid.
unmatched="$(jq -r '[.MediaContainer.Metadata[]?
|select((.guid//"")|test("^(local://|com\\.plexapp\\.agents\\.none)"))]|length' <<<"$items")"
if [[ "$unmatched" == "0" ]]; then
ok "${title}: all items matched to an agent"
# ── top level: movies or shows, reported per item ────────────────────────
plex_get "/library/sections/${key}/all" --get --data-urlencode "type=${code}" \
-o "$WORKDIR/top.json" || { warn "${title}: could not list items"; continue; }
jq -r "${unmatched_filter}|\"\(.ratingKey)\t\(.title)\"" "$WORKDIR/top.json" > "$WORKDIR/top_unmatched.tsv"
local n_top rk t reason accepted=0 flagged=0
n_top="$(wc -l < "$WORKDIR/top_unmatched.tsv" | tr -d ' ')"
if [[ "$n_top" == "0" ]]; then
ok "${title}: all $(jq -r '.MediaContainer.Metadata|length' "$WORKDIR/top.json") items matched"
else
warn "${title}: ${unmatched} unmatched item(s) — they will never get metadata or artwork"
while IFS=$'\t' read -r rk t; do
if reason="$(known_issue_reason "$rk")"; then
info "${title}: '${t}' (${rk}) unmatched — accepted: ${reason:0:96}"
accepted=$((accepted + 1))
else
warn "${title}: '${t}' (${rk}) is unmatched — it will never get metadata or artwork"
flagged=$((flagged + 1))
fi
done < "$WORKDIR/top_unmatched.tsv"
(( flagged == 0 )) && ok "${title}: ${accepted} unmatched item(s), all accepted in known-issues.conf"
fi
# ── seasons and episodes, reported per parent show ───────────────────────
[[ "$code" == "2" ]] || continue
local level lcode total bad
for level in season:3 episode:4; do
lcode="${level##*:}"
# Large response (the episode list runs to tens of MB) — write to a file
# rather than piping it into jq.
plex_get "/library/sections/${key}/all" --get --data-urlencode "type=${lcode}" \
-o "$WORKDIR/lvl.json" || { warn "${title}: could not list ${level%%:*}s"; continue; }
total="$(jq -r '.MediaContainer.Metadata|length' "$WORKDIR/lvl.json")"
bad="$(jq -r "[${unmatched_filter}]|length" "$WORKDIR/lvl.json")"
if [[ "$bad" == "0" ]]; then
ok "${title}: all ${total} ${level%%:*}s matched"
else
warn "${title}: ${bad}/${total} ${level%%:*}s unmatched, by show:"
jq -r "${unmatched_filter}|.grandparentTitle // .parentTitle // .title" "$WORKDIR/lvl.json" \
| sort | uniq -c | sort -rn \
| awk '{c=$1; $1=""; sub(/^[[:space:]]+/,""); printf " %-40s %s\n", $0, c}'
fi
done
done < <(jq -r '.MediaContainer.Directory[]|"\(.key)\t\(.title)\t\(.type)"' <<<"$sections")
}
+75
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@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
# Unmatched media (surveyed 2026-08-15)
An unmatched item carries a `local://` GUID instead of a real agent GUID
(`plex://movie/...`, `plex://episode/...`). Plex will never give it a title, summary, or
artwork, and no amount of poster repair will help — there is no metadata record behind it.
## Why the top level is not enough
**A matched parent can be full of unmatched children.** This is the finding that matters:
- `Battlestar Galactica` the *show* has a real GUID, a poster, and looks completely
healthy in a show-level audit.
- All **74 of its episodes** and all **5 of its seasons** carry `local://` GUIDs. They
display as "Episode 1", "Episode 2"… with no titles and no artwork.
An audit scoped to shows and movies reports this library as clean. `plex-health` checks
show, season, and episode level for exactly this reason.
## Current state
| Level | Unmatched | Total |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Movies | 1 | 1059 |
| Movies 4k | 0 | 79 |
| Shows | 0 | 283 |
| Seasons | 7 | 954 |
| Episodes | 97 | 11531 |
Episodes by show:
| Show | Unmatched | Of total | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Battlestar Galactica | 74 | 74 | every episode |
| Louis Theroux | 19 | 19 | every episode |
| Hellsing Ultimate | 3 | 13 | partial |
| Ancient Aliens | 1 | 205 | single episode |
## Battlestar Galactica: three copies, none of them right
Worth understanding as a whole before changing anything:
1. **`Movies``Battlestar Galactica the Mini Series`** (`19798`, `local://19798`)
`/data/Movies/Battlestar Galactica - The Mini-Series (2003)/…Bluray-1080p.mkv`
94 min, 1080p, 11.06 GB. **Unmatchable in a Movies library** — Plex's movie agent has
no entry for the 2003 miniseries, which is catalogued as television. All 20 candidates
it offers are documentaries or the Razor/Plan films. Accepted in
[../known-issues.conf](../known-issues.conf); the structural fix is to move the file
into the TV library, which needs filesystem access to odin.
2. **`TV Shows``Battlestar Galactica (2003)``Season 2003`** (2 episodes)
`/data/TV/Battlestar Galactica (Miniseries)/Season 2003/…S2003E01…`
576p, ~2 GB per part, 94 + 89 min. The same miniseries, at lower quality but complete.
The `S2003E01` filename is what created the bogus "Season 2003" — the agent expects
specials as season 0 (`S00E01`).
3. **`TV Shows``Battlestar Galactica (2003)` → Seasons 14** (74 episodes)
Filenames are correct and carry real episode titles
(`… - S01E01 - 33.mkv`, `… - S01E02 - Water.mkv`), yet every episode is `local://`.
The show matched; its episodes never did.
Note that (1) and (2) are **not** interchangeable copies: the Movies file is higher
resolution but 94 minutes against the TV pair's 183, so it is likely part one only rather
than a complete alternative.
## Not yet attempted
Re-matching the 97 episodes. A forced metadata refresh
(`PUT /library/metadata/<key>/refresh?force=1`) is the obvious lever, and for a show whose
filenames are already correct it would probably match them.
**It carries a specific risk here:** a forced refresh rebuilds the item's metadata,
which is precisely the operation implicated in the poster failure documented in
[tv-poster-incident.md](tv-poster-incident.md). Running it across the library could undo
the poster repair. If it is attempted, do it on **one** show first, then re-run
`bin/poster-audit` to confirm the posters survived before going wider.
+11
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@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
# Accepted findings — plex-health downgrades these from [warn] to [info].
#
# Format: <ratingKey> <reason>
# Blank lines and #-comments are ignored. A ratingKey listed here is still
# reported, so it never disappears silently; it just stops counting as an
# unresolved fault. Write the reason only — the title is read from Plex.
#
# Review this file when a library is rebuilt: ratingKeys are not stable across
# a library delete-and-rescan.
19798 Plex's movie agent has no entry for the 2003 miniseries (it is catalogued as television), so it cannot be matched in a Movies library. Structural fix is to move the file into the TV library beside the existing show. Accepted 2026-08-15.