Sonarr version (exact version):
2.0.0.4389 Mono version (if Sonarr is not running on Windows): OS: ((Debug logs)): http://pastebin.com/Xh2sCPFU Description of issue:
Sonarr keeps deleting subtitles for episodes which do not get changed or updated. No import is taking place neither manual or automatic, but nevertheless Sonarr keeps throwing out these subtitles.
Problem exists because these are specials released as DVD, since neither Plex nor Sonar supports iso images, the individual DVD episodes are stored in a subfolder with the name as reported by TheTVDB and as listed in Sonarr. Since there’s no way to indicate that these video files belong to the respective DVD specials, Sonarr thinks they should not be there and ‘cleans up’ . Or in this case, destroying the library since it leaves the video files behind but removes any extra non-video file.
Are there multiple files for the same episode in the folder?
There are a number of line in the logs that follow this pattern:
16-11-23 10:32:53.6|Debug|MediaFileTableCleanupService|File [Z:\Media\Series\Doctor Who\Specials\Doctor Who - S00E15 - The Invasion of Time Supplemental DVD\Doctor Who - S00E15 - The Invasion of Time_Extra Part 1 - Out of Time.avi] is not assigned to any episodes, removing from db
Which leads me to believe Sonarr is switching back and forth between multiple files and getting rid of extra files it no longer thinks it needs. Sonarr shouldn’t be deleting the extra files when it’s unlinking an extra file though, so we’ll get a fix out for that.
Yes, these specials are listed as DVD’s in the Specials listing for Doctor Who (the classic series). As I said, those cannot be recognized by Sonarr (or Plex for that matter) so I created subfolders in the Specials folder naming those folders the same as the entries on the Specials listing in Sonarr.
Sonarr then only sees the first file in that subfolder, which it would like to rename to the same name as the subfolder itself if I would let it ‘organize’ that folder. So I only let it scan so that at least it gets listed as present in the series listing.
e.g. Doctor Who - S00E10 - Genesis of the Daleks Supplemental DVD
and then placed the videos from that DVD into this subfolder. The extra files such as nfo’s and subtitles too but it’s those kind of extra files that keep getting thrown out.
Both Sonarr and Plex support specials, they just need to be named with Season 0 and the episode from the specials season in Sonarr, which you’ve done here and why Sonarr has imported them and is trying to deal with them changing. It’s not clear that there are multiple video files all labeled with the same season + episode number, though that appears to be the case (though it’s unclear why there would be).
If you place Extra files that Sonarr and Plex can’t understand in a folder named Extras in the series folder Sonarr won’t try to import them or deal with them.
How many video files are in that folder?
What are the entire contents of that folder?
I know that, but it does not recognize a special if that special is for instance an ISO image because the whole special is listed as a complete DVD release, as in the case with some of the Doctor Who specials. But I would still like these listed as present instead of missing so I extracted the content of these DVD’s and placed the video files in a subfolder named exactly as the corresponding special entry listed in Sonarr.
It’s not an ideal solution I admit, in Plex this has it’s own weird side effects, but at least I can watch individual files from such ‘single’ special listings.
Like I said above, because some of these specials consists of a DVD, which contains more than one video file.
The folder structure I used for these is like in the example I mentioned before Doctor Who\Specials\Doctor Who - S00E10 - Genesis of the Daleks Supplemental DVD\individual files
where the individual files are named as the corresponding entries on the DVD Menu.
Of course the last bolded part of the path differs from DVD special to DVD special.
I’ve not yet encountered this with any other series Specials but the Doctor Who series happens to have a number of specials that are complete DVD releases containing multiple video files but mentioned as a single special in the TheTVDB listings for this series. And subsequently as a single entry in Sonarr’s Specials listing.
That differs from DVD release to DVD release. Usually it’s around 5 video files as in the above case, consisting of outtakes, documentaries, alternative/extended scenes, making of’s, easter eggs, etc. The kind of extra’s you usually find on a DVD release. But I also got a couple that have around 9 or 10 additional video files.
And of course I also add subtitles to those if I can find them in my native language. (Dutch) but it’s those that constantly get removed.
Placing these subtitles in an Extras folder isn’t a solution for me since then those subtitles won’t be found in Plex.
You’d place everything in there, not just the subtitles/other extra files.
Yeah, those are extras of the special which would be better suited for the Extras folder (since they aren’t the special itself), though I’m not sure if/how Plex would handle those files.
That’s just it, the whole DVD is listed as the special itself, so I see no way around this than to place the extracted content in a folder named after the special. I tried adding the Extras folder in such a folder, but then Plex no longer sees the files. And leaving just the subtitles in the Extras folder makes them also undetectable. So to have Plex also use the subtitles I see at this point no other solution than to embed them into the video files. It’s a bit more work but at least then they can’t be thrown out.
I wasn’t sure if that was the case (didn’t see confirmation one way or another in the help docs), but that won’t work then.
The video file and the extra files for it need to live side-by-side (that’s always been the case).
You could drop the S00Exx part from the extra files that aren’t the special, that way they won’t show up as different version of the special in Plex, but will still be seen.
The deletion of the subtitles and other extra files should be fixed in the latest develop release.
I can’t remember the specifics which lead me to this, but I have a show where I’ve created a folder called “More” to add a special which isn’t listed by Sonarr: Plex sees the files in that folder, Sonarr doesn’t.