Maintain Files Not Working As Expected

[Jeff]

Long story short, I didn't create database backups, so I am now rebuilding my library. And of course, creating a backup basically every day. During this effort, I have come across some really strange behaviors, specifically with tv shows.

I have episodes for the BBC Earth documentary titled Life from 2009. When I select maintain library for that folder of specific files in that folder, the files show as being from the recent tv show For Life. This doesn't make sense for several reasons. But, fair enough. I make an xml file making the title of the series Life. When I do maintain library again, I see that the files show a tv show titled Life for a few brief seconds before once again turning into For Life. There are several other shows for which this has happened as well as many movies. But, I logged the process for Life turning into For Life.

I am running Mezzmo v6.0.6.0 on a Windows 10 Pro version 21H2 machine.

Sometimes this happened in the past, but an xml file usually solved it. Any help would be much appreciated.

This is the xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<series>
<seriesname>Life</seriesname>
</series>

[Peter]

Try adding the <Year>2009</Year> to the xml file.

[Jeff]

Thank you. I tried putting the Year function both inside and outside the <series></series> function. I noticed that the year listed after maintaining was done is the year the file was created, 2020. The TV show For Life started in 2020. That makes sense why that show was chosen. Is it possible Mezzmo is keeping the file created date year through maintaining? This seems so weird to me.

Some good news is if I change the year in the metadata of the file itself, then it does give me the correct series. However, that will be a lot of work that I haven't had to do in the past.

EDIT: I can confirm changing the metadata of the file itself fixes this issue generally. At least, the handful of series for which I made this change fixed the issue. But again, the issue is that Mezzmo is using the file created date to determine the tv series. This is also what is happening with some movies.

[Peter]

Please try setting the content of your series.xml file to:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Series>
<language>en</language>
<SeriesName>Life</SeriesName>
<Overview>Series Description</Overview>
<Year>2009</Year>
<imdb></imdb>
</Series>

This is working for me here. If it does not work for you please send an email to support [at] conceiva [dot] com and we will send you a patch.

[Jeff]

Thank you for the quick reply. When I changed the metadata of the files for Life and then deleted the change, Mezzmo is recognizing 2009 as the year. So, I tried that xml on a different series where I was experiencing the same issue. I modified the xml for the correct series name and year. That did not work for me. I will send an email shortly.

Thanks again for the help.

[Peter]

Can you please tell us more details about the different series as it may have a different problem.

[Jeff]

I followed the instructions in the email. It didn't work. I created the xml file with the year and it still didn't get the correct series.

Another series where there is happening is the original The Twilight Zone which started in 1959. The series that is coming up is The Twilight Zone that started in 2020.

It appears to me that the issue is Mezzmo is using the file creation date for the year of the series (or the movie). But again, this isn't happening for every series. I am not changing the metadata of the file for the file creation date, but I had been changing the metadata of the file by adding a year for the media details. Long story short, the issue is Mezzmo is using the file creation year and the name when determining the series. And if using an xml file, Mezzmo is not updating the year from an xml file. Mezzmo is updating the name of the series, but not the year. My hope would be the correct name of the series would be sufficient to find the series. If that doesn't work, then adding the year in the xml file should be sufficient. However, neither of these things seem to be working as intended.

[Peter]

I tried the same for the twilight zone setting the name and year in the series.xml file and Mezzmo picked up the 1959 version. I will send you the folder with the xml file so you can try it.

[Jeff]

This did not work. I am going to backup my library, delete Mezzmo from my computer and then reinstall Mezzmo. Hopefully the reinstall and the restore library work okay. I will let you know if I am still having the same issue. I will take each step we have discussed in this thread if the reinstall doesn't fix the problem itself.

[Jeff]

After a fresh install, still no luck. At least changing the metadata of the file outsize of Mezzmo seems to be working properly. Not sure what is going on, but at least I can do that.

[Peter]

Please try copying the patch files over the top of the fresh install as the Year in the series.xml will not work without the patch.

[Jeff]

I did that. Still not work. This support can be closed. There is a work around, not preferred of course, but it works.

[Jeff]

Okay, even the work around is not working. For example, I have the TV Show The Middle that started in 2009. The file creation date is in 2020. When maintaining the file, it gives me The Castles of the Middle Ages TV show that apparently started in 2020. When I change the metadata of the file itself to the year 2009, I get a TV Show called The Middle Ages. So, I tried an xml file with series name as The Middle and year as 2009. Still getting the TV Show The Middle Ages.

This is a huge ridiculous problem. When searching for a tv show called the middle (using Mezzmo's get online video metadata), the first show is Malcolm in the Middle. That would at least make more sense to show up as the tv show. But no, I get some obscure show about the middle ages.

There is something seriously wrong with this setup. Do you know of a program that is free that will allow me to bulk change the metadata of a file? I use the regular file properties in Windows to change the year. But, if a program allowed me to change the series name such that Mezzmo recognized that change. And then I could maintain files in the file and get it to find the correct show, that would be okay. Of course, this didn't happen when I first put the show in Mezzmo. So, something is messed up with either Mezzmo on my computer (even though I did a fresh install a few months back) or there is an issue with the servers communicating with my computer.

[Peter]

You could try using Tiny Media Manager . to see if you get better results from the metadata lookup. Putting the series name and year in an xml file in the same folder as the video should get the correct metadata but I also get 'The Middle Ages' when looking up the series using:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Series>
<language>en</language>
<SeriesName>The Middle</SeriesName>
<banner>metadata/01.jpg</banner>
<Overview>Series Description</Overview>
<Year>2009</Year>
<imdb>tt1442464</imdb>
</Series>

[jbinkley60]

I looked this one up on tvdb.com (https://thetvdb.com/search?query=The+Middle) and this series has an alternate name, Middle. I made a series.xml file with this:

<series>
<seriesname>Middle</seriesname>
</series>

and Mezzmo discovered it properly. This is a tdvdb.com issue not a Mezzmo issue.


Thanks,

Jeff

[Jeff]

That works for this particular series. I will have to investigate with the other situations. We'll see what happens.

[jbinkley60]

That works for this particular series. I will have to investigate with the other situations. We'll see what happens.

TVDB has some quality issues. I am happy to help if you get stuck on any. My approach to TV series is like so:


Import one episode of a series into Mezzmo.
Ensure artwork and metadata are proper.
If not fix with get metadata properties
Once correct export the metadata.
Create series xml, poster.jpg, folder.jpg and fanart.jpg from exported metadata files
Import remaining episodes



This has proven to be 100% for me. I have a few hundred TV series. It's a one time thing for each new series I add.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Jeff]

That is an excellent suggestion. Thank you so much. That will definitely save me tons of time.

[jbinkley60]

That is an excellent suggestion. Thank you so much. That will definitely save me tons of time.

I have almost 14,000 TV episodes in my Mezzmo library with an HDHorerun OTA PVR system that is always recording new episodes. I had to find a way to automate this with high accuracy. Happy to help.


Jeff