Plex lets your stream your own media. Plex reads file names and matches media against its own library (powered by The Movie Database and TheTVDB). If you get the naming right before you import you’ll make sure to get the posters, summaries and cast lists to appear correctly.

If you’re in a hurry, there’ a cheatsheet at the end of the article.

Step 1: Set Up Your Folder Structure First

Before naming any files, create a clean folder on your hard drive. Plex’s scanners require that major content types are kept separate — never mix movies and TV shows in the same folder.

TV Shows

/TV Shows
   /Show Name (Year)
      /Season 01
         Show Name (Year) - s01e01 - Episode Title.ext
         Show Name (Year) - s01e02 - Episode Title.ext
      /Season 02
         ...
      /Specials
         Show Name (Year) - s00e01 - Special Title.ext

Show Name (Year) — Write the full series title, capitalized, without abbreviations. Including the year is now recommended by Plex for the “Plex TV Series” agent, as it helps distinguish remakes and reboots (e.g., Doctor Who (1963) vs. Doctor Who (2005)).
Season XX — Always use the English word “Season” followed by a two-digit number, even if your language differs. Use Season 00 or Specials for content outside the normal seasons.
SxxEyy — “S” stands for season, “E” for episode. Use two-digit numbers (01, 02…) so sorting stays correct. The scanner parses these indicators directly from the filename to catalog episodes .
Episode Title — Optional but useful for quick browsing.

Multi-Part / Combined Episodes

Multiple episodes in one file: Use s01e02-e03 to indicate a file containing episodes 2 and 3.
One episode split across files: Add pt1, pt2, cd1, disc1, or similar tags after the episode info: Show Name (Year) - s01e01 - pt1.avi .

Date-Based Shows

For daily/weekly shows (talk shows, news), use the air date instead of season/episode numbers:

/The Colbert Report (2005)
   /Season 08
      The Colbert Report (2005) - 2011-11-15 - Elijah Wood.avi

Both YYYY-MM-DD and DD-MM-YYYY formats are accepted.

Forcing a Match

If Plex keeps matching to the wrong show, you can force it with a database ID tag:

/The Office (UK) (2001) {tmdb-2996}
   /Season 01
      The Office (UK) - s01e01 - Downsize.mp4

Use {tvdb-XXXXX} or {tmdb-XXXX} in the show folder name to point Plex to the exact entry.

How to Name Movies for Plex

Recommended: One Folder Per Movie

Plex recommends placing each movie in its own individual folder. This speeds up scanning and provides a home for external subtitles, custom posters, and other extras.

/Movies
   /Avatar (2009)
      Avatar (2009).mkv
   /Batman Begins (2005)
      Batman Begins (2005).mp4
      Batman Begins (2005).en.srt
      poster.jpg

Simple Pattern

Movie Title (Year).ext

Movie Title — Full official title, no spoilers or alternate names.
(Year) — Helps Plex pick the right version when several films share a title.
.ext — The file extension, such as .mkv, .mp4, or .avi.

Stand-alone files (without individual folders) are also supported, though less ideal:

/Movies
   Avatar (2009).mkv
   Batman Begins (2005).mp4

Multiple Editions

If you have several cuts of the same film (Theatrical, Director’s Cut, Final Cut), use the {edition-...} tag in both the folder and filename:

/Movies
   /Blade Runner (1982) {edition-Director's Cut}
      Blade Runner (1982) {edition-Director's Cut}.mp4
   /Blade Runner (1982) {edition-Final Cut}
      Blade Runner (1982) {edition-Final Cut}.mkv

External Subtitles

Place subtitle files in the same folder as the movie, matching the filename with a language code:

/Batman Begins (2005)
   Batman Begins (2005).mp4
   Batman Begins (2005).en.srt      ← English
   Batman Begins (2005).fr.srt      ← French

Step 2: Import Your Media into Plex

Once your files are named and organized into folders, it’s time to bring them into Plex by creating libraries and pointing them at your folders.

Create a Library

Open Plex Web App (visit app.plex.tv or http://localhost:32400/web on the server machine).
Click the Settings icon (the wrench in the top right).
Under the Manage section, select Libraries.
Click Add Library.
Choose the library type — Movies, TV Shows, Music, Photos, etc. (Each library can only contain one type of media.)
Name the library and select the language for metadata fetching.
Click Next, then Browse for Media Folder and navigate to the folder you organized above (e.g., /TV Shows or /Movies).
Advanced options appear once a folder is selected — here you can choose the scanner, metadata agent, and enable settings like “Enable intros/trailers” or automatic syncing.
Click Add to finish. Plex will immediately begin scanning and matching your files.

Add More Folders to an Existing Library

Hover over the library name in the left sidebar, click the three dots (⋯), and select Manage Library → Edit.
Click Add Folders to point to additional directories. This is useful if your media spans multiple drives.

Choose the Right Scanner & Agent

TV Shows → use the Plex Series Scanner with the Plex TV Series agent (the default for new TV libraries). The older “Plex Series Scanner (Legacy)” is available but less accurate.
Movies → use the default Plex Movie Scanner with the Plex Movie agent.
If you have content that doesn’t follow standard naming (e.g., anime with absolute episode numbering), consider the community-built Absolute Series Scanner from GitHub.

Scan and Refresh

After adding files to your watched folders, Plex will detect them automatically on its next scan interval. To trigger it manually, click the ⋯ next to the library → Scan Library Files.
If you’ve renamed existing files, use Refresh Metadata (or the more thorough Force Refresh) so Plex re-reads the new names and re-matches against its metadata sources.

Automating the Process

If you add media frequently, tools like FileBot can automatically rename files to match Plex conventions, and download managers (Sonarr, Radarr) can handle renaming and trigger library scans via Plex’s API.

Quick-Reference Cheatsheet

TV SHOWS:
/TV Shows/Show Name (Year)/Season 01/Show Name (Year) - s01e01 - Episode Title.mkv

MOVIES:
/Movies/Movie Title (Year)/Movie Title (Year).mkv

MULTIPLE EDITIONS:
/Movies/Blade Runner (1982) {edition-Director's Cut}/Blade Runner (1982) {edition-Director's Cut}.mkv

SUBTITLES:
/Movies/Batman Begins (2005)/Batman Begins (2005).en.srt

SPECIALS:
/TV Shows/Show Name (Year)/Specials/Show Name (Year) - s00e01 - Special Title.mkv

MULTI-EPSODE FILE:
/TV Shows/Show Name (Year)/Season 02/Show Name (Year) - s02e01-e03.mkv

FORCED MATCH:
/TV Shows/The Office (UK) (2001) {tmdb-2996}/Season 01/The Office (UK) - s01e01.mp4