How to Easily Export and Compare Your Plex Library List

Discover the Best Way to Export and Compare Your Plex Library

While reviewing the TV shows count in my Plex library, I noticed a discrepancy: at least five shows were missing compared to the actual folder count on my HDD. I couldn’t locate these items despite using the “unmatched” filter in Plex.

After extensive online research and experimenting with AI solutions, I still couldn’t find a simple method. I remembered Tautulli, a Plex companion app I had already installed. If you haven’t installed Tautulli yet, I highly recommend it. This app provides comprehensive stats about your Plex server. Simply log in with your Plex account, and Tautulli will detect the Plex server on your local network.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to exporting and comparing your Plex library using Tautulli:

Step 1: Accessing Tautulli

1. Login to Tautulli: Open Tautulli and log in using your Plex account credentials.
2. Navigate to Libraries: At the top of the Tautulli dashboard, click on “Libraries.”

Step 2: Exporting Your Library

1. Select the Library: Choose the library you want to compare. In my case, it was “TV Shows.”
2. Export Metadata: Click on the “Export” button and select “Export Metadata.”
3. Choose Export Options: Select “CSV” as the export format and click “Export.”

Step 3: Analyzing the Exported Data

1. Download the CSV File: After a few minutes, your CSV file will be ready for download.
2. Open in Excel: Open the downloaded file in Excel.
3. Find the Relevant Column: Look for the column named “seasons.episodes.locations” to get the list of all indexed files.

Step 4: Identifying Missing Items

1. Text to Columns: Use Excel’s “Text to Columns” feature to separate folder names into individual columns.
2. Directory List Print: Use a tool like DirectoryListPrint.exe to copy folder/file names.
3. Excel VLOOKUP: Use the VLOOKUP function in Excel to find differences between the folders and files listed in the CSV and those on your HDD.

In my case, within minutes, I identified the missing folders: three movies (mistakenly kept in the TV folder) and two WWE files without proper filenames that Plex couldn’t detect.

Conclusion

Using this method, you can easily identify missing items in your Plex library that might otherwise remain hidden. This ensures you have a complete and accurate Plex library.

I hope you found this guide helpful! Feel free to share your experiences or any other tips you might have.