Can someone help be unravel the show Hard Knocks for matching?

[simonmason 19]

According to online posts this show is a mess.  IMDB shows 20 seasons.  TVDB shows 25.  They started including two seasons a year a few years back.  As far as I can tell IMDB took the first season in every two season year and ignored the second.  TVDB seems to have captured it correctly.  I currently have Season 20 downloaded which is the Jets but this is what shows in Emby?  I have tried removing identification, adding the tvdb ID to the folder name, manual match etc.  Emby is pulling the name of the series as Training Camp with the Buffalo Bills which is the IMDB version.  How do I get it to stick to the tvdb version?  Thanks.

 

[GrimReaper 4739]

What is your library preferred meta-downloaders order? Wild guess would be you have TMDB on top, hence you're getting 20 seasons - move TVDB as top-preferred provider and refresh metadata.

 

[simonmason 19]

Nope, TVDB is on top.  Inexplicably it was unchecked in season identification but checking that made no difference.  I downloaded another season just to compare and contrast.

Season 20 is showing Training camp with the Buffalo Bills.  In tvdb it is with the Jets

I downloaded season 25 and it is also showing training camp with the buffalo bills - which is actually correct.  

So I am not sure what is going on here.  I don't see where this information is coming from on TVDB as it seems to show the show names correct for the season.

[GrimReaper 4739]

17 minutes ago, simonmason said:

So I am not sure what is going on here.

Must've been a mix-up in your TV show-Season-Episode meta-downloaders sometime in the past, either priority order or providers enabled/disabled. You should start from scratch:

1) Remove Hard Knocks folder from your TV shows root

2) Run Scan media library task to clear the db

3) Confirm TVDB is top-preferred meta-downloader for Series/Season/Episode

4) Delete existing NFOs from Hard Knocks series folder (if any)

4) Move Hard Knocks series folder back

5) Scan media library   

If again it doesn't download correct metadata, post server log afterwards.

Edited August 26, 2025 by GrimReaper

[simonmason 19]

I did all of the steps and both seasons are showing as the Buffalo Bills training camp when one should be the Jets (20) and the other should be Buffalo Bills (25).

I tried to capture the log section around this time.  I see that I have an issue with another tv show but I don't see any issues with the Hard Knocks but I am no expert at reviewing logs.  Thanks

 

embyserver-2.txt

[GrimReaper 4739]

Cannot reproduce your issue.

I have recreated your structure:

Upon importing, I see both seasons with proper season names:

I believe your issue was only with season names while episodes metadata was actually correct (you can easily check that comparing with web page entries for relevant episodes), indicating that you still maybe have TMDB as top-priority SEASON meta-downloader (and getting Season name from it), as your log shows TMDB being queried first, upon season creation:

Quote

2025-08-28 07:54:54.356 Info App: Creating Season Season 20 entry for Hard Knocks (2001)
2025-08-28 07:54:54.363 Info HttpClient: GET https://api.themoviedb.org/3/tv/12940/season/20?api_key=x_secret2_x&append_to_response=images,keywords,external_ids,credits,videos&language=en-US&include_image_language=en-US,null

instead of it being TVDB:

Quote

2025-08-28 23:43:24.053 Info App: Creating Season Season 20 entry for Hard Knocks (2001)
2025-08-28 23:43:24.054 Info HttpClient: GET https://api4.thetvdb.com/v4/seasons/2075081/extended?meta=translations&short=false

which would point to your providers being out of order.

Re-check and make sure that you do have TVDB on-top of your preferred providers (or simply disable TMDB prior importing).

 

Edited August 28, 2025 by GrimReaper

[simonmason 19]

Thanks for trying.  I don't know what is going on here.  I added this for my nephew in England you can't get this show.  

And Sonarr just downloaded S25E05 to complete this season in Sonarr and inexplicably came in named S01E05.  I checked back in Sonarr and indeed that was the episode numbering.  Yet it identified and downloaded it.  So I have no idea what is going on with this show.  But I don't have any other issues with any other shows so happy to manually adjust this for my nephew.