Is Shoko Server Mandatory?

Shoko Metadata is not a standalone plugin and requires Shoko Server installed, configured and running in order to work properly. If you haven’t done this yet, Download Shoko Server from our main website and use the installation guides located in the menu on the left to properly install and configure Shoko Server.

Installing Shoko Metadata

Shoko Metadata has to be manually installed so make sure to follow the instructions below. This guide assumes you’ve installed Plex into the default install directory, make adjustments as needed to fit your installation.

Windows

If you haven’t done so, Download Shoko Metadata and extract the zip file, inside the zip folder is a folder labeled ShokoMetadata.bundle. Move this folder into the following directory.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins

Now you need to move the Movie and Series scanners into the scanner folder. If you’ve never installed custom scanners before you’ll need to create this folder first.

Create a folder labeled Scanners in the following directory.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server

The Movie and Series scanners are located in the following directory.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\ShokoMetadata.bundle\Contents\Resources

Move both of these folders into the following directory.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Scanners

Proceed to Editing Plex Scanners to make the required edits for the scanners to work.

Linux

Before you continue, to make it easier to follow the guide, regardless of the Plex install method, we will assign an environment variable ($PLEX_HOME) that will point to the base directory for your Plex content.

Below are the three most common install methods, and what you need to do for each one before you continue with the rest of the guide.

Bare-metal install

Sign in with the user responsible for running PMS (be sure to replace <username> with the username of the user),

sudo -u <username> -s /bin/sh

and assign the variable.

export PLEX_HOME="/var/lib/plex/Plex Media Server"

Skip to The steps.

Snap (plexmediaserver)

Sign in as root on your host-system,

sudo -s /bin/sh

and assign the variable.

export PLEX_HOME="/var/snap/plexmediaserver/common/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server"

Skip to The steps.

Docker (plexinc/pms-docker)

This section assumes you’re using the official docker image (plexinc/pms-docker) in docker, if you’re using any other image, Attach to the running PMS container (be sure to replace <container name> with the name or id of the container),

docker exec -it <container name> /bin/sh

and and assign the variable.

export PLEX_HOME="/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server"

Continue to The steps.

The steps

1. Navigate to the Plug-ins directory of your install

cd "${PLEX_HOME}/Plug-ins";

2. Download and extract the latest bundle from GibHub using one of the following commands:

curl -L https://github.com/Cazzar/ShokoMetadata.bundle/archive/master.tar.gz | tar -xzf -

or

wget -O - https://github.com/Cazzar/ShokoMetadata.bundle/archive/master.tar.gz | tar -xzf -

3. Remove the suffix

mv ShokoMetadata.bundle-master ShokoMetadata.bundle

4. Ensure that the Scanners directory exists in the base directory

mkdir -p "${PLEX_HOME}/Scanners"

5. Move the scanners into the Scanners directory

cp -R ShokoMetadata.bundle/Contents/Resources/* ../Scanners/

6. Edit the Prefs section in each scanner using your prefered terminal editor so they match with your Shoko Server install, or see Editing Plex Scanners>Windows for more info on what to modify.

Movie Scanner

${EDITOR:-nano} "${PLEX_HOME}/Scanners/Movies/Shoko Movie Scanner.py"

Series Scanner

${EDITOR:-nano} "${PLEX_HOME}/Scanners/Series/Shoko Series Scanner.py"

Editing Plex Scanners

With Shoko Metadata installed, you’ll need to make a few edits to both the Series and Movies scanner.

Windows

Editing Shoko Movie Scanner

Navigate to the following folder

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Scanners\Movies

Open Shoko Movie Scanner.py in your editor of choice and modify the Prefs section to match your Shoko setup. For most users you’ll only need to change the username and password. As Python is space-sensitive make sure to not add or remove any spaces.

Prefs = {
    'Hostname': '127.0.0.1',
    'Port': 8111,
    'Username': 'username',
    'Password': 'password',
}

Editing Shoko Series Scanner

Navigate to the following folder

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Scanners\Series

Open Shoko Series Scanner.py in your editor of choice and modify the Prefs section to match your Shoko setup. For most users you’ll only need to change the username and password. As Python is space-sensitive make sure to not add or remove any spaces.

Prefs = {
    'Hostname': '127.0.0.1',
    'Port': 8111,
    'Username': 'username',
    'Password': 'password',
    'IncludeSpecials': True,
    'IncludeOther': True,
    'SingleSeasonOrdering': False
}

You’ll notice the series scanner has a few more options available than the movie scanner which are detailed below.

OptionDescription
IncludeSpecialsFiles marked as specials in Shoko will be shown in the seires as part of Season 0.
IncludeOtherFiles marked as other in Shoko will be shown in the seires as part of Season 0.
SingleSeasonOrderingEpisodes are no longer separated by seasons. All normal episodes are put into Season 1, specials into Season 0, openings/endings into Season -1, and trailers into Season -2.