A subscriber who opens a series and finds episodes 1, 2, 3 and 6 concludes the service is broken, and they are not wrong. But whether that gap will ever close is not something vodmatic can work out — episode 4 may still be downloading, or it may never have existed. Only you know. So the season waits, and you are asked once.
Both kinds of question appear on Needs attention.
Season held back
Vikings — season 3
Has episode 1-2, 4-8. Missing episode 3.
The season is on your disk with a hole in it.
- Add what there is — put it in the catalogue now, gap and all. When the missing episode turns up, it is added on its own.
- Keep waiting — leave it out of the catalogue until the gap closes. It goes in by itself when it does; nothing further is needed from you.
Series starts late
Cartel Crew — would start at season 3
The library has season 3 and nothing below. Season 1-2 would be missing from the start of the series.
The whole programme is held, not one season. Your library begins at season 3, and vodmatic will not decide on your behalf whether that is a collection that starts there or one that is still arriving.
- Start at season 3 — a perfectly good answer for a collection that never had the earlier ones.
- Wait for the earlier seasons — hold the series until they arrive.
Why it is judged per season
Seasons do not depend on each other. A collection beginning at season 3 is a fine collection, and refusing it because seasons 1 and 2 are absent would hold back a library doing nothing wrong. What must not happen is a season appearing with episodes 1, 2, 3 and 6.
Why it does not fire during a first import
During a first import a series is created seconds before its own episodes, and gating that would stop a library of forty thousand files on its first night with a question about each one. The gate applies to programmes your portal already has.
Built from the bottom up
Within a series, seasons go in lowest first. Season 8 being written before season 3 — because the scan happened to walk the folders in that order — gives a subscriber a series that starts at 8 with no way to know the rest is coming. So episodes wait their turn, and the one that is next is fetched rather than left at the back of the queue.
Subtitles wait with their season
A subtitle cannot attach to an episode that has not been written. While a season is held, its subtitles are held with it — they are not failures and they are not counted as such. Answering the season releases the episodes and the subtitles together.
Set aside seasons
A season you told to keep waiting is listed under Set aside, with the counts kept up to date so you can see it getting closer. Nothing is required from you; if you change your mind, Ask me again puts it back on the list.
Turning it off
Under Settings, the episode order gate can be switched off entirely. Then everything goes in as it is found, gaps and all. Some catalogues want that. Most do not.
