Plex should feature a way to copy a bunch of selected media in main browsing window to an external hard disk.
Actually, it can be done only tediously and individually, one by one.
Sync only works with device having Plex installed, not external hard disk.
This would greatly improve the usefulness of Plex as a media management software.
At present, to copy a bunch of media to local external hard disk, you have to do it from File Explorer.
This is not only counterintuitive, but is also a turn-off on investing time and energy to curate a Plex library.
Wouldn’t be great to select all media with such actor and such genre and copy them at once on USB hard drive for a friend or family member ?
@Zeus-Media said:
This would greatly improve the usefulness of Plex as a media management software.
I think this is where your thinking is off. Plex is not a media manager. Plex is designed to provide a way to view your media. Plex has very little management features. It cannot rename files, edit their metadata, or move them around your folders. It barely has a delete feature. I understand some people want Plex to do everything, but that’s not Plex’s vision.
@Zeus-Media said:
This would greatly improve the usefulness of Plex as a media management software.
I think this is where your thinking is off. Plex is not a media manager. Plex is designed to provide a way to view your media. Plex has very little management features. It cannot rename files, edit their metadata, or move them around your folders. It barely has a delete feature. I understand some people want Plex to do everything, but that’s not Plex’s vision.
This is what I was trying to get at in your previous post. Plex isn’t about managing the media as much as it is about streaming the media. Some management functions need to be there, but the underlying foundation of Plex’s management is the OS the system has on it to begin with. And knowing how to use it. Using Plex as a crutch is just that, crutching some skill or ability you should already have to maximize how Plex can work for you.
If you want media management, like what you are asking for, use iTunes. If you want media streaming world wide to a full gambit of client apps, use Plex. Something in between? Use Emby, Kodi or WMC.
I disagree with MovieFan and MikeG on this, although I would re-word the OP’s request. I think it is perfectly within Plex’s scope to allow the sync function to sync (including transcode) not only to specific devices, but to a USB drive, whether that is an external HD or an SD card.
The stock audio system in my car includes an SD card reader, from which I can play mp3 files. It would be great and, IMO, well within Plex’s scope to use Plex Web to sync my playlists to an SD card plugged into my computer’s card reader, or a USB card reader, so I can have my playlists in the car. That scenario is no different than syncing to an iPhone.
Speaking in terms of Plex’s scope, it’s simply expanding the list of sync-capable devices.
I’m totally for it. It happens quite often that i need to copy stuff for friends and an easy way to copy it to an external HDD from PMP, without having to attach it to my NAS in the basement, nor copy huge files via Wifi, would be a great benefit.
Now that I have a sync-capable device, I’m beginning to see why the folks at Plex don’t consider an SD card a valid device to sync to. Plex apparently doesn’t just take a .flac file from your server, convert it to an .mp3 file, and copy it to the sync device. Plex apparently stores the converted files somewhere on the sync device in an unrecognizable file system. I can’t for the life of me, after syncing a playlist to my Android phone, find the .mp3 files (or any corresponding files) on the file system on the phone.
I was hoping that I could sync my playlist to my phone, then just copy the .mp3 files from the phone to my SD card, but that doesn’t appear to be possible.
I suppose there is a reason Plex went this way. I have to admit some disappointment that there’s no way to accomplish what I want. Even the Plex2CSV plugin won’t give me the full paths to the files in a playlist. I’ve been stumped at every turn when trying to figure out how to get a listing of my playlist in a form that would allow me to easily copy the files to an SD card.
If Plex, or Plex2CSV, or PlexPY, or some other tool could give me even a .m3u file with file paths, I’d be golden.
Please provide a possibility to export files (MKV; MP3; etc.) from the PLEX with a selection or filter. So you could save the files to a USB stick or SD card around this in ‘offline devices’ (holiday disk, car radio, etc).
