Actor/Actress Metadata Issue

I recently added the movie “Just Another Dream” from 2021 to my movie library. It stars two actor/actress that I have a considerable amount of other movies they both respectively star in. Kristy Swanson and Dean Cain.

For some reason, clicking on either one in Plex Web or Plex Roku, will only list this single movie. When I click them in other movies, it shows every other movie they respectively star in.

When I search the individual actor names in Plex Roku, it lists a single result, but when clicking on that, it gives me two search options, both of which are listed as my server. Clicking each reveals the same manner of movie split experienced above.

In the individual actors listings, they use the same pictures, so it’s hard to tell if this is a duplicate entry for the actors in the metadata, or if for some reason Plex is singling out this particular movie for metadata difficulties.

I have attempted a manual metadata refresh, as well as attempting to rematch the movie.

What’s your server version?

Apologies, meant to include that.

Version 1.25.0.5246

Could you grab the xml info for “Just Another Dream” and also for another movie where one of these actors features.

As requested, sir:

XML Files.zip (20.5 KB)

Yeah, looks like totally different entries for the actors. It’s a dead giveaway when they’re sequentially numbered.

And you say refreshing the metadata for the other movies doesn’t change anything?

Could you send me your database file if that’s possible? (Settings → Troubleshooting → Download Database).

So, I refreshed the metadata for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and sure enough… the ID for Kristy Swanson updated to the new number, and when clicking on her, only the two movies show for her.

I did a full metadata refresh of my movie library a few weeks back. I’m assuming this is an issue now, and the sequential numbering really makes me suspect foul play. Take a look at the numbers for actors we haven’t discussed…

Buffy Update.zip (12.3 KB)

My database is 140mb, and is too large to upload here.

There was an update in a recent server to fix an actor/actress problem who have the same name. A full library refresh of metadata would be needed to update all which could be what you are seeing.

See Where can we report that an actor as a wrong picture associated with his/her name? - #17 by dokuro for details.

Could you try run a “Optimize Database” from Settings → Troubleshooting and see if it helps at all?

Yup, this is likely the cause but it should be more seamless. Just restarting the server should fix these duplicate entries.

Sure. I needed to force a refresh as search was not working correctly until I did. Anyhow, said I’d mention it incase it’s the same thing.

Full refresh of my 3000+ movies takes minutes with the new agent so it’s never an issue for me :blush:

1 Like

It appears that Optimizing the Database has solved the issue thus far. In Plex Web a click for the Actor produces expected results.

One more question… Are the IDs assigned to various items such as actors, writers, producers, (and such) specific to my system alone, or are they unified across all metadata for everyone?

So far, it looks system specific.

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.