A strange thing with the actor thumbnails (using Plex web) is acting up.
With some movies (example: Patch Adams), all actor thumbnails are blank (including Robin Williams).
When viewing the XML file, for this movie (Patch Adams) the line for Robin Williams is: <Role id="5707" filter="actor=5707" tag="Robin Williams" role=""> (notice the role is blank)
When I click the “Refresh Metadata” all thumbnails remains blank.
When I open another movie starring Robin Williams, like Jumanji, also there his icon is blank and the XML shows <Role id="5707" filter="actor=5707" tag="Robin Williams" role="Alan Parrish"> (notice the role is NOT blank)
But when I “Refresh Metadata” there, the thumbnail shows up, and the XLM file shows <Role id="5707" filter="actor=5707" tag="Robin Williams" role="Alan Parrish" thumb="http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/5KebSMXT8uj2D0gkaMFJ8VEp53.jpg">
Now moving back to the first movie (Patch Adams), the thumbnail is showing Robin Williams, and the XML file has now <Role id="5707" filter="actor=5707" tag="Robin Williams" role="" thumb="http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/5KebSMXT8uj2D0gkaMFJ8VEp53.jpg"> (notice the role is blank here)
Now when I “Refresh Metadata”, the thumbnail disappears again and XML shows <Role id="5707" filter="actor=5707" tag="Robin Williams" role="">
I see this issue with several other movies, and using the same trick as above shows the same results.
Each time the XML files show role="", the thumbnail will disappear after “Refresh Metadata”.
If the role=“characters name”, the tumbnail will show up after “Refresh Metadata”.
Any idea why this is, and can this be fixed ?
(I’m using “The Movie Database” for “Cast List Source” in all agents)
There is the trick of placing the “Local Media Assets (movies)” completely down,
but then the movie cover placed in the same folder will also be ignored.
Reference: Picture on Cast actors not showing
However, it appears that in the MP4 file can be a list of actors that could cause this.
So as a test, I deleted ALL MP4 metadata (using Mp3tag), but that didn’t seem to fix it.
But then I took an extra step:
I “Unmatched” the movie and ten “Fix match” the movie and THAT seemed to fix the issue. –> CORRECTION: Doesn’t seem to work for all movies … ??? Not sure what is going on here.
I’d compare the Plex XML info of both movies.
The guid= content will show you which metadata agent was used to ‘match’ the movie.
I have a hunch that previously, these two movies were matched with different agents.
Now that you performed Fix Match, you have brought both over to the same agent.
You might want to go to
Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - TheMoviedatabase
and activate the line ‘Plex Movie’
It is activated.
The issue is that when I move “Plex Movie” to the top, it will get the cover fetched from the internet, rather than the cover that I prefer from my local file “Patch Adams (1998).jpg” so I set “Local Media Assets” on top, but then in some (not all, which is strange) occasions will remove the actor thumbnails.
Example: Now it is OK for “Patch Adams”, but still issues for “Powder”
Moving the “Local Media Assets” down (or disable) will show the thumbnails for Powder as well.
Turning it back on removes the thumbnails again.
Patch Adams <Video ratingKey="128663" key="/library/metadata/128663" guid="com.plexapp.agents.imdb://tt0129290?lang=en" librarySectionTitle="Movies" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" studio="Universal Pictures" type="movie" title="Patch Adams" contentRating="PG-13" summary="Meet Patch Adams, a doctor who doesn't look, act or think like any doctor you've met before. For Patch, humor is the best medicine, and he's willing to do just anything to make his patients laugh - even if it means risking his own career." rating="6.7" year="1998" tagline="Laughter is contagious" thumb="/library/metadata/128663/thumb/1539032955" art="/library/metadata/128663/art/1539032955" duration="6917472" originallyAvailableAt="1998-12-25" addedAt="1539019993" updatedAt="1539032955" chapterSource="media" primaryExtraKey="/library/metadata/128678" ratingImage="imdb://image.rating">
Powder <Video ratingKey="128664" key="/library/metadata/128664" guid="com.plexapp.agents.imdb://tt0114168?lang=en" librarySectionTitle="Movies" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" studio="Caravan Pictures" type="movie" title="Powder" contentRating="PG-13" summary="You've never experienced anything quite like Powder -- the uplifting, must-see hit that audiences and critics loved! Harassed by classmates who won't accept his shocking appearance, a shy young man known as Powder struggles to fit in. But the cruel taunts stop when Powder displays a mysterious power that allows him to do extraordinary things. This phenomenon changes the lives of all those around him ... in ways they never could have imagined. Hollywood stars Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park) and Mary Steenburgen (Philadelphia) lead a top-notch cast in this unforgettable story of hope and wonder." rating="6.6" year="1995" tagline="An extraordinary encounter with another human being." thumb="/library/metadata/128664/thumb/1539033086" art="/library/metadata/128664/art/1539033086" duration="6702912" originallyAvailableAt="1995-10-27" addedAt="1539019993" updatedAt="1539033086" chapterSource="media" ratingImage="imdb://image.rating">
mp4 files can contain meta tags for actors as well.
If they do, Plex will prefer these tags - because Local Media Assets is at the top.
The only solution would be to remove the actor meta tag from the files.
I deleted all metadata using “Mp3tag” ; “TagScanner” ; “Windows Properties” ; “VLC”.
Seemed to work for “Patch Adams” (now shows all actor thumbnails)
The movie “Powder” still shows no actor thumbnails.
My best guess, “Powder” still has metadata in it that cannot be deleted with either of these programs
(note, the file still seems to have chapters )
So my next question: “Which software would edit/delete all MP4 metadata?”
Did that too. Didn’t help either.
Even deleted the other caches as well.
At this point I triple-checked the MP4 metadata was completely empty, then I tried this:
Delete the movie files (actually move them outside the plex folder)
Scan library (will detect the movie is “unavailable”)
Empty Trash
Clean Bundles
Place files back
Scan library
Actor thumbnails appear now.
Conclusion: Just like with MP3 tags, once the metadata in the files is changed, Plex does not seem to pick it up, and sticks with the old data. Don’t know if it is a bug or a feature, but it sure as hell is annoying.
I remember this to be reported on MP3 files on several occasions.
Side note: if you have the IMDb ID in the -imdb.txt file, it is only of use to Plex if you change the file name extension to .nfo.
If you do that, Plex will even give the ID number bigger importance than the file name when matching the movie.
I actually do have that for every movie, but with the .txt extention, but it’s pretty easy to rename them all. Inside the files is for example https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1363468/
I tested this with a short avi file and a random filename name ‘jdhfskdjfh.avi’ , then added the jdhfskdjfh-imdb.nfo file and updated the library → WORKS !
However, just as with the problem described above, it only works on the initial fetch of data. If the content of the -imdb.nfo file is changed, I do need to delete the entire folder, do the Plex-dance, and then add the folder again (with the updated .nfo). It will then fetch the new data correctly.
So Refresh metadata, or unmatch and fix match won’t work.
