I just wanted to point out a peculiarity in music album matching. It seems that when you match an album, the server will sometimes sort the album into another existing album, if it shares the same title REGARDLESS of the album artist listed.
For example, Beatles Anthology 1 was correctly identified by the Plex database, but due to existing metadata on the file it listed it as “Anthology 1, Disc 1” even though both discs were present. I then edited the album title to simply “Anthology 1” and it promptly disappeared.
After a quick search I discovered that all the songs were moved into a Fela Kuti album which was also titled “Anthology 1”. It also automatically switched the album artist of all these tracks to Fela Kuti in spite of them previously being correct. (I notice that the Album Artist field is not lockable).
I also experienced this phenomenon when trying to put Chuck Berry’s “Chess Box” in due to the fact that I also have the Muddy Waters “Chess Box”. The Chuck Berry tracks were automatically merged with the Muddy Waters album and all the Album Artist tags were changed without my input.
Please advise if I might be doing something wrong.
It is checked. I am guessing that is why it is changing the title to “Anthology 1, Disc 1” instead of just “Anthology 1” as the matched metadata suggests?
I will try un-checking it and see where that gets me.
Are there any downsides to unchecking it so long as I check that the Plex match is accurate?
I am guessing it will override all song titles etc?
Does un-checking the box still allow me to go back and alter items if I wish, such as album art and assorted metadata? For example, if I have an original AND a remastered version of an album and wish to title them as such?
Also just to comment that this still can affect the sorting even after the local metadata box is unchecked.
Example: I am matching Jimi Hendrix albums, and a couple sorted to Jimi Hendrix Experience. To keep things tidy, I wanted to sort them all under simply Jimi Hendrix, and when I did this to a BBC Sessions album, the album was then moved and merged with the Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions album.
Regardless of where it is pulling the assets, I am confused as to why it moves these files into an album and artist that it is not specifically tagged under.
I know that the album titles are identical, but why is the sorting process assigning an artist that is different when that data is already assigned to the file? Again, it isn’t “locked” data, but the field is filled in, so what is forcing it to change this?
If you check this checkbox, then Plex will follow your embedded metatags almost blindly.
I’m almost certain that “Anthology 1, Disc 1” is exactly what is contained in the ‘Album Title’ in your files. And that is what Plex will use with that checkbox activated.
I think you want to keep it checked if you have several versions of albums. Plex is not equipped to handle that atuomatically. So the “manual” way via the metatags is the only practical approach.
I can only assume that your files did not have the ‘Album Artist’ meta tag populated. But it is crucial to have it correctly set, if you want to keep your sanity.
