Audio file naming

General Discussions
1

I guess I should preface this by admitting my stupidity. I use Plex for TV and movies and I completely understand the naming conventions for those and how to get the sorting I want for all the video files I use. BUT I cannot seem to understand how to get audio arranged and sorted the way I want. This is actually for audio books and what I want is to be able to show them in folders and sort them in order of date published.

The files I am using are single mp3s for each book and have no embedded metadata. I can rename them in any way needed. Currently I have names like ā€œDean Koontz (1987) - Watchers.mp3ā€ and ā€œDean Koontz (1992) - Hideaway.mp3ā€ and the folder is named ā€œDean Koontz.ā€ But, as I said I will rename as needed.

I do not care about metadata at all. All I need is for Plex to see the files and allow me to enter folders and in the folders display the file name so I can tell what file it is and sort, as the example above, by the date currently in parenthesis.

I hope what I want to do is clear.

I did read the help sections but it seems music people speak a different language from me.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

2

Does this mean you have a whole audio book in one file?

I recommend you to create a separate library for audio books i.e. donā€™t mix them with music.

When you create the library, donā€™t create it as a Premum library.
On the ā€˜Advancedā€™ tab, tick ā€˜Store track progressā€™
and set the ā€˜Agentā€™ to ā€˜Personal Media Artistā€™
(you could leave it on last.fm, but it will probably lead to lots of misattributed files/tracks)

Do also set the ā€˜Album orderā€™ to ā€˜oldest firstā€™.

You can then treat the author as ā€˜Album Artistā€™
And the book as ā€˜Album Titleā€™
Which then leads to a file and folder structure like this:

[If you have cover art or a photo of the author, you can drop these into the folder structure as well.]

Audio Books /
   Dean Koontz / 
      artist-poster.jpg      <--- a photo of the author
      artist-background.jpg  <--- a background/wallpaper particular to the author
      Watchers (1987) /
         cover.jpg           <--- audio book cover
         background.jpg      <--- audio book background/wallpaper [if not present, inherited from the 'author' level]
         Dean Koontz - Watchers (1987).mp3
       Hideaway (1992) /
         Dean Koontz - Hideaway (1992).mp3
       ...
   Author 2 /
      Book 1 (year) /
         Author 2 - Book 1.mp3
   ...

If you now set the library view mode to ā€˜Artistā€™, you get exactly what you want.
A long list of authors, which when clicked on reveal a list of books, sorted by release year.

1 Like
3

@OttoKerner:
Yes all my audiobooks are single files.

I will try the structure you suggest, thanks.

BTW: I have no music in Plex, at least not yet, so mixing will not be a problem. :wink:

4

@OttoKerner:
One further question: Do all my books really need their own folder. I do not care about any special features or artwork?

5

@Elijah_Baley said:
@OttoKerner:
One further question: Do all my books really need their own folder. I do not care about any special features or artwork?

It is either the folder or youā€™ll have to embed proper and complete metadata.
I think the folder is less work.