Best Methods to Manage Plex's Metadata

General Discussions
1

Good Afternoon Guys -

I’ve been using Plex for years now and love it! My primary Plex server runs on Windows 10 x64 and has about a dozen libraries which without getting too specific, contains ~ 26tb of assorted media. The only issue I have is that due to this, Plex’s Data folder contains no telling how many files / folders totalling almost 200gb! I understand why and how it works and do not have video thumbnails or anything fancy like that enabled, but do have the folder on a separate physical disk than other things. Seemingly, the majority of this data is Metadata .

All of my media is meticulously organized. Each title goes through 2 applications and sometimes scripts that clean it, fetch metadata, rename it, and sort it into a standard folder structure (details at end of post.) Due to this, it seems that the space and bandwidth Plex uses for its metadata per title is just duplications of what I have already. I know that there are options within settings per library to have Plex use local metadata instead of scraping each title and have even recently used the Media Center Master plugin (as it’s one of the scraping apps I use.)

My Question

Given how my media is organized, what would be the best way to configure Plex so that it uses minimal space in it’s data folder, but still performs as desired? I’m in the process now of reinstalling my Plex server from scratch and even though deleting the old Data folder via command line (del /f /s /q “Plex Media Server”) so it’s more efficient, it’s been running 30 minutes now and still hasn’t even gotten to the Metadata folders yet! Also - if I configure Plex to use MCM plugin or Local Metadata, does it read it from the source folder when needed - or - copy the locl metadata into the Plex Data folder. If the latter, then the option won’t be helping me much.

Below is how I have my media organized currently if it makes a difference for any potential answers. All of my media is on a 12 disk drive pool so all located on the same partition. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!!!

Overall Folder Structure

  • D:\Media
  • D:\Media\Movies
  • D:\Media\Movies-Collections\
  • D:\Media\Movies-Collections\Name of Collection\
  • D:\Media\Movies-Collections\Name of Collection\Movie Title [Year] Resolution\ (Example - D:\Media\Movies-Collections\Back to the Future Collection\Back to the Future [1989] 1080p)
  • D:\Media\TV Shows\
  • D:\Media\TV Shows\Show Title\
  • D:\Media\TV Shows\Show Title\Season #\ (Example: D:\Media\TV Shows\Cheers\Season 1)

Files & Folders within Each Movie Folder

I typically scrape for Kodi which I frequently use and JRiver which I sometimes use

  • .actors\
  • extrafanart\
  • extrathumbs\
  • backdrop.jpg
  • backdrop1.jpg
  • backdrop2.jog (Downloads all and sequentially numbers them)
  • banner.jog
  • clearart.png
  • disc.png
  • fanart.png
  • folder.png
  • logo.png
  • movie.nfo
  • movie.xml
  • poster.jpg
  • Movie Title [Year] Resolution.mkv
  • Movie Title [Year] Resolution.nfo
  • Movie Title [Year] Resolution.srt
  • Movie Title [Year] Resolution.tbn
  • Movie Title [Year] Resolution.mkv_JRSidecar.xml
  • Movie Title [Year] Resolution.mkv-fanart.jpg
  • Movie Title [Year] Resolution-trailer.mp4
  • Movie Title [Year] Resolution-trailer_mp4_JRSidecar.xml

Files & Folders within Each TV Show Folder

  • extrafanart\
  • Season 1\
  • Season 2\
  • Season 3\
  • Specials\
  • theme-music\
  • backdrop.jpg
  • backdrop1.jpg
  • backdrop2.jog (Downloads all and sequentially numbers them)
  • banner.jog
  • clearart.png
  • disc.png
  • fanart.png
  • folder.png
  • logo.png
  • poster.jpg
  • season01.tbn
  • season01-banner.jpg
  • season01-poster.jpg (These 3 files per season / specials folder)
  • series.xml
  • theme.mp3
  • thumb.jpg
  • tvshow.nfo

Files & Folders within Each TV Show Season Folder

  • metadata\
  • banner.jpg
  • folder.jpg
  • TV Show Title - S01E01 - Episode Title.info
  • TV Show Title - S01E01 - Episode Title.mkv
  • TV Show Title - S01E01 - Episode Title.nfo
  • TV Show Title - S01E01 - Episode Title.srt
  • TV Show Title - S01E01 - Episode Title_mkv_JRSidecar.xml
  • TV Show Title - S01E01 - Episode Title-thumb.jpg (The last 6 files per episode in folder)

Thanks again!

3

Actually, the user has already generated all the media info so there is no need to use any of the Plex agents to download more data. He could use the 3rd part NFO importer agent which will reuse his info and could result in smaller metadata folders.

4

Bump.

I have all my media in pretty much the same state - all metadata is already downloaded, manually picked and saved with the media files.
I love to have Plex to use my local images and most of the info from nfos.

  1. The problem/question is - how does Refresh All Metadata work after this? Does Plex actually refresh anything from the
    Internet then, if I do Refresh All Metadata on a library, at some point in the future? Or does it just get all the info form the same nfo again, and “pretends, that it has been refreshed”?

  2. Basically - the most important thing, that needs to be refreshed from the internet periodically - that’s the ratings. It would be nice to have every other text info (NOT images) to be refreshed as well, but the ratings are a must. So can this be done with Plex in some way? ie: Initially, when the movie/show/episode has been found and is being added to the library, for this first time, Plex uses local images and gets all the details from the local nfo file. This ensures, that Plex will not make a mistake by incorrectly matching the movie or a show. But later on, when Plex is doing a refresh - it does NOT replace the local images, but all the other text metadata gets replaced with the fresh new one from the TMDb/TVDb? Ratings, especially. That would be an ideal solution.

  3. In case answer to #2 is NO, and it is impossible to achieve this now with in-built functionality - can I write a custom agent for Plex? I mean, using this custom agent, all the images and all the info would come from a custom local media server. That server would periodically refresh the data from the internet. By having control of an agent, I would have total control of metadata - what to keep, what to change… If it is possible to write an agent plugin, could someone, please let me know where I can find documentation on making agents for Plex?

5

Bump…I too am at this point. Would be great to get an answer or additional info.