Bug? "Date Added" Display is Incorrect for Separate Album Versions

Server Version#: 1.42.1.10060-4e8b05daf
Player Version#: Version 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83
I have multiple versions of the same album in my music library. When I add a new version, it incorrectly displays the ‘Date Added’ from the oldest existing version, and it also sorts incorrectly. I have verified via the XML file that the addedAt timestamp in the database is correct for the new album, but the UI ignores this data. This happens even when the albums are in uniquely named folders.

Verified sort order is Date Added (Descending).

  1. Performed the “Plex Dance” multiple times.
  2. Renamed folders to be unique.
  3. Confirmed via XML that the addedAt timestamps are correct for each individual album.
  4. Cleared client caches and performed hard refreshes.

The HDCD version in the screenshot was just added today. And did The Dance multiple times with different folder names. The metadata is somehow not working as expected. Like it’s sharing the metadata across versions.

In another example, I deleted both versions, did The Dance, and when they were added back (in two completely different paths), Plex is seeing them as 2 discs of the same record instead of 2 separate versions. It’s getting the correct addedAt date but these should be listed as completely separate versions, not as one version with 2 discs

Do you have “Prefer local metatags” enabled in the preferences of the library? That’s a must if you want to deal with different versions of the same album.

Check the embedded meta tags of your files.
One of these versions must have “9” tagged as Disc Number.

Compare the value in the parentRatingKey from the XML of a track of each version.
Are they identical or different?

“Prefer local metatags” has always been enabled
filepath contains file="Z:\NAS1\Music\1977 - Disc 09 - Terrapin Station\ but I don’t see a disc number tag in the meta
parentRatingKey is different for all three Aoxomoxoa versions but the same for the two Terrapin versions

Then perhaps Plex has deducted the disc number from the folder name, if it was missing from the meta tags.
That folder is named as if you are dealing with a box set.
Plex doesn’t know about box sets. It can only handle multi-disc albums.
And apparently it interpreted this one here as just a nother disc belonging to an album that it had already in its database.

If you don’t want plex to do that, ensure that

  • the new album version has a different content in its Album Title metatag
  • has the right disc number tagged
  • is stored inside a different “album” folder than all other versions and albums
  • all your music should follow this folder structure: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200265296-adding-music-media-from-folders/
    The folder structure you’re showing above is missing the Artist folder level. I assume in this case it should be :\NAS1\Music\Grateful Dead\1977 - Disc 09 - Terrapin Station\

And avoid using WAV files. Plex cannot read meta tags from these.

If Plex is keeping on adding your new version to an existing album, go find the correct releases on Musicbrainz.org of all versions. (If there actually are different releases listed. If they’re missing, you might have to add them there.)
Then perform the Plex Dance with the affected albums, and add them back one-by-one.

Then use Musicbrainz Picard to tag the Musicbrainz release ID directly into your files.

Thanks Otto. These are .flac not .wav. Renaming the one from the box set caused a separate entry to be created.

But the addedAt date is still not being respected when adding a new version of an already existing album. That is the Aoxomoxoa example from above. The path for the newest version added yesterday is
L:\Music\Grateful-Dead\Aoxomoxoa HDCD with Bonus Files
One of the older versions path is K:\Music(2019) Grateful Dead - Aoxomoxoa [50th Anniversary Edition] [FLAC,Tracks]\

But the new one is being given the date from the old versions which were added 3 years ago even though the epoch date in the addedAt field is correct [addedAt=“1756219854”]

Please read the last paragraph of my previous response.

I must be misunderstanding your response or I am not explaining it very well. I don’t know how MusicBrainz will help with the sorting issue.

The issue is that a newly added version of an album already tracked in Plex is not getting sorted by it’s addedAt date even though the epoch date in the addedAt field is correct [addedAt=“1756219854”]. The date in the older versions are 1734254204 and 1719621723

Sorted how? In which library view mode, with which sorting parameter selected?
Is the screenshot above even from your music library, or is it from the Home page?

Sorted in the Music Library view when sorting by Date Added Descending

image

The third version below (the HDCD one) was added today but it is sorting as if it were added 3 years ago.

It will help in the case that Plex is always erroneously merges your newly added version to an already existing one.
If that happens, the newly adde dversion will immediately get all metadata from the existing version. And the AddedAt date cannot be overridden by embedded meta tags in your files.

But it looks like that is not the issue here, because

Did you add a lot of new media lately?
Repairing the Plex database (and thus automatically recreating the index tables in that database) should have an effect.

If you don’t dare using that .bat file, you can also try to wait a week or so.
Once a week the database is cleared out during the automatic server maintenance: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201553286-scheduled-tasks/

yeah - I’ve added about 50gb in the last couple days. Okay. I will wait a week and see if it clears up and then take a look at the repair script. Thanks for your help!