Server Version#: Version 1.41.3.9314
I got a digital copy of Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd when it launched. Specifically the 00XO edition. As with many new releases, its metadata was not perfect for at least a week after it launched. Some of the track recordings needed to be merged into other recordings.
If you look at this edit of Timeless to merge recordings, you can see that neither the source nor the target are correctly shown. I believe this is because there were many different MusicBrainz recordings that were all eventually merged into the current Timeless recording.
Now, when adding a new version of Hurry Up Tomorrow to Plex (specifically I also have the Pharrell Williams Edition), Plex is happy for most of the tracks except for Timeless. Not only does Timeless’s rating not sync between my two versions, clicking “share” within Plexamp for the 00XO edition, actually gives me this link.
Here is the XML for the track Timeless on my 00XO edition in my library (the album that I added to Plex before all the metadata was correct in MusicBrainz)
<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="3" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionUUID="342b805c-6ea3-4cf1-afa7-07367877aaf9" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1734362201">
<Track ratingKey="49393" key="/library/metadata/49393" parentRatingKey="49380" grandparentRatingKey="3066" guid="plex://track/675f71780f454bca6c3b50c8" parentGuid="plex://album/66dcdea40340f39f5e651469" grandparentGuid="plex://artist/5d07bd8b403c6402905fa0dd" parentStudio="XO" type="track" title="Timeless" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/3066" parentKey="/library/metadata/49380" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionID="3" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/3" grandparentTitle="The Weeknd" parentTitle="Hurry Up Tomorrow" summary="" index="13" parentIndex="1" ratingCount="222908" userRating="4.0" viewCount="2" skipCount="2" lastViewedAt="1738720286" lastRatedAt="1739368393" parentYear="2025" thumb="/library/metadata/49380/thumb/1740936003" art="/library/metadata/3066/art/1740456984" parentThumb="/library/metadata/49380/thumb/1740936003" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/3066/thumb/1740456984" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/3066/art/1740456984" duration="256000" addedAt="1738550712" updatedAt="1740936003" musicAnalysisVersion="1">
<Media id="71692" duration="256000" bitrate="947" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="flac" container="flac" hasVoiceActivity="0">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="72233" key="/library/parts/72233/1738556508/file.flac" duration="256000" file="/data/music-plus/The Weeknd/Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025)/The Weeknd - Hurry Up Tomorrow - 13 - Timeless (with Playboi Carti).flac" size="30655776" container="flac" deepAnalysisVersion="6" hasThumbnail="1" requiredBandwidths="953,953,953,953,953,953,953,953">
<Stream id="229891" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="flac" index="0" channels="2" bitrate="947" albumGain="-11.19" albumPeak="1.000000" albumRange="10.232828" audioChannelLayout="stereo" bitDepth="16" endRamp="-33.59 0.10;-29.62 0.70;-23.62 2.00;-20.66 2.40;-17.34 3.00;-14.98 3.40;-11.65 4.00;-8.03 4.40;-5.45 4.90;-2.96 5.10;0.09 6.30;3.24 7.60;6.99 8.00;" gain="-11.19" loudness="-8.10" lra="6.56" peak="1.000000" requiredBandwidths="942,942,942,942,942,942,942,942" samplingRate="44100" startRamp="-11.98 0.00;-6.68 0.20;-4.90 0.30;-3.00 1.60;0.62 19.10;3.10 20.10;6.04 21.80;" displayTitle="FLAC (Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="FLAC (Stereo)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="232352" key="/library/streams/232352" streamType="4" codec="lrc" format="lrc" minLines="3" provider="com.plexapp.agents.lyricfind" timed="1" displayTitle="LRC" extendedDisplayTitle="LRC (External)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Image alt="Timeless" type="coverPoster" url="/library/metadata/49380/thumb/1740936003"/>
<Image alt="Timeless" type="background" url="/library/metadata/3066/art/1740456984"/>
<Genre id="55" filter="genre=55" tag="Rap"/>
<Guid id="mbid://4bc0b553-7256-40fd-a84c-3b4c6f7d2bc7"/>
<Mood id="93" filter="mood=93" tag="Intense"/>
<Mood id="2229" filter="mood=2229" tag="Druggy"/>
<Mood id="2557" filter="mood=2557" tag="Hedonistic"/>
<Mood id="1629" filter="mood=1629" tag="Tense/Anxious"/>
<Mood id="2131" filter="mood=2131" tag="Detached"/>
<Mood id="5254" filter="mood=5254" tag="Sexual"/>
<Mood id="427" filter="mood=427" tag="Yearning"/>
<Mood id="6510" filter="mood=6510" tag="Unsettling"/>
<Mood id="4163" filter="mood=4163" tag="Languid"/>
<Mood id="2231" filter="mood=2231" tag="Hypnotic"/>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>
Here is the XML for Timeless off of my Pharrell Williams Edition (the album that I added once all the metadata was correct)
<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="3" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionUUID="342b805c-6ea3-4cf1-afa7-07367877aaf9" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1734362201">
<Track ratingKey="49808" key="/library/metadata/49808" parentRatingKey="49795" grandparentRatingKey="3066" guid="plex://track/66f693e00340f39f5e5055d1" parentGuid="plex://album/66dcdea40340f39f5e651469" grandparentGuid="plex://artist/5d07bd8b403c6402905fa0dd" parentStudio="Republic Records" type="track" title="Timeless" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/3066" parentKey="/library/metadata/49795" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionID="3" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/3" grandparentTitle="The Weeknd" parentTitle="Hurry Up Tomorrow" originalTitle="The Weeknd feat. Playboi Carti" summary="" index="13" parentIndex="1" ratingCount="40597" viewCount="1" lastViewedAt="1739648224" parentYear="2025" thumb="/library/metadata/49795/thumb/1739077975" art="/library/metadata/3066/art/1740456984" parentThumb="/library/metadata/49795/thumb/1739077975" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/3066/thumb/1740456984" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/3066/art/1740456984" duration="256000" addedAt="1738813481" updatedAt="1739342084" musicAnalysisVersion="1">
<Media id="72092" duration="256000" bitrate="955" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="flac" container="flac" hasVoiceActivity="0">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="72633" key="/library/parts/72633/1738812977/file.flac" duration="256000" file="/data/music-digital-hd/The Weeknd/Hurry Up Tomorrow (Pharrell Williams Cover Edition) (2025)/13-timeless.flac" size="31711423" container="flac" deepAnalysisVersion="6" hasThumbnail="1" requiredBandwidths="1830,1830,1830,1830,1830,1830,1830,1830">
<Stream id="231021" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="flac" index="0" channels="2" bitrate="955" albumGain="-11.19" albumPeak="1.000000" albumRange="10.437678" audioChannelLayout="stereo" bitDepth="16" endRamp="-33.59 0.10;-29.62 0.70;-23.62 2.00;-20.66 2.40;-17.34 3.00;-14.98 3.40;-11.65 4.00;-8.03 4.40;-5.45 4.90;-2.96 5.10;0.09 6.30;3.24 7.60;6.99 8.00;" gain="-11.19" loudness="-8.10" lra="6.56" peak="1.000000" requiredBandwidths="950,950,950,950,950,950,950,950" samplingRate="44100" startRamp="-11.98 0.00;-6.68 0.20;-4.90 0.30;-3.00 1.60;0.62 19.10;3.10 20.10;6.04 21.80;" displayTitle="FLAC (Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="FLAC (Stereo)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="231034" key="/library/streams/231034" streamType="4" codec="lrc" format="lrc" minLines="3" provider="com.plexapp.agents.lyricfind" timed="1" displayTitle="LRC" extendedDisplayTitle="LRC (External)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Image alt="Timeless" type="coverPoster" url="/library/metadata/49795/thumb/1739077975"/>
<Image alt="Timeless" type="background" url="/library/metadata/3066/art/1740456984"/>
<Genre id="55" filter="genre=55" tag="Rap"/>
<Guid id="mbid://84af8f84-5c03-4560-acc1-fc314b87ff2a"/>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>
We can see that for the 00XO edition track, the guid is plex://track/675f71780f454bca6c3b50c8, but for the Pharrell Williams Edition track the guid is plex://track/66f693e00340f39f5e5055d1. We can see that both tracks share the same parent guid: plex://album/66dcdea40340f39f5e651469.
Plex itself recognizes these as two separate tracks:
- https://listen.plex.tv/track/675f71780f454bca6c3b50c8
- https://listen.plex.tv/track/66f693e00340f39f5e5055d1
(To be fair, the name of the track did change to remove the “(with Playboi Carti)” text)
I’m not annoyed about the Timeless track specifically, but I see this issue occurs for many other tracks in my library, especially ones where a single was released and then an album was released with that single on it, but incorrectly using a new MusicBrainz recording rather than the existing one.
MusicBrainz metadata isn’t perfect, especially on initial import. Plex should fix this bug so that track ratings can be correctly synced across similar tracks. In general, Plex does a great job of syncing ratings across identical tracks, but not for scenarios like these.
I’m thinking that the problem lies within the metadata agent itself if https://listen.plex.tv is going to have incorrect metadata on it.
