Server Version#: 1.18.3.2156
Player Version#: 4.18.1
Hi. I am trying a add an artist to my library. The artist in question is this one: https://musicbrainz.org/artist/a0bb95b8-9fd9-47dd-af28-d4210f7f2a11
However the artist doesn’t show up in the search results when I use the “fix match” feature. Any suggestions? Why doesn’t it show up in the search within Plex?
I can only assume it won’t match cause there is absolutely no information in regards to any music/albums, only the website to the group/band and social links. Looks to me like someone signed up for an account and added them as a group/band but added no relevant information to let MB list them.
That might be. I still don’t understand why it’s perfectly searchable on musicbrainz.org, but it’s not shown in Plex though. It should be a 100% name match, but it’s just not there. Why would the 75% match $ali or the 50% match A.L.I. show up in the plex match artist search, but not the one just spelled ALI.
You are mainly matching albums. And there are no albums in the database to match against. Create an account on musicbrainz.org and add them.
Thanks. That explains it. I’ll just add the album then. 
Seems a bit weird to match artists based on albums, when you do search for the artist in the fix match search.
When you are in the Fix Match screen for the Artist, click on ‘Search Options.’ In the ‘Title’ field, paste the MBID (the alphanumeric string following …/artist/ in the URL you posted. Also found on the ‘Details’ tab of that page.) and click ‘Search.’
This capability was added in a recent update.
Searching by MBID returned nothing for this artist.
Hopefully adding an album will fix it.
Pity that Plex doesn’t use that info when you add new albums and/or artists that do contain the MusicBrainz Artist, Album and Track ID’s, The release notes for Plex Media Server 1.18.4.2164 says under “Fixes” : (Library) Read MusicBrainz tags from files to help match the correct release.
It does read them, but doesn’t use that info to match. Here’s part of the XML for a track from an album I added yesterday, tagged with MusicBrainz Picard, and has the MusicBrainz ID’s
guid=“mbid://9bb68fbd-98ed-4d9f-80f9-ed84f9ab5ee8”
parentGuid=“mbid://e04ee46a-9579-40c9-a9a5-bb329628b433” grandparentGuid=“mbid://62c28bc0-f696-4c50-8e54-5f8e9120bdb8”
The guid is equal to the MUSICBRAINZ_RELEASETRACKID tag,
the parentGuid to the MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMID tags,
and the grandparentGUID is equal to both the MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMARTISTID and the MUSICBAINZ_ARTISTID
Both the album and artist are “unmatched” according to Plex, and the only way to get a match is a manual match. Who would have thought “Engelbert Humperdinck” would be un-matchable?
Maybe because it is still ambiguous. The singer may have been named after the composer.
https://musicbrainz.org/search?query=engelbert+humperdinck&type=artist&method=indexed
Strange, it worked for me:
Did you paste the entire MBID?
a0bb95b8-9fd9-47dd-af28-d4210f7f2a11
Also, are you certain that you selected ‘Fix Match’ for the Artist, and not the Album?
I’m not trying to be obstinate or argumentative. I saw there was two “Englebert’s” when I did the manual match.
The point is, Plex has read the MusicBrainz artist ID tag form the MP3, as well as the album and track ID’s from MusicBrainz. The XML clearly indicates that. There shouldn’t be anything “ambiguous” when Plex has the info, used it in the XML.
I never checked, but I’ll bet the German composer doesn’t have an album called “20 Great Hits” that was only released in Canada 
I have noticed that when trying to use the MusicBrainz link Plex will come back with something else entirely (when using the Plex Music Agent)
I manually added the following in MusicBrainz:
When using the MusicBrainz Picard it will match it exactly as expected.
However, in Plex I get the following
I am using the MusicBrainz Release Id…should I be using a different one?
Try using the musicbrainz ID only. Not the full URL.
When trying to match at the artist level using just the ID (I also tried the artist ID), I get no matches.
When doing it at the album level using the info from https://musicbrainz.org/release-group/42275cb6-2616-4a53-b383-bfc15e39b274 (i.e. just the ID in the album input box), I also get no matches as noted above.
edit: in case of issues with ampersands, I did update the MusicBrainz entries to use ‘and’ instead…same issues.
Make sure you’re using the correct MBID. When you’re trying to match an Artist, use the Artist’s MBID, when matching an album, the album’s MBID.
That is what I did as noted in above…will try again though
edit: I also wonder if there is a delay when all of the MusicBrainz info becomes available to Plex.
It looks like you used the ‘Release Group’ MBID, not the Release. A Release Group may include several versions of the Release (reissues, region-specific releases, etc.). Seems like that would make a difference, but not certain.
Release Group MBID: 42275cb6-2616-4a53-b383-bfc15e39b274
Release MBID: 7c738f69-3eb8-44ec-b4ec-783dc4b175da
Yes, I did. And it still won’t show up for me. I have no idea.
The album “Wild Side” is now added to the artist, so I’ll check again later. Hopefully it will work soon.
It might be that there is a delay…
When I use the artist ID…
I see the original info I had (i.e. with the ampersand) and not the most recent changes.
And then trying to apply it does not have the annotation information that was also added between the time of the ampersand and the time without.
I checked your link, and I see that it is highlighted in yellow, meaning it hasn’t been officially approved by MusicBrainz. I think that takes 7-10 days. I also believe that Plex actually uses a copy of the MB database on their own servers, That can be a day or so behind the “real” MB database, depending on when you added the new album. Maybe @OttoKerner can provide the exact timing for that.
Here’s the thing… if you wait a day or so to allow for the Plex servers to update their data, Plex still will not match the album. It will use the MusicBrainz artist and album ID, apply that (visible in the XML) but your album will still be unmatched.
Further to that, it will not match with a manual match, even though Plex shows the correct album at 100%. Doesn’t matter if you use the auto-match or the MusicBrainz ID. Your album remains unmatched.
If you have the patience to wait until your new addition has been officially approved (the 7 days plus 1 day for Plex to catch up) to add an album, or try to match, it happens instantly and properly.
And as far as I can tell, any album or artist you you added to your library will remain unmatched forever, until you manually match.
