I have PLEX server installed on a NAS. All of my music files have metadata, though I do not have album art embedded. The album art is stored in the album folder with the name “folder.jpg”. I currently have “local media assets” selected before “last.fm” as the agents. My album art is displaying properly. I assume that what ever metadata is missing from my tags gets updated by last.fm.
Does PLEX actually change the tags on my music files located on the NAS?
Does PLEX (last.fm) just download the extra metadata and store it locally on the client for use as needed?
If I changed the order of my agents so that last.fm was before local media assets, would PLEX then display downloaded art instead of my “folder.jpg” file on the NAS?
If last .fm (or plex premium music) is the first agent does PLEX then permanently change the metadata in my files and embed the downloaded album art?
Is there a way to preview the downloaded art without committing to using it? Some of my personal art may be better. Some is probably worse.
When I change the order of agents using any PLEX client, does that change it on the server or just for that one client?
Thanks. I just don’t want to accidentally make permanent changes to my metadata unless I approve of the change.
Does PLEX actually change the tags on my music files located on the NAS?
No.
Does PLEX (last.fm) just download the extra metadata and store it locally on the client for use as needed?
It stores the downloaded metadata on the Plex server.
If I changed the order of my agents so that last.fm was before local media assets, would PLEX then display downloaded art instead of my “folder.jpg” file on the NAS?
Yes. At least after you ‘Refresh Metadata’ on the item(s)
If last .fm (or plex premium music) is the first agent does PLEX then permanently change the metadata in my files and embed the downloaded album art?
No.
Is there a way to preview the downloaded art without committing to using it? Some of my personal art may be better. Some is probably worse.
Sadly no.
When I change the order of agents using any PLEX client, does that change it on the server or just for that one client?
Everything under Settings - Server affects the server
Thank you very much! I feel better about experimenting a little bit with what last.fm or plex premium music might display for album art. I didn’t want to try it if the art would be embedded into my files and then discover I like my own art better.
My recommendation is to go with LMA in the top position.
Then inspect your music with Plex Media Player in its full screen mode (because is shows album art very large, so it is easier to spot poor quality).
If you detect a poor album art, edit the album and pick one of the downloaded cover pictures. They will be downloaded despite the LMA agent in the top position, so you can always change your mind later.
Something doesn’t seem to be quite right. I looked at the “edit” option for music albums. When I choose “poster” I only see my single album art image that is stored on the NAS. As a test, I removed that file from the NAS. Then I went back to the album in PLEX and chose a “refresh data”. My original artwork disappeared but nothing replaced it. I tried refreshing several times. It’s as if nothing gets downloaded.
I’m also still confused about the Agents setting. If I click on the top row “Artists”, “personal media” is always highlighted on the second row as if that is what is being used. There’s no last.fm option when that is highlighted. If I then click on the second row “last.fm”, I do have the last.fm option present below and it is checked and at the top. However the box is grayed. I’m not sure that last.fm is actually being used.
With either “Artists” or “Albums” is chosen on the first row, and when “Last.fm” is chosen on the second row, you can see that last.fm is in first position, but the box is grayed. I don’t understand how to force PLEX to download art from Last.fm.
Let me try those screen shots again. Those above are too tiny to read. With either “Artists” or “Albums” is chosen on the first row, and when “Last.fm” is chosen on the second row, you can see that last.fm is in first position, but the box is grayed. I don’t understand how to force PLEX to download art from Last.fm.
The settings under ‘Artists’ don’t influence album art.
Please post the Plex XML info of one track in your library. This will show us if you are using a last.fm library or a premium library (of which you omitted the screen shot).
I will post the XML. I didn’t put screen shots of premium because I haven’t yet paid for premium. I figured premium wasn’t being used. So does the “Artists” tab just retrieve text data for musical artists?
FYI, all of my music is located on a Netgear ReadyNAS running the PLEX server. All music is stored in Music\Artist Name\Album Name nested folders. The Music library is linked to the Music folder on the NAS.
Sorry, this is not the XML, this is the URL that loads the XML into your browser.
You were supposed to copy the XML out of the source code of the web page.
And you posted your X-Plex-Token here in the public, which is like a key to your server.
Careful! Never ever do that.
Yes better.
This track is ‘unmatched’. It is only displayed in the library with the detail info scraped from it’s file name and the folder structure.
I am actually unsure whether Plex is reading meta tags from wmalossless files.
Maybe it is time to convert them to flac?
(But that is just an aside)
Let’s investigate why it is not matched.
When you ‘edit’ your music library,
Go to the ‘Advanced’ tab
And see if the ‘Agent’ drop-down contains last.fm
If it does, use the Match command. See what happens.
Before I try that, I just read a PLEX article about the recommended folder structure for the Music Library. It was Music\Artist - Album\Track Number - Song Title. My library is setup as Music\Artist\Album\Track Number - Song Title. Could the extra subfolder be the issue? I don’t really want to change the folder structure unless it would help.
