I have had 11 albums that always start sonic analysis . That i cannot identify
The cpu doesnt really kick in but does spike in small amount for a long while until the sonic analysis goes.
Have a large library that has been run through musicbrainz picard,
MP3val , mp3tag and foobar . So i think i have removed any corrupt files
etc .
Set to prefer local metadata.
Its all in mp3 format
The logs dont show what is being scanned and it appears like its
maybe not really scanning those 11 albums which makes me think its a
small corruption ?
Process explorer doesnt show any files being analysed
The library is very large so i am loath to do the plex dance umless really necessary .
So was looking for any other ideas how how to either locate the 11 albums or fix corruption of sonic analysis ?
Failing that if i plex dance my main concern is the tyding up i have
done for various artists and ratings etc which i assume i would lose ?
could i backup the database and replace after the dance to keep ratings etc or would that bring back the problem?
Thanks
What kind of tidying up? All corrections you do should consist of optimizing/correcting folder structure, file names, and embedded meta tags.
I would avoid making any edits directly within Plex, except for playlists and collections.
I’m not sure what you mean. The Plex Dance is specific to the danced items, not the whole library.
They certainly do. Ensure you have debug logging enabled in the server settings (but not ‘verbose’ logging).
The tidying up was for mixtapes , artists , live albums etc that dont appear on musicbrainz the main concern was losing ratings .
The plex dance was in refrence to removing either the entire library or sections to try and identify what files were causing the strange sonic issue .
Media Server debug logging is enabled not verbose .
When the server shows the 11 albums being scanned there is nothing i can see that shows what if any albums are being sonic analysed.
But when i transfer 1 album over i can see it being analysed in logs the number of albums analysiing is now 12 , the new album get analysed and then just sits at 11.
Is it possible a non standard charachter in some file names would maybe cause an issue ?
Could it be that this is just the web app not properly updating its status display?
Where are you looking?
If your file storage and the Plex server are both on the same Windows machine, I see no potential issues with special characters. If however the file storage is on a NAS device (which are usually Linux-based), there can be incompatibilities due to what character set has been set on the NAS.
Do you have folder or file names with Emoji in them? I think you want to avoid these.
Tip: if you use a meta data editor, tell it to write ID3v2.4 tags.
Its not the web app been having the issue for over a year now and the issue is constant .
I checked the logs and also process explorer so see what file it has open when sonic analysis is running . if i add an album i can see that in the logs and process explorer but never any trace of the phantom 11 albums sadly . ( and the cpu when its really analysing is a quarter of cpu ? from memory , but maybe spikes ar 3-10 when the phantom albums are scanned)
Makes me think its trying to access the files and cannot ?
The plex server is running on a win 11 machine with library on the same machine .
No folder names that i can find with emoj in them but my current theory is that it could be some strange charachter in some folders or file names so i am looking a powershell script to try and identify non standad file names .
thanks for the data editor tip 
i think i have that set but will double check
What you could try is this:
- disable sonic analysis in the server settings
- stop plex server
- enter the plex data folder, subfolder
Plug-in Support/Databases
- remove the subfolders which are named like
Music Analysis ## (with ## being the library ID number)
- start Plex server and re-enable sonic analysis
- wait until after the next server maintenance
i had tried that in the past but will give it another go now thanks.
Edit
just tried it and no luck
added 1 album .
Shows 12 and that quickly drops to 1 which is then scanned .
Im going to go down the strange charachter rabbit hole and hope i can spot something
