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I made the mistake of daring to add a few CDs to my formerly stable Plex media library and despite Local Media Assets being my top agent under the album settings, Plex insisted on going out to the internet and overwriting my correct metadata (particularly track titles) with garbage, not just on the new CDs, but on my entire library!
Any ideas where I went wrong, besides the obvious of choosing Plex to begin with and actually trying to make it work? Any Ideas what I can do to prevent this in the future?
I have a backup I can restore to, but I donât know what change to make so that this doesnât just happen again after I reinstall Plex. Every article I see about this just talks about the agents.
It seems every time I try to do anything to my library, I run into stupid crap like this. Shouldnât adding a CD without messing up all my metadata be a fairly basic task for a media server??? Sorry if Iâm getting existential.
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Plex indeed doesnât consider embedded tags as sacrosanct, it will always try to match against Musicbrainz database en âcorrectâ it. Nothing you can do about it except hope and wait for an option to turn it off.
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That really sucks. My understanding was that it was possible to only consult alternate agents to fill in missing tags. That seemed to be how it worked previously. Is this behavior newish?
Follow up question: does Plex have nothing but contempt for its customers?
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Yes this is new with the âPlex Musicâ scanner, which introduced the Musicbrainz integration.
The settings under Agents are not relevant for newly created music libraries.
All relevant settings are now available when you edit the library and go to the âAdvancedâ tab.
There, activate âPrefer local metadataâ and set the rest according to your liking.
Then try again to add your music. But careful: Plex expects a folder structure of
Music > Albumartist > Albumtitle > Tracks
If your file organisation doesnât conform to this, mismatches and general weirdness will ensue.
Hello, Otto. This was not a new library, but an existing one that I had added a few CDs to. I checked the advanced tab under edit music (library), and I did have prefer local metadata checked.
My files are organized the way you describe, though my top level folders are not named âmusicâ - they have more descriptive folder names. I donât imagine I was meant to take âmusicâ as a folder name any more literally than âalbumâ etc, but in case this is important for some reason, I mention it. Otherwise, yes, my music folders (there are 4) have tracks inside album folders inside artist folders.
Certuna, when I look at the agents list in the edit library advanced tab, I see âPlex Musicâ selected, with an option to choose âPlex Music Scannerâ. Does it make a difference which of these agents I have selected?
OK, in this case we need to verify that your library and all your artists were successfully converted to the new musicbrainz agents.
Verify that both Scanner and Agent in the same Advanced tab are set to âPlex Musicâ.
Refresh Metadata on the affected AlbumArtist. Wait several minutes afterwards.
Then copy the contents of the Plex XML info of one track from these albums into here. (enclose it on top and bottom with 3x backticks ` on a separate line, or it wonât appear.)
âPlex Music Scannerâ is the legacy one thatâs getting replaced. It doesnât do Musicbrainz matching, but has its own problems (with embedded album art for example) and is no longer developed.
Here you go, Otto.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<MediaContainer mediaTagVersion="1576270418" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" librarySectionUUID="15f3afa7-4f38-44e9-8267-4423aaf6a5b4" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionID="2" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" allowSync="1" size="1">
<Track title="Gordon Duncan Set" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionID="2" updatedAt="1578055653" addedAt="1577811852" duration="285465" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/120751/thumb/1578055634" parentThumb="/library/metadata/262700/thumb/1577811859" thumb="/library/metadata/262700/thumb/1577811859" parentIndex="1" index="14" summary="" parentTitle="Ărach" grandparentTitle="The Tannahill Weavers" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/2" parentKey="/library/metadata/262700" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/120751" type="track" grandparentGuid="plex://artist/5d07bbfc403c6402904a5f27" parentGuid="plex://album/5d07ccc4403c640290eaab69" guid="plex://track/5d0807c5403c6402903b7ffd" grandparentRatingKey="120751" parentRatingKey="262700" key="/library/metadata/262714" ratingKey="262714">
<Media id="270726" duration="285465" container="asf" audioCodec="wmalossless" audioChannels="2" bitrate="865">
<Part id="270804" size="31103508" duration="285465" key="/library/parts/270804/1577185300/file.wma" container="asf" requiredBandwidths="2147483647,2147483647,2147483647,2147483647,2147483647,2147483647,2147483647,2147483647" hasThumbnail="1" deepAnalysisVersion="4" file="D:\LosslessWMA\The Tannahill Weavers\Ărach\14 The Tannahill Weavers - Gordon Duncan Set; Nora CriĂłnna - Unknown - Port Sean Seosamh - Red Ken's - Brady's.wma" exists="1" accessible="1">
<Stream id="324060" index="1" bitrate="865" requiredBandwidths="866,866,866,866,866,866,866,866" displayTitle="Unknown (WMALOSSLESS Stereo)" streamIdentifier="1" samplingRate="44100" peak="0.881561" lra="4.81" loudness="-15.17" gain="-3.73" audioChannelLayout="stereo" albumRange="5.081485" albumPeak="0.908173" albumGain="-3.73" channels="2" codec="wmalossless" selected="1" streamType="2"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>
The matching is in order. You can recognize it by the plex:// content of all three of the guid, parentGuid, and grandParentGuid properties.
But I am not sure that Plex can read embedded metadata from lossless wma files.
Iâd try and convert one album to flac, as a test.
You can use foobar2000 for instance.
No, that doesnât appear to be the problem. I did convert an album to flac and it did read the title correctly. But then I built a new test library with the same album in lossless wma format and it read the title from the ID tag just fine. Plex is clearly capable of reading those titles. And I can even refresh the metadata on the file identical to the one I sent you the xml for in my new test library and it doesnât overwrite with bad musicbrainz data. So I am at a loss for why Plex went through my library messing up my titles, and why refreshing doesnât correct them back.
if it helps, here is the xml info for the same track in the new test library:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<MediaContainer mediaTagVersion="1576270418" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" librarySectionUUID="3c5f62ea-7781-4b2a-9fd0-f7d5ec6ebb0f" librarySectionTitle="test" librarySectionID="9" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" allowSync="1" size="1">
<Track title="Gordon Duncan Set: Nora CriĂłnna / Unknown / Port Sean Seosamh / Red Ken's / Brady's" librarySectionTitle="test" librarySectionID="9" updatedAt="1578058625" addedAt="1577185300" duration="285866" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/263106/thumb/1578058496" parentThumb="/library/metadata/263107/thumb/1578058497" thumb="/library/metadata/263107/thumb/1578058497" lastViewedAt="1578058256" viewCount="3" parentIndex="1" index="14" summary="" parentTitle="Ărach" grandparentTitle="The Tannahill Weavers" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/9" parentKey="/library/metadata/263107" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/263106" titleSort="Gordon Duncan Set: Nora Crionna / Unknown / Port Sean Seosamh / Red Ken's / Brady's" type="track" grandparentGuid="plex://artist/5d07bbfc403c6402904a5f27" parentGuid="plex://album/5d07ccc4403c640290eaab69" guid="plex://track/5d0807c5403c6402903b7ffd" grandparentRatingKey="263106" parentRatingKey="263107" key="/library/metadata/263121" ratingKey="263121">
<Media id="271094" duration="285866" container="asf" audioCodec="wmalossless" audioChannels="2" bitrate="870">
<Part id="271172" size="31103508" duration="285866" key="/library/parts/271172/1577185300/file.wma" container="asf" hasThumbnail="1" file="D:\FlacTest\Ărach\14 The Tannahill Weavers - Gordon Duncan Set; Nora CriĂłnna - Unknown - Port Sean Seosamh - Red Ken's - Brady's.wma" exists="1" accessible="1">
<Stream id="324820" index="1" bitrate="1152" displayTitle="Unknown (WMALOSSLESS Stereo)" streamIdentifier="1" samplingRate="44100" audioChannelLayout="stereo" channels="2" codec="wmalossless" selected="1" streamType="2"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>
What is set as âAlbum Artistâ in these files? All files within an album folder must have identical content in their Album Artist metatags.
Your test library is missing the âArtistâ folder level.
sorry, my first test library did it right. but i pasted to the wrong folder on my retest of the wma file. let me try againâŠ
updated - the ID tag still seems to be read off the wma file with the corrected folder structure
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<MediaContainer mediaTagVersion="1576270418" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" librarySectionUUID="f4209ac7-5e38-4438-8ce3-e30a2521af81" librarySectionTitle="test" librarySectionID="10" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" allowSync="1" size="1">
<Track title="Gordon Duncan Set: Nora CriĂłnna / Unknown / Port Sean Seosamh / Red Ken's / Brady's" librarySectionTitle="test" librarySectionID="10" updatedAt="1578059348" addedAt="1577185300" duration="285866" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/263135/thumb/1578059345" parentThumb="/library/metadata/263136/thumb/1578059348" thumb="/library/metadata/263136/thumb/1578059348" lastViewedAt="1578059284" viewCount="5" parentIndex="1" index="14" summary="" parentTitle="Ărach" grandparentTitle="The Tannahill Weavers" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/10" parentKey="/library/metadata/263136" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/263135" titleSort="Gordon Duncan Set: Nora Crionna / Unknown / Port Sean Seosamh / Red Ken's / Brady's" type="track" grandparentGuid="plex://artist/5d07bbfc403c6402904a5f27" parentGuid="plex://album/5d07ccc4403c640290eaab69" guid="plex://track/5d0807c5403c6402903b7ffd" grandparentRatingKey="263135" parentRatingKey="263136" key="/library/metadata/263150" ratingKey="263150">
<Media id="271120" duration="285866" container="asf" audioCodec="wmalossless" audioChannels="2" bitrate="870">
<Part id="271198" size="31103508" duration="285866" key="/library/parts/271198/1577185300/file.wma" container="asf" hasThumbnail="1" file="D:\FlacTest\The Tannahill Weavers\Ărach\14 The Tannahill Weavers - Gordon Duncan Set; Nora CriĂłnna - Unknown - Port Sean Seosamh - Red Ken's - Brady's.wma" exists="1" accessible="1">
<Stream id="324846" index="1" bitrate="1152" displayTitle="Unknown (WMALOSSLESS Stereo)" streamIdentifier="1" samplingRate="44100" audioChannelLayout="stereo" channels="2" codec="wmalossless" selected="1" streamType="2"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>
What âID tagâ are you referring to?
The ID Tag on the Lossless WMA file
You mean âmeta tagâ in general, right? Only the tags in mp3 files are called âID3â tags.
What about the contents of the Album Artist meta tags I asked above?
When I right click a wma file in Windows, the command windows uses to let me edit the metadata is âedit ID-Tagâ, so thatâs what I called it. I do not know if there is any difference between this and ID3.
Yes, my album artist tags are consistent across all tracks in the folder and all albums in the âgrandparentâ folder: The Tannahill Weavers. I verified this by copying every track into a single folder to I could mass select them and easily see that the album artist was identical on all tracks.
