Disintegrate Plexamp dependency on folders for local metadata prefered

Voiced my opinion enough in this reddit post.

Beyond frustrated with the (on surface level) requirement of plexamp’s/Plex’s need for folder structure for music libraries.

A majority of people with massive libraries I can assume have curated their libraries for years.

Eclectic libraries from electronic, dance compilations, yearly era mix tapes, hip hop mixtapes, greatest hits, (need I go on).

The community is currently offering the need for metadata tagging software as fixes.

This destroys some collections that were already tagged fine in Plex. If you use other software platforms like last.fm, say good bye to tracking integrity if you run through these processes, go on a road trip, for a hike with music, gym trip, whatever and notice how completely messed your playlist have got by this “solution” of using software like Picard.

This other reddit thread heard the cries hopeful people of this similar ideology, only to be countered by “this is not a current priority”, which still stuns me as I’ve been so happy with my carefully tagged music library over nearly 24 years in iTunes, just to have Plex, while neatly automate the categorization by styles/moods/radio options with really neat sweet fades, and other fun things, still eviscerate my hopes of some sort of library tracking integrity with last.fm.

There is no on-boarding options when I first start a plex library to navigate this issue gracefully. There is only “not a priority” when this is a self hosted music library solution ultimately.

I ask that people take this various artists option more seriously, or at least give a the two main threads I listed a thorough lookthrough:
First Thread
Second Thread

and understand the concerns, and at least provide ways to navigate this problem to ALL users old and new. Not just those lucky enough to stumbleupon the “gold mine thread” I have yet to discover myself.

Also, rest in peace those unfortunate to not have the TBs of storage to backup everything Plex related, and music library related before endeavoring the task of fixing their library to work as neat as it did in other previous software (iTunes/foobar2000/winamp/etc).

If I’m being a cry-baby and someone can assist me in fixing my problem - that would also be great.

I feel like with Picard I’m partaking in the episode of South Park where I’m just trying to use a software, that at first works wonderfully and then the more I venture into things, I’m being met by “gotchas” with various things I need to fix up way more vigorously than the reliance of Plex Music libraries - escaping the understood need of file/folder directories for TV/Movies.

The music section should be considered re-evaluated, as we all know music is unique in genres, and I know this is not a simple fix. But I would like the priority to be more acknowledge than the reddit threads I listed above.

So, what exactly is your suggestion?
You can already configure Plex to prefer embedded metadata.

I’m not sure if you want to dump all your files in a flat folder or come up with your own hierarchy (but for Plex to go entirely with embedded metadata, ignoring that structure).

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I want prefer local metadata to ignore album names for starters. It appears that is currently a problem. Meaning if I have a single of an artist in no folder but the artist, but perfectly tagged metadata otherwise, that is ignored.

I want when new and older plex users run the library wizard and select Music, to have a completely different back/next/I agree wizard, and perhaps some conflict resolution safeguards in place perhaps.

I’m not saying users throw everything into one folder, but allow exceptions perhaps. Or perhaps treat various artist/compilations more carefully with local metadata/(file/folder) structures.

I think the naming scheme conflict resolutions need serious work. It’s weird that other programs like iTunes/winamp/foobar2000/“self-hosted music streamers” handle metadata and grabbing posters/lyrics that ID3 doesn’t do natively, but plex still has the TV show/Movie functionality in the music framework/wizard.

I don’t know what needs to be done, I’m not a programmer, but I think there are much more simple options that should be integrated in exclusively music-side of Plex.

Right now prefer embedded metadata is causing conflicts for users with already tagged libraries, that were completely find in windows/macOS/linux standalone software, as well as competitor self-hosted streamers.

I’m also just trying to understand the current conflicts with not allowing explicit metadata preference, since other similar products seem to be able to pull it off, but not have the same UX/thoughtfulness as plexamp in other areas.

Metadata is just a backbone problem, if users can’t transition from iTunes or other platforms, with already carefully crafted ID3 tags.

My experience is that “prefer metadata” does not work correctly. I carefully edit the metadata on all my music files including cover art but Plex often ignores that and just tries to inherit tags from tracks in the same folder. This hybrid approach is not really working. The only workaround I have found is to add tracks one at a time and rescan the music category in Plex after each track. Obviously that is a huge pain

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Yup, I’m pretty uninspired to go ahead with any workarounds right now.

This weekend I’ll be luckily restoring my old music library with perhaps a few notable changes that were fixed by the meta-tagging software, while bringing back the roughly 80% of the rest of the library.

I don’t think using external software is the way, when the organizing was already fine in software like iTunes. Some sort of on-boarding music wizard should be considered implemented perhaps to assist with conflict resolution of artist/compilations, or even suggestion-based wizards for bringing in the appropriate tagging. Based off websites like musicbrainz/lastFM/etc, and how it’s already locally tagged and let the user quickly checkbox which tags they like.

Software like Picard does kind of already do that, but it also royally screws up compilations as well where it skews the titles around and breaks things that were already fine.

Example:


Plexamp something horribly wrong happened after Picard, and iTunes was fine to begin with. Was also fine in plex for this particular album I believe before running through Picard, but now when I go to edit/play the tracks in iTunes, they are instantly recognized with the new and unauthentic metadata.

Just really frustrating when out and about and scrolling through my playlists and my songs I love and curated are suddenly named something completely different from their authentic name that were fine in other software to begin with.