Server Version#: 1.25.8.5663-e071c3d62
Player Version#: N/A
I have a rather large collection of music files, some of which have been assigned egregiously incorrect information by the Plex Media Server - for example, I have a directory with all the tracks of a CD corresponding to a live performance of Michael Nyman’s works which, for some reason the PMS assigned information corresponding to Bach cantatas to it. Now the id3tag data for those tracks is correct - I have set it by hand. I have therefore two questions:
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How do I force the PMS (from the web interface or the command line) to update the information for the files in this folder, and nothing else? The reason I am asking is because I have a large number of entries in the Music category - every time I ask the PMS to refresh the metadata for the Music category it takes about two days to do so - which is a waste of time, for most of the entries in my music collection already have the right metadata.
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How can I actually force a metadata refresh, in the sense that the PMS will do so on the basis of the id3tag data for the target files, as described above, while ditching any metadata information that may already be present? I have done a couple of Music category metadata refresh in the past few weeks, and some entries still keep the old - incorrect - metadata, despite the fact that I changed the id3tag information for the target entries using a separate tool (id3tool) from the Linux command line.
Make sure your music library is using the “Plex Music” agent, and is set to “Prefer local metadata.”
There are some things you may be doing in your embedded tags that can confuse Plex. This How-To article explains some of those:
[HowTo] Configure Plex to use embedded metadata (music)
If all that is correct, when you tell Plex to Refresh Metadata on the one album, it should use the embedded tags that it finds, and only get online info where local info isn’t available.
Thanks. Well, I went over what you pointed out, and still no cigar. In more detail:
My Scanner and Agent for the Music category were both Plex Music already. I made sure that the Prefer local metadata box is ticked (it was not). As for the Agent settings in the main PMS menu, they are the same as described in the article, expect for the fact that the three LastFM boxes are ticked.
I then tried to refresh the metadata for a single file (I found out how to do that) - it spins for a few seconds but nothing changes: both the artwork and the track information remain unchanged. The PMS is still refusing to acknowledge the id3tag information present in the file itself. For reference, here is what id3tool prints out for one of the files that I am talking about:
$ id3tool f7115410_bc6ec607_02.mp3
Filename: f7115410_bc6ec607_02.mp3
Song Title: Bird List
Artist: Nyman, Michael
Album: Michael Nyman Live
Track: 2
Genre: Classical (0x20)
However, the PMS still displays the erroneous information about this file, as I described in my previous message.
Now if I change the id3tag information by hand from the PMS web interface things are displayed correctly in this interface - even the mismatched artwork disappears, although it is replaced by a blank rectangle, for the agent seems to be unable to find anything for this particular record.
The core of the problem is that the PMS is still ignoring the id3tag data that I added to the target file using id3tool. In fact, it seems to be ignoring such data, no matter how it was added - unless it was added using the PMS web interface. Which is fine if one is to modify a few files - but I may have to modify hundreds.
Hmm, I’ve never used id3tool, but from what I can find, it writes id3 v1 tags. Do you know if that’s true, or am I finding outdated info? If so, I wonder if Plex is able to support id3 v1. I use Puddletag, which writes id3v2.3 or v2.4.
That’s about the last idea I have here, I think.
Thanks. I’ll check this tag version issue.
Well, I got a tool that converts id3 tags version 1 to version 2. After using it, this what I get for the file I mentioned above:
$ id3v2 -l f7115410_bc6ec607_02.mp3
id3v2 tag info for f7115410_bc6ec607_02.mp3:
TIT2 (Title/songname/content description): Bird List
TPE1 (Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)): Nyman, Michael
TALB (Album/Movie/Show title): Michael Nyman Live
TRCK (Track number/Position in set): 2
TCON (Content type): Classical (32)
The PMS is still refusing to use this information.
This is extremely frustrating.
I don’t see an Album Artist (TPE2) tag in there. I helped someone just a few days ago where Plex wouldn’t get it right if that tag was empty.
I changed it to read
id3v2 -l f7115410_bc6ec607_02.mp3
id3v2 tag info for f7115410_bc6ec607_02.mp3:
TIT2 (Title/songname/content description): Bird List
TPE1 (Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)): Nyman, Michael
TALB (Album/Movie/Show title): Michael Nyman Live
TRCK (Track number/Position in set): 2
TCON (Content type): Classical (32)
TPE2 (Band/orchestra/accompaniment): Michael Nyman
Still nothing: the PMS keeps ignoring it.
Ok, last ditch - the “Plex Dance.”
Would you mind zipping up one or two of the files and PM’ing it to me? I can get it to one of the developers.
Maybe the Plex log files, gathered after trying a refresh, would be good too.
Are you talking about one or two of the tracks themselves, or only their id3 tag information?
the tracks. They’ll need it to determine if there’s something in the way the tags are written in the files that’s interfering with the scans.
OK, I got a couple of tracks together with the PMS logs obtained immediately after attempting to refresh the metada for one of them. How can I make them available to you? By using the upload capability in a separate message?
Smash my face (gently, please 
):
and select “Message”:
Then use the upload function.
Actually, this is a bit embarrassing for I don’t get that Message icon when clicking on your avatar. However, I noticed that I seem to be able to reply just to you, rather than the thread. Can you confirm that this message is going to you alone, not to the thread?
Well, it seems to be going to the thread 
Here is what I get when I click on your avatar.
Try it again. There was a setting in my profile to allow users to send me personal messages, and it was disabled. I probably did that a long time ago when someone was spamming me.
I played around with your files myself. My Plex is configured to prefer local metadata, same as yours. It has been my experience, since the Plex Music agent was rewritten last year, that Plex is pretty accurate, as long as the tags are complete. So much so that the filenames are no longer important.
In the case of these files, however, it appears that the tags are not sufficient. Plex didn’t mis-identify the files, but it didn’t completely get them either. It didn’t match them to anything on MusicBrainz, so no graphics.
It did better when I renamed the files to what Plex recommends:
4 - Drowning By Number 3.mp3
1 - In Re Don Giovanni.mp3
In this case, it correctly identified, and matched, the track from the Michael Nyman Live album. It correctly listed the Drowning by Number track, with the correct album title, but it didn’t find a match on MusicBrainz, so it didn’t get the artwork.
I haven’t heard back from the Plex developers yet, but I’d bet that they will mention the filenames. Officially, they still strongly recommend naming the files per their guidelines. I’m going to play around a little more, and try adding some more tags and see what happens.
Thanks. I’ll have a go at renaming the files. As for the artwork, I already that no artwork is found for this particular album. Well, not ideal, but it does not bother me all that much.
Something else I just noticed. In the Drowning by Number track, the tag for the track artist is “Nyman, Michael.” In the other, it’s “Michael Nyman.” In my test, Plex couldn’t match the one with “Nyman, Michael,” but it did well for the other. It’s generally a good idea to make the Artist name “first last.” There is a separate tag (“Performer sort order”) where you should put the “last, first” info.
My tagger doesn’t write ID3v1 tags, so I can’t try this out, but you might give it a go.
I also tried letting Puddletag write tags to both files in ID3v2.4 format, with TrackTitle, Artist, Tracknumber, and AlbumTitle. Even without the Album Artist, and with your original filenames, Plex identified them both perfectly, matched them, and downloaded the correct art.
