iTunes ratings import in Plex => getting crazy!

[Seb_stien]

Server Version#: 1.18.5.2309

Hi all,
1 week now I am reading millions of posts about this same subject … I tried a lot of things … but I’m getting mad …any help would be so much appreciated

MY CONFIG
Got iTunes Running fine on my PC into a Windows VirtualBox.
The iTunes config allow the XML file sharing

Into this file “iTunes Library.xml”
I can observe paths like this :
General Music Folder : <key>Music Folder</key><string>file://localhost/E:/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/</string>
Or for a specific track : <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/E:/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Music/M%C3%98/Forever%20Neverland/02%20Way%20Down.mp3</string>

OK now E:/ is indeed mounted by VirtualBox from my NAS
the path related on the NAS is

/volume1/Donnees_Personnelles/Informatique/VirtualBox/Environnement iTunes/

MY PROBLEM
I installed PMS on my Synology NAS because I would like to stop using iTunes for my music (and for all my films of course) and I am considering bying the life Plex Pass
But I can not import all the iTunes Ratings which are very very important for me !

WHAT I HAVE DONE

I did configure the path to my iTunes XML in PMS :

/volume1/Donnees_Personnelles/Informatique/VirtualBox/Environnement iTunes/iTunes/2020_05_16_iTunes_Library_Plex.xml

The “2020_05_16_iTunes_Library_Plex.xml” file is a copy of the original “iTunes Library.xml” file
But I replaced all the file://localhost/E:/ by file://localhost/volume1/Donnees_Personnelles/Informatique/VirtualBox/Environnement%20iTunes/
I took care about the %20 for spaces.

For example I do have now :
General Music Folder : <key>Music Folder</key><string>file://localhost/volume1/Donnees_Personnelles/Informatique/VirtualBox/Environnement%20iTunes/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/</string>
Or for a specific track : <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/volume1/Donnees_Personnelles/Informatique/VirtualBox/Environnement%20iTunes/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Music/M%C3%98/Forever%20Neverland/02%20Way%20Down.mp3</string>

I can observe this XML does contain my ratings :
<key>Rating</key><integer>60</integer>

I gave all the reading/writing rights to plex on my NAS
And I added all my music in PMS. My music is stored (you understood) under :

/volume1/Donnees_Personnelles/Informatique/VirtualBox/Environnement iTunes/iTunes/iTunes Media

And I selected the iTunes import option

WHAT I OBSERVE

After adding the library : music have been found but not the ratings.
In logs I had (can not find it 2 hours later now) some lines saying that the XML file

/volume1/Donnees_Personnelles/Informatique/VirtualBox/Environnement iTunes/iTunes/2020_05_16_iTunes_Library_Plex.xml

had been found and was being treated (in fact unsuccessfully because it doesn t work)
This line was just after adding the library.

Because nothing looked to work, I went to the playlist menu and used the iTunes import option :

Since then it doesn’t end :

But in logs I can see :

But still no ratings … grrrrrrr

Do you have any other suggestion ?
Any log to search for that could explain why the XML reading is unsuccessfull?

Thannnnnnnks !

[Seb_stien]

I think I found the problem …

i did upgrade PMS to last version 1.19.3.2764 but that is not better …

Do not know how to solve this

[Seb_stien]

Ok I managed !!

Getting inspired by this post

iTunes Playlist Import function broken in latest server update?

Latest server update (Windows) is missing Import Itunes function? #1.18.0.1913 What is going on?

This is a problem with recent PMS versions => would be so nice the staff fix that and notify in this thread because I am sure lot of people spend lot of time trying to find a way !

So I uninstall PMS from the Synology

I downloaded that previous version of PMS in order to downgrade: 1.17.0.1841-d42cfa161

And installed :

Then I did the itunes playlits import again … all the ratings appeared … hallelujah !

To be noticed in the XML file aswell I deleted the localhost mentions so my paths are constructed this way : file:///volume1/

[balli1187]

Hey @Seb_stien,

i’m trying to manage the same… I want to import my itunes lib with ratings and correct import dates but ran into problems.

Is the “Date immported” used correctly in the older version. It seems that “Date modified” is used in my case on PMS 1.19.3.2831…

I’m using plex in a Docker container on my QNAP and i’m not sure wether to replace the file path in XML-File with path of the host or the path inside the container?
Could someone assits

[Seb_stien]

Hi ,

Since my last post I upgraded again PMS to the more recent version (and kept the ratings in the metadatas)

Date imported looks ok => I see dates in 2015 and 2011 … And I imagine copying the all music folder to import in plex would have change the modified dates (no insurance of that)
I did an other simple test changing the artist name of a song (i see the file has been modified on my computer) but the imported date stays in 2015 in Plex

By the way maybe you should wait a bit to use Plex for your music… if you need ratings and offline content.

I explain myself : I took a Plex Plass in order to benefit offline content but I am facing a lot of problems :

• playlists sync and download are working very bad in iPhone App (lot of errors while realizing the synchronisation => most of the time doesn’t end)
• the app crashes into sync process when the screen gets black (does not continue correctly in background)
• impossible to get the all music library (it stays “waiting”)
  
  
• Into Sync content only a Music content is shown but not the playlists (like on Android App)
  
  
• clicking on the music content,
• i can access some music with the “Recommended” screen => and impossible to rate a music offline (this is the major problem for my needs)
  
  
• on the “Library screen”, always have this error (while I can acces the online content on the same server correctly) :
  
  

[balli1187]

Thanks @Seb_stien.

You might be right with the timsteps. I check some more tracks and it seems that Plex take the timestamp of the file and nothing from the iTunes.xml in my case.
I don’t want to downgrade my PMS but so far i can’t see any other solution.

Thanks also for sharing your experience with Plex App. I was shocked about all these things and it really pisses me off. On iOS you can also use Prism for that. I haven’ tested everything yet but it seems to be waaayy better than plex and plexamp.
Maybe it’s worth a try for you too.