Local Media Agent only detects 3 actors

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
1

Server Version#: 1.18.4.2171

I’m using the Plex Video Files scanner and Local Media Agent when adding videos to have Plex pick up the tags I have put on the video files. Yes, it’s porn, and I’d rather not mess with plugins to pull from online metadata libraries.

It works pretty well except that it seems to have quirks picking up more than first three entries from the “Contributing Artists” tag to build the library’s Actor list.

Example:
Video1.mp4
Contributing artists tag: Actor1, Actor2, Actor3, Actor4, Actor5

With the above Actor4 and Actor5 will not appear in the Actor list.

If I change the contributing artist tag to:
Actor5, Actor4, Actor3, Actor2, Actor1

Actor 5 and 4 will now appear in the Actor list, but Actor1 and Actor2 will disappear.

Furthermore, I have a couple of videos that have the same cast. Oddly, if I reverse the actor order on the second video file I can get the missing actors to show up in the Actor list and it will even show both videos they are in.

Example:
Video1.mp4
Contributing artists tag: Actor1, Actor2, Actor3, Actor4, Actor5
Video2.mp4
Contributing artists tag: Actor1, Actor2, Actor3, Actor4, Actor5

With the above, Actor4 and Actor5 will be missing from the Plex library Actor list.

If I change this to:
Video1.mp4
Contributing artists tag: Actor1, Actor2, Actor3, Actor4, Actor5
Video2.mp4
Contributing artists tag: Actor5, Actor4, Actor3, Actor2, Actor1

All actors will appear in the Actor list and filtering against any of the actors will show both videos.

But wait, there’s more! Let’s say a video has more than three actors (again, we’ll use five for this example). Two of the actors appear in other videos, but three do not. If I set the tag to list the three who do not appear in any other videos first this video will still appear in the other two actor’s filters even though they are the 4th and 5th entry in this video’s tag.

Goofy, no?

2

What app are you using to edit the embedded metadata?

3

Prior to posting I had set the tags via the Details tab in the file properties in Windows Explorer. After reading your reply I tried using Mp3tag version 2.99a on one of the misbehaving files. I removed the artist info, saved the tag, re-entered the info, saved again, then refreshed metadata on the file in the Plex web client but had the same result. Actors 4 and higher do not appear in the Actor library list unless they are in another file as well.

4

Lastly, here’s an example of the last behavior i mentioned. (ran out of time wile writing the original post.

Video1.mp4
Contributing artists: Actor1, Actor2, Actor3, Actor4, Actor5
Video2.mp4
Contributing artists: Actor1
Video3.mp4
Contributing artists: Actor2
Video4.mp4
Contributing artists: Actor4

In this scenario, Actor4 will appear in the library’s Actor list, and if I filter on Actor4 it will show Video4.mp4 AND Video1.mp4. Actor5 will not appear in the list.

If I edit Video1.mp4’s tag to:
Actor5, Actor3, Actor1, Actor2, Actor4

All 5 actors will now appear in the list, and filtering on any one of the actors will show all the videos that actor is in.

5

Can you try this file out. It should have 6 cast members.

6

After adding it to the library I have Monkey01, Monkey02, and Monkey3 in the actor list but no 4, 5, or 6. Windows properties and Mp3Tag both show a blank Contributing Artists/Artists tag.

7

I just noticed another odd detail regarding this issue. The actors who do not appear in the library’s Actor list DO appear in the video’s cast list.

video1.mp4
Actor1, Actor2, Actor3, Actor4, Actor5

Actors 1-3 appear in the the library Actor list and if I filter against them I see video1.mp4.

Actors 4 and 5 do not appear in the library Actor list. However, if I click on the poster image for video1.mp4, the cast list on its page does include Actor4 and Actor5.

8

Sorry I missed this detail of your description. I didn’t realize you were talking about the filter menu . I thought we were talking about the preplay/summary screen. On the preplay you should be able to click on the actors name below their image circle to see the other movies they are in and you should be able to use the search for Actor5 as well correct?

The filter menu if I recall only lists the top 3 actors because else it could potentially show thousands of actors in a regular movie library and significantly slow down things as it loaded them all.

9

Ah. Well, that explains that. Looks like it’s operating as designed then. Thanks for the help! Sorry to have troubled you.

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