Server Version#: 1.20.1.3252 Windows
Player Version#: 4.34.4
I have this problem on Windows PMS 1.20.1.3252 regarding music Title and Artist fields. I’ve reset them countless times and put the lock on only to have the metadata overwritten at some point, likely due to media scan/refresh. I would think that the purpose of the lock is to prevent that from happening to a specific field. I’d like to see locks fixed such that locked field data is not altered by future scans or refreshes.
Please post the contents of the Plex XML info of one of the tracks into here.
(Do not post the URL to the XML!)
<MediaContainer size="1"
allowSync="1"
identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library"
librarySectionID="3"
librarySectionTitle="Music"
librarySectionUUID="fce08fa0-828e-4a4d-8f5a-8604351a36fb"
mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/"
mediaTagVersion="1598514774">
<Track ratingKey="165179"
key="/library/metadata/165179"
parentRatingKey="116504"
grandparentRatingKey="23266"
guid="local://165179"
parentGuid="local://116504"
grandparentGuid="plex://artist/5d07bca6403c640290531d31"
type="track"
title="Bebe"
grandparentKey="/library/metadata/23266"
parentKey="/library/metadata/116504"
librarySectionTitle="Music"
librarySectionID="3"
librarySectionKey="/library/sections/3"
grandparentTitle="The Polish Ambassador"
parentTitle="[Unknown Album]"
originalTitle="The Polish Ambassador"
summary=""
parentIndex="1"
userRating="10.0"
viewCount="30"
lastViewedAt="1599264655"
lastRatedAt="1596382143"
grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/23266/thumb/1599274425"
duration="363429"
addedAt="1596186973"
updatedAt="1599274499">
<Media id="132664"
duration="363429"
bitrate="1512"
audioChannels="2"
audioCodec="flac"
container="flac">
<Part accessible="1"
exists="1"
id="145002"
key="/library/parts/145002/1596186772/file.flac"
duration="363429"
file="E:\RAID\ftp\flac\Artists\The Polish Ambassador\The Polish Ambassador - Bebe.flac"
size="68669830"
container="flac"
deepAnalysisVersion="4"
hasThumbnail="1"
requiredBandwidths="2147483647,2147483647,2147483647,2147483647,2147483647,2147483647,2147483647,2147483647">
<Stream id="207900"
streamType="2"
selected="1"
codec="flac"
index="0"
channels="2"
bitrate="1512"
albumGain="-7.70"
albumPeak="1.000000"
albumRange="8.615483"
audioChannelLayout="stereo"
bitDepth="24"
endRamp="-51.00 0.13;-39.62 4.73;-29.54 5.83;-23.86 6.43;-20.08 6.83;-17.46 7.13;-13.60 7.33;-6.11 7.43;-5.53 7.53;-2.55 9.13;0.49 10.43;3.14 19.43;6.14 130.43;"
gain="-7.70"
loudness="-13.17"
lra="6.89"
peak="0.998841"
requiredBandwidths="1507,1507,1507,1507,1507,1507,1507,1507"
samplingRate="48000"
startRamp="-9.57 0.00;-5.76 0.10;-2.83 0.30;0.05 28.60;3.02 55.10;6.09 105.30;"
displayTitle="Unknown (FLAC Stereo)"
extendedDisplayTitle="Unknown (FLAC Stereo)"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Field locked="1"
name="title"/>
<Field locked="1"
name="originalTitle"/>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>
Thanks for the reply OttoKerner. I posted the XML for one of the tracks that I had just reset. I do see the locked=1 attribute/value in the XML near the bottom. Is it possible that there is a flaw or bug in the metadata refresh engine that is not honoring the setting? I have tried some of the other techniques I found in the forums but none of those have worked for me either.
<Field locked="1" name="title"/>
<Field locked="1" name="originalTitle"/>
The issue is that in Plex every track must belong into an album.
This must also be mirrored in the folder structure.
If you look at the XML, you can see that both guid="local://165179" (track) and parentGuid="local://116504" (album) have local in them. Which means they are “unmatched”.
If you wanted to prevent Plex from trying and match this track to the proper album at every library scan, you’ll have to “match” the album. Using any metadata agent – even the “Personal Media” one.
But the better way is to give Plex a hint about the album into which this track belongs .
E:\RAID\ftp\flac\Artists\ <-- library pointing here!
The Polish Ambassador\
Bebe\
The Polish Ambassador - Bebe.flac
These informations should also appear in the embedded meta tags of this file.
You can also help yourself and other users by adding the album Bebe into the Musicbrainz database, from where it is currently missing: The Polish Ambassador - MusicBrainz
Even if Bebe is actually a single!
Even if Bebe is actually a single!
Ok, this is very useful information. The track was released by the artist on Bandcamp without an album. My follow up question to you is:
Should I create an album folder for every individual track or can I have a ‘catch all / unknown album’ folder under each artist to allow for these one off tracks? In other words, should I have a “Artists\The Polish Ambassador\Bebe” folder or should I have a “Artists\The Polish Ambassador[Unknown Album]” folder?
The former.
A catchall folder is not helpful and will only complicate matters.
This is some of the most useful information I’ve seen in the Plex Forums to date. I see you are a Moderator and obviously very knowledgeable about PMS and its metadata. Are you a Plex employee or just a guru on the subject? Thanks a million for this. I will like and mark as solution… I will also update Musicbrainz to account for the information along with my local filesystem structure.
Here is the updated MusicBrainz release as an example to others that need to submit the edit to the service (requires the user to create an account to submit edits, but it is free):
It will take quite a few days for those new entries to reach the Plex cloud. (After they have been accepted by the musicbrainz community, that is.)
Ok, that sounds good. Simply updating my local filesystem to have an album folder under the artist has ‘fixed’ my original problem. I see the changes reflected on my iOS Plex client also. I unlocked the Title and Artist field on the track and I’m guessing that going forward, the Media Scanner will find and make the association with the MusicBrainz data once it’s accepted and consumed by the Plex Cloud… is that correct?
Correct. If you want to be double sure, set all relevant meta tags in your files.
Free & good option: mp3tag
While Otto’s advice will help you to avoid the situation, the actual issue is exactly what you identified - in this situation Plex does not honor the lock setting. Whether or not your files/folders meet Plex’s requirements, when the lock is on, Plex agents must not alter that field, period.
This is a bug that was identified at least 4 years ago, and was reportedly fixed in PMS 1.4.3. So either it wasn’t actually fixed, or there has been a regression.
Completely valid point! It should 100% honor the lock. I do agree with you and they should fix it as such. I did like Otto’s suggestion to update the actual MusicBrainz database (shouldn’t artists do this upon release of their albums/singles?) as it will solve it for that particular release for me and others, but is time consuming also. Probably something I’ll only want to do for my favorite obscure artists. Thanks for your reply and feedback, it was useful also!
[quote=“JustinFreitas, post:14, topic:630618”]
as it will solve it for that particular release for me and others, [/quote]
No, it won’t. Your file was not stored inside an ‘Album’ folder but
was directly inside the ‘Artist’ folder.
I agree, following Otto’s advice is the right thing to do. It will save you a ton of headaches. But the agents ignoring the lock is a bug, regardless.
As far as I know, neither musicians nor publishers have anything to do with Musicbrainz. Sure, it would be great if there was an online database that all artists/publishers maintained, but I don’t think it exists.
Even if the metadata is successfully matched?
100% fact. Seems like it would be an easy fix too. Just check for the lock prior to value write.
Otto’s right, unfortunately. When they rewrote the Plex Music scanner last year, they made a ton of improvements in its accuracy (trust me - it’s a major improvement over the old scanner). Unfortunately, and paradoxically IMO, it also became even more dependent on the folder/file structure. It makes no sense, but it is so.
All of the information for the release I wanted to add was available from BandCamp, where it was released:
Here are some screenshots of that process (not fully captured, but mostly… should help guide enough to get a user going):
Add a release.
Populate release data, in my case, a Single. (populate single name, artist, label, release date, etc).
Add media representing the release, including a tracklist. Once track is added, populate track name, artist, and track length.
Add cover art for the release.
Submit using BandCamp URL to release as the Edit Note.
