Using Server 1.18.3.2129. I have many actor images not showing up. I use Media Companion to download trailers, so it also puts the actor images in a .actors file. However, Plex won’t download the images itself, nor will it use the .actor folder to populate the images.
Any suggestions how to get the images?
Plex doesn’t use any side-car files for metadata or actor photos.
Set the Cast List Source to TheMovieDatabase
in the properties of the Plex Movie agent
Additionally, activate Plex Movie as a secondary agent under
Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - TheMoviedatabase
If your files are in the mp4/m4v format, make sure they don’t already contain actor infos. Because these embedded actor lists come always without photos.
If you want to tell Plex to disregard embedded metatags, you need to change the default order of metadata agents:
Go to
In there, grab the line ‘Local Media Assets’ with your mouse and drag it downwards, so it ends up being at the bottom of the stack of active agents.
Repeat the same under
Afterwards, clear the local agent cache https://support.plex.tv/articles/202967376-clearing-plugin-channel-agent-http-caches/
and Refresh Metadata on the affected movies.
Only movies, which have actors with photo listed on themoviedb.org will ever get actor portrait photos in Plex.
Thanks! I cleared the cache and did a rescan. We’ll see if the images show up.
I assume by that you mean ‘Scan library files’. This won’t make a difference.
‘Refresh Metadata’ is what you want. Try it with a few movies first, instead of the whole library.
Yes, I meant Refresh Metadata by for some brain dead reason typed scan.
Your suggestion worked. Everything is back as it should be. Thanks!
Recently I found that many of my actors too were missing images. I didn’t know they were SUPPOSED to have images until I noticed a friends server had them.
Through research, I find that all my movie libraries seemed to have defaulted to, for actors, the agent that won’t work for actors. (Why, i have no idea).
I have close to 1k movies.
If I hit refresh on the libraries, will it download ALL metadata for 1k, not just actors?
Is there not a ‘partial’ refresh capability to find missing meta for a library?
Unfortunately not.
Another user with the same issue. I have gone through the suggestions if deleting cache. I have an example. The movie Wanda Nevada starring Brooke Shields. My films are collecting cast info from TMDB and Plex Movie is set as agent (Manage Library - Edit - Advanced - Agent). The agents are configured correctly under Settings - Agents. With Plex Movie on top under Plex and TMDB on top under The Movie Database. This particular film did not have any actor profile image for Brooke Shields which I added yesterday. After deleting the cache and refreshing all metadata the actor image for Brooke Shields showed up but disappeared again after about an hour.
So two things:
I’ve resisted doing that for fear it might take the rest of my life, but do tell… how long does that take?
I’ve just under 2,000 movies in my library and it takes approx 2hrs but I have gb fib broadband and a very fast PC with plex on a SSD – usually just do it one evening before I goto bed and it done by the time I get up
Similar bandwidth aside - I’m checking my vital signs and estimating what 10K movies will do to eat up my remaining lifespan…lol
This is hit or miss for me.
I refresh MetaData on Get Shorty and James Gandolfini appears
I refresh MetaData on Enough Said and James Gandolfini disappears
??
I’ve noticed that individual actor images randomly disappear on a regular basis, even if you haven’t added, updated or refreshed any movies or TV series that contains that actor. It was there yesterday, gone today. There really needs to be a way to lock them or store them locally because it gets insanely frustrating. What would be causing this?
…have you also noticed that ‘the most recent’ Actor image is blanketed across Plex?
…and do you suppose if that ‘most recent’ Actor image is blank - it won’t be blanketed across Plex - if so - rethink that 'cause it would be wrong.
I have no idea what you’re asking me. If any actor image disappears, it disappears from every film and TV credit in my Plex collection. I even started to check TMDB and TTVDB before adding any movies or TV series (or even episodes) to see if there is an actor credit with no picture that will erase their current picture. I can’t find a pattern that explains random disappearing actor images. Where is PlexMovie? Could their cache be the problem?
An example is Alfred Molina. I have multiple films and TV shows where he is credited. The same image appeared across all of them last week. Today, I noticed his image disappeared across the board. I added no new TV shows or episodes with him, and no new movies, and even if I had added a movie, there is an image for him on TMDB so it should replace the existing image, not leave it blank. Why do images just disappear?
Seen this a lot and still hoping Plex will fix it…sometimes this decade.
Funny thing: Using PlexWeb clicked on a movie but did not start to play it.
After about 2 seconds, the images of 2 actors disappeared.
Rocket science is nothing compared to Plex metadata
We covered that - or at least I did.
Yes, the sarcasm isn’t necessary. I did read through this entire topic, and I’m adding to the discussion because images are disappearing without updates to the metadata.
I’m trying to explain that individual actor images sometime disappear without updates to any of their credits. I do understand that the avatars link throughout all libraries.
The example I gave, Alfred Molina. I can search him throughout all of my libraries and the same avatar image popped up for every one of his credits. I have added no new credits, movies or episodes of TV series that he starred in that may have been missing an image, nor did I refresh metadata, but his image disappeared throughout the entire library. And he has an image on TMDB anyway, so if I HAD inadvertently updated something, the current TMDB image would populate, not be blank. So something besides updating meta for that actor’s credits is causing things to disappear. It’s actually been happening pretty frequently with random actors.
As I asked earlier, is there an accessible website to view the metadata on Plex Movie? It’s pretty clear that it stores it’s own cache, and I’m wondering if it somehow causing this. Or is there some automatic cache clearing that the Plex app is doing that would delete things? I don’t have it set up to refresh any metadata automatically.
