# Metadata storage **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature Suggestions\ **Created:** [August 7, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/metadata-storage/73004 "2014-08-07T21:42:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jwaltrip4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jwaltrip4/32/11399_2.png) [@jwaltrip4](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jwaltrip4)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/metadata-storage/73004/1 "2014-08-07T21:42:27Z")
I have transitioned from a PIVIOS AIOS box to a home build HTPC with WMC and Plex and am liking it very much...   One of the things I liked about the AIOS set up, that I am not so sure about with Plex is the metadata.   On the AIOS, you use Thumbgen to create the art, posters, fanart, and NFO files (that store such things as movie name, description, year, director, etc. (each movie goes into it own folder)   The nice thing about this is you can edit the NFO file and customize the content, and since all of this information is in the folder with the movie.  Once you have things they way you like it, you can rescan it any time to update the metadata (in this case update the posters used by AIOS) and you don't need to worry about it being overwritten or changed because an agent was changed.   So....  My suggestion would be to decentralize the metadata from the database and Plex folders - fanart, posters go into folder with movie - metadata details (desc, summary, year, collection, genre, director, actors) go into NFO file (XML) in the folder with each movie.   Now, I can have a static collection of information about the movie...  If my media server dies (PMS) I just reinstall and point at the folders, and it scans everything back in just as I want it.  I can also upgrade to a new machine by simply copying all of the folders to the new machine and scanning them.  No need to have tro 'tune' everything after a deep scan, etc.   thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![sdjme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@sdjme](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sdjme)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/metadata-storage/73004/2 "2014-08-07T21:59:37Z")
Some of this is already available out of the box with PMS, and the rest should be available with an agent. [Local Media Assets](https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220677-Local-Media-Assets-Movies) (posters, fanart, extras) [XBMC NFO importer](https://forums.plex.tv/topic/38402-metadata-agents-for-exported-xbmc-library/) (agent, available via the unsupported app store) ---
**Author:** ![jwaltrip4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jwaltrip4/32/11399_2.png) [@jwaltrip4](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jwaltrip4)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:20am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/metadata-storage/73004/3 "2014-08-08T04:20:57Z")
I will investigate this. thanks ---
**Author:** ![PlexK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b5e925/32.png) [@PlexK](https://forums.plex.tv/u/PlexK)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/metadata-storage/73004/4 "2014-08-08T18:57:07Z")
I have been using the nfo importer since a long time and it works well. Unfortunately Plex doesn't allow external agents to "write to" all fields. I think to remember that "Sort Order" is one of the ones that's really needed for movies and not available. ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/metadata-storage/73004/5 "2021-06-26T16:28:47Z")
2021 clean-up: duplicate(s) > [@With Plugin Support Dead - Can Plex finally have native .NFO support?](https://forums.plex.tv/t/with-plugin-support-dead-can-plex-finally-have-native-nfo-support/467992): > > Natively supporting .NFO files for metadata as part of the Local Media Assets would go a long way for helping people with tons of home movies, alternative versions of films/tv shows, and other difficult to scrape content. > [@Option to store generated video preview thumbnails with media in subfolder](https://forums.plex.tv/t/option-to-store-generated-video-preview-thumbnails-with-media-in-subfolder/140049): > > It would be nice if Plex had the option to store the generated media thumbnails with the media possibly in a subfolder. Personally, for me it would be nice, because I run unraid, and Plex lives on my cache drive which is an SSD. Mainly due to preview thumbnails my Plex install has ballooned to 120GB. It would be nice to get back the vast majority of that space on my SSD. It would also help if I ever had to restore my plex installation, because the preview thumbnails would be seperate, and my ba…