Server Version#: latest on Windows
Player Version#: n/a
Some of my recent videos have the year populated the file properties, with something like 1900 or 2019, and neither are correct.
The first problem is Plex uses this date instead of the actual movie metadata it gets from the web. I’d say that is a bug.
The second problem is I can’t get rid of the incorrect year!
I first deleted the year from the file then refreshed the metadata - still no change.
Then I copied the file off, deleted the movie from Plex (using the web interface), added the movie back - still has the wrong year!
Then I did a full refresh off all metadata - still the errant movies have the wrong year!
In the web interface, I edit the metadata, modify the year, but when I hit Save I get a message saying “Your changes could not be saved”. Why is that!?! I can do anything except save manual metadata edits? This is bogus and a major pain.
So, how the heck can I encourage Plex to use the correct year for these few movies that once had a year value in the file properties?
Ensure you are following Plex’s naming guidlines. There’s a specific place in the file name where Plex looks for the movie’s release year (in parentheses, at the end of the root file name). Here’s an example of a properly named file/path (the library is pointed to “Movies” in this example):
Particularly if the media is in a mp4/m4v container, make sure Local Media Assets is at a lower priority than Plex Movie or The Movie Database (depending on which agent you use) in the agent settings (Settings -> Agents -> Movies). I’d recommend doing it for both agents, just to be safe.
Once the above is taken care of, perform the Plex Dance on the affected media. This will cause Plex to “forget” that it was ever in the library and scan it as a new item.
That’s just the low-hanging fruit. There may be other issues in play as well.
Thank you, philipsw! I didn’t have to do the ‘dance’, but just a normal rescan after changing metadata priorities. (I didn’t know this existed!)
Maybe the UI has changed over the years, but this agents UI (like in your picture) is unfamiliar to me. Is there a place where I can say to use these services or not?
Which service am I using? Personal Media, Plex Movie, and The Mdb are all checked on their respective tab. Or, is the selected tab the active agent? This is not clear.
The agent you use is determined by the “Agent” setting in whichever library you’re configuring. For example, I use the Plex Movie agent for my Movies library:
Ah, okay, that is the page I thought I had seen before. I saw the Edit link for the library but assumed it was the same thing as the “…” menu (subtle diff there…).
