MP4 and MKV files not honoring embedded cover art, video thumbnail is shown instead on PMS 1.18.5.2309

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
1

Server Version#: 1.18.5.2309 (Windows)
Player Version#: 6.7.2 (iOS) and 4.22.1 (Plex Web on Windows)

[video library setting]
Library type: Other Videos
Advanced - Collections: Disabled
Advanced - Scanner: Plex Video Files Scanner
Advanced - Agent: Personal Media

I have a lot of MP4 and MKV files with embedded cover art in the video library.

Older PMS used to show the embedded cover art.

I just added new MP4 files to the video library and I found that PMS 1.18.5.2309 doesn’t show the embedded cover art, instead it shows the video thumbnail.

I tried [Refresh Metadata] but it doesn’t load the embedded cover art.

Even worse, if I do [Refresh Metadata] on the files which are showing the embedded cover art (probably it was cached by older PMS), the cover art is replaced with the video thumbnail.

Apparently this is a regression in the recent PMS.

Is this known issue?
Is there any way to switch back to the embedded cover art?

1 Like
2

This is maddening because I waste so much time trying to fix these. Some work, 2/3 do not. TV and Movies. Is this just a few of us having this issue or many? I also have an issue where my Sever folders are filling up and I don’t know why. In short, I have a 250GB SSD which I was told was overkill for the OS but its filled up and keeps filling up for some odd reason. There is nothing left for me to delete to make room because Buffering stops & PLEX stops playing anything when it runs out of room. The last time, 3 days ago, that I made room, I moved every old Update to another drive except for the past 15 months of Plex Updates and that bought me about 7GB of room which will fill up soon so if anyone has an idea of what’s wrong, please let me know. My C Drive has 222 or so GB for storage and somehow, Plex Media Server folder is 218 of that now. ANY suggestions welcome and thank you in advance of any help & info you may have to try to help me fix these issues -TD

3

Plex will never see embedded metadata in MKV files - only MP4.

If you have unmatchable media in ‘Other Videos’ - the best way to populate it is to simply Hand Edit in the Plexweb editor.

The best metadata to have in your video files is - none.

2 Likes
5

My Plex Data is about 350G.
Moved it to a local HDD a LONG time ago.

6

I think You are right about MKV but MP4 used to show embedded metadata.
I tried other scanner and agent combinations but none of them fix the problem.
I tried editing the video and noticed that the embedded poster is removed from the [Poster] tab.
There are 3 posters listed in there but they are all video thumbnails.

Apparently PMS stopped supporting the embedded poster for MP4 files?
Could anyone from Plex confirm this?

7

I just figure out how to fix this.

Go SETTINGS > Agents > Movies > Personal Media.
Enable “Local Media Assets (Movies)” and move it to the top of the list.
Then go Libraries and do “Refresh All Metadata” and “Scan Library Files”.

All MP4 files are now show with its own embedded poster.

8

… and now every single MP4 file with bogus embedded metadata will be difficult, if not impossible to match or edit unless you abandon ALL online media sources and Hand Edit everything.

If that’s ‘The Fix’ you seek - you found it.

I have some ‘unmatchable’ material - it’s real easy to hand edit. The rest is named properly and enjoys a natural match (mostly).

9

I don’t want Plex does the matching because it messes up the video folders consisting multilingual contents. I would prefer the embedded posters, otherwise the video thumbnails are fine.

1 Like
10

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.