Multiple Versions of the Same Music Album?!

[greentrancer]

Server Version#: 1.4.1.940-574c2fa7

I just noticed that since a while, Plex creates a new album with the same when I add songs to an existing one.

You can see that I have 4 x ‘Singles’ album:

The same happens to any other album when I add new songs.

All the songs are in the same folder on my NAS and all the songs have the same album name in metadata.

Why is it doing this as it makes no sense?

[OttoKerner]

Can you produce a screenshot where one can see all the embedded metadata and the filenames of this particular album?
Similar to this: (which is a good example of what is working)

[greentrancer]

Thank you for your answer. Of course.

And here are 3 out of 4 ‘Singles’ album from Plex.
(some song names seem to have vanished, hmm)

The only work around is to move the whole album out of Plex’s sight, scan, add it back and scan again. Whenever you add new songs, the new songs will turn into a new album with the same name.

I had this issue with another album a few minutes ago and this is how I noticed this problem.

[Taoism]

Also naming the files with for multiple cd’s is handy.
like so.
101-artist-track.format
102-artist-track.format
201-artist-track.format
202-artist-track.format
203-artist-track.format
301-artist-track.format

format can be .flac, .mp3

[OttoKerner]

Try to add ‘track number’ tags (and ‘disc number’ for multi-disc releases).

[greentrancer]

I do that for normal albums, but it still happens.

‘Singles’ is an album for any artist where I add random songs and they do not really need track or disc number.

I have been doing this for months now, adding more song to various albums and it never happened until now.

[OttoKerner]

@greentrancer

I add random songs and they do not really need track or disc number.

You may not need it, but Plex does, or it may “fragment” this album, as you have experienced.

[greentrancer]

This was never an issue so far, hence I added many single songs for artists in the past and they all show up in the same album.

So I have just done the work around for that ‘Singles’ album that I mentioned above and it worked:

I have also successfully replicated this issue even when the songs have track numbers by adding a new song to ‘10 Years (Bonus Tracks)’ album.
However, it might be worth mentioning that it did not happen the first time, only the second time; it seems a little bit hit and miss.

[OttoKerner]

Can you take a look the the Plex XML info of one of the songs in this album?
Particularly the content of the content of the properties guid, parentGuid and grandParentGuid.
Then compare these to the same properties of the “singled out” track(s).

[greentrancer]

Album song:

guid="local://101138" parentGuid="local://101134" grandparentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.plexmusic://gracenote/artist/056000A827B463BF?lang=en"

Singled out song:

guid="local://101173" parentGuid="local://101172" grandparentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.plexmusic://gracenote/artist/056000A827B463BF?lang=en"

[OttoKerner]

It appears that this library or this artist haven’t been converted to the new system. Anything with “Gracenote” in it can be considered as “non-functional” now.
Did you use to have a Plex Pass?

1. verify that the line ‘Local Media Assets’ is in the top position under
   Settings - Server - Agents - Albums - Personal + last.fm
2. Call up the library’s menu under the ellipsis ⋮ Check if there is a menu item named ‘Convert’. If there is one, let it do the conversion.
3. Refresh Metadata on this artist (not ‘album’, but the whole artist)

[greentrancer]

New system? I do have Plex Pass, but it is on a different account… (longer story)

I have checked and it is as follows:
Artists > Personal Media Artists > Local Media Assets, Personal Media Artists
Artists > Last.fm > Local Media Assets, Last.fm, Home Theater Backdrops

Albums > Personal Media Albums > Local Media Assets, Personal Media Albums
Albums > Last.fm > Local Media Assets, Last.fm, LyricFind

If that ‘Convert’ is meant to be here, then I do not have it.

I have refreshed the artist I can see that grandparentGuid has changed as follows:

grandparentGuid="plex://artist/5d07bc0f403c6402904b3c71"

[OttoKerner]

If you ‘edit’ your library, go to the ‘Advanced’ tab. Is ‘Prefer local metadata’ activated or not?

@greentrancer

I have refreshed the artist I can see that grandparentGuid has changed as follows:

OK, this means the library has been converted already. And now the artist has been switched to use musicbrainz.org as its main metadata source as well.
Did this cause any changes to your “stuff” album?

[greentrancer]

‘Advanced’ tab seems to be disabled for some reason. I remember it being active a few weeks ago when I was looking around.

No, everything else seems to be the same apart from the artist’s poster picture.

In the meantime I was playing with this issue more and it seems to be happening most of the time, if not all the time, when I add / replace / change song(s) without scanning before and after.

Let us say that I made a mistake inside an album:

• if I delete one song and add another one, scan, then the new album creation take place.
• however, if I delete the song, scan, add the new song and scan again, it seems to be working.

But this still does NOT explain how I ended up with 4 ‘Singles’ albums like above, hmm.

[OttoKerner]

@greentrancer

‘Advanced’ tab seems to be disabled for some reason.

Use the web app: app.plex.tv Refresh it (F5) in your browser.

[greentrancer]

Indeed, you are right.

[TeknoJunky]

plex’s new music scanner and library is much worse than previous implementations.

it is extremely particular and if your music does not match plex’s exacting expectations, then you will be out of luck like everyone else that hates it.