Music file numbering

General Discussions
1

Hi,

I am using the latest version (1.7.1.3856 ).

I have a set of MP3 files that consists of 18 discs. The files are named using the following naming convention.

[disc number][track number] - [track name].mp3

for example

disk 01, track 01 is “0101 - Dazed and Confused.mp3”
disk 18, track 07 is "1807 - Thank You.mp3 "

When this is displayed in PLEX web interface, the tracks are listed as

101 Dazed and Confused - Led Zeppelin

…

180 - Thank You - Led Zeppelin

PLEX is only displaying 3 characters of the file number and is truncating the real file number.

Do I need to renumber the files, or is there a way to get PLEX to display the full track number for the files?

Thanks in advance.

2

If you want to force Plex to use meta-data in the file, make sure the meta-data is correct, then rearrange the agent order for music and put local assets at the top of the list. Don’t rely on just the name to get it looking the way you want.

3

Thanks, all the meta data for the MP3 files are correctly written using Tag & Rename (v1 and v2 MP3 tags). (track number, song title, disc number, artists, genre …)

I have used the same naming convention for everything else in my music library This is the first time I have had over 10 discs in a collection.

4

This, in conjunction with the proper tagging, works (but isn’t properly documented yet). Having the physical structure alleviates the need to move agent stacking around.

total 294488
drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck users     4096 May 11 10:36 ./
drwxr-xr-x 4 chuck users     4096 May  7 18:15 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users 40855082 Sep  5  2010 01. Supertramp - School.flac
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users 40037165 Sep  5  2010 02. Supertramp - Ain't Nobody but Me.flac
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users 28612129 Sep  5  2010 03. Supertramp - The Logical Song.flac
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users 50091727 Sep  5  2010 04. Supertramp - Bloody Well Right.flac
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users 20856661 Sep  5  2010 05. Supertramp - Breakfast in America.flac
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users 24901328 Sep  5  2010 06. Supertramp - You Started Laughing.flac
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users 47753291 Sep  5  2010 07. Supertramp - Hide in Your Shell.flac
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users 48401522 Sep  5  2010 08. Supertramp - From Now On.flac
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users    16713 Sep  5  2010 folder.jpg
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck users      463 May 11 10:36 Paris Disc 1.m3u
[chuck@lizum Paris.111]$
5

Disc numbers should not be in the filenames. For Plex to recognize your media without depending on embedded tags, your folder structure and file naming should look like this:

Music /
   Artist /
      Albumartist - Albumtitle /
         Disc 01 /
            01 - trackartist - tracktitle.mp3
            02 - trackartist - tracktitle.mp3
            ...
         Disc 02 /
            01 - trackartist - tracktitle.mp3
            02 - trackartist - tracktitle.mp3
            ...

Since your collection has more than 10 discs, you need to pad the single-digit disc numbers with leading zeroes. Same for track names.

If your embedded tags are in good shape, and you configure Plex to use them, the folder/filename structure isn’t as important. The tracks for all discs could even reside in the same folder, if you prefer, as long as the disc numbering in the ID3 tags are correct.

6

I understand all that … the files have the correct tack number (i.e. 1105) … the correct file number is shown when editing the properties for a single file. The issue is that the full track display only shows THREE characters for the for the track number. This truncates the actual track number that is tagged in the file.

7

Can you provide some screenshots? I’m not understanding what you’re looking at.

A screenshot of the problem you’re seeing in Plex
A screenshot of the folder on your storage drive
A screenshot of your Tag&Rename program showing the Disc number and Track number tag fields

Is Plex configured to use embedded tags, or not?