Please add the ability to filter Music Tracks by Genre.
Thank you, in advance.
There is an existing request for this. Please vote for it by clicking ‘Like’ on the first post in that thread.
Thanks, but that request is about how “virtual” genre tags are populated at the album level. My request pertains to filtering existing genre tags at the track level. I don’t want to use Plex to create, edit or maintain my ID3 tags. I want it to read and filter what’s already there.
I noted the discussion in the other thread was expanded to include a second feature request: associate multiple genres with a track. That functionality already exists and it has nothing to do with Plex. The posters don’t seem to understand that ID3 tags are the business of a separate body (ID3.org) and that Plex is not an ID3 tag editor. Our requests are worlds apart.
Currently, Genre is only stored at the album level. Sad but true.
So for the ability to filter tracks for genre, you need to have ‘genre’ tags at the track level in the first place.
Not true. Genre is stored at the track level. It’s inherent to the MP3 file format. My tags are already in place.
@srewobwj said:
My tags are already in place at the track level.
That may be, but Plex doesn’t read them into its database.
Again, not true. Plex uses the existing ID3 tags stored in the MP3 files to create its virtual tags at the artist and album levels. It shows those tags on the artist and album profiles. I have a basic music library. All of my Elton John songs are tagged as “Rock.” Here’s how it looks on the artist profile:
Sorry, not trying to be argumentative, but it seems like there’s a lot of confusion about ID3 tags: where they’re stored, how they’re maintained (e.g. not in Plex) and how Plex uses them (which it does). Here’s how Plex displays the virtual genre tags it created from the genre tags it read from my MP3s in edit mode on the artist profile:
@srewobwj said:
Plex uses the existing ID3 tags stored in the MP3 files to create its virtual tags at the album level.
That is my point. The genre is only stored at the album level. But you want it at the track level.
All filters are only available for their level. So at the moment you can only use a filter if you switch your library to the ‘Album’ view.
Here’s an example of the virtual tags created by Plex at the album level using the genre tags in my MP3s.
@srewobwj said:
Here’s an example of the virtual tags created by Plex at the album level using the genre tags in my MP3s.
Yes, and if you switch your library into the ‘Album’ view mode, the ‘Genre’ filter is available to you.
Just as it is in the ‘Artist’ view mode.
I understand that. I don’t want to filter Albums by genre. I want to filter Tracks by genre (see my very succinct and polite feature request above).
I’m not sure how you reached Ninja status because you clearly don’t understand how Plex works with MP3 files and their built in ID3 tags. Taking it a step further, you don’t even seem to understand where ID3 tags are stored and how they’re maintained. They are not a Plex feature. They’re part of the MP3 (track) file structure. They’re populated by the record companies and/or CD ripping software. They’re maintained and edited using 3rd party utilities, not Plex. You didn’t help. You wasted my time. Maybe you should stick to posting on topics for which you have some expertise.
@srewobwj said:
I’m not sure how you reached Ninja status because you clearly don’t understand how Plex works with MP3 files and their built in ID3 tags.
Taking it a step further, you don’t even seem to understand where ID3 tags are stored and maintained. They are not a Plex feature. The tags are built into and attached to each individual track.
I beg to differ. I am very well aware that a genre tag can exist in the embedded meta tags of every single music media file.
The thing is that Plex doesn’t store these genre tags on every single track in its internal database.
And it is the internal database Plex uses to build you the library views and it is the internal Plex database which is used when you request a ‘filtered view’.
Plex doesn’t work directly with your files.
You didn’t help. You wasted my time. Maybe you should stick to posting on topics for which you have some expertise.
See my first answer. For your request to be fulfilled, it is first necessary that Plex reads and stores each track’s individual genre tag in its internal database. Which is also what @beckfield meant above, when he set the link to this feature request.
@srewobwj said:
Thanks, but that request is about how “virtual” genre tags are populated at the album level. My request pertains to filtering existing genre tags at the track level. I don’t want to use Plex to create, edit or maintain my ID3 tags. I want it to read and filter what’s already there.
If you read the original post in the thread I linked more carefully, I think you’ll find that she’s saying almost exactly what you are saying. She’s asking for Plex to be able to display and filter based on the embedded genre data in her track files. The album-level treatment she describes is just part of the overall model she is proposing.
I appreciate everyone’s input and feedback and sincerely apologize for getting testy with @OttoKerner
PS @beckfield : The album-level treatment she describes is already in place. I’ve added my $.02 to her thread. Thanks.
For your request to be fulfilled, it is first necessary that Plex reads and stores each track’s individual genre tag in its internal database.
PLEX already does read each track’s individual genre tag. In fact, PLEX scans, reads and aggreagates those tags at both the Album and Artist levels when “Use embedded tags” is checked under Advanced library settings. If a structural change to the database is required, then so be it. Adding one field to the database table and populating it with information that’s already being scanned and used is elementary stuff.
Was track level genre tag feature implemented? I can’t seem to filter tracks on genre.
Is this in works?
I also have another question. I was playing with my library–
- I added one album that is a collection of MP3 of a particular artist. As it is not an official album (rather a custom album - My <> Collection. I am using use embedded tags for generating genre list. As Plex is unable to match the album (as expected), it adds all the embedded tags as artist tags and there are not album tags.
- If I add another album - a standard released album which Plex is able to match, it adds all my embedded genre tags to the album and add nothings to the artist.
So I am now curious - how do I ensure that I get artist level genre tags when using embedded genre tags?
Track level Genre tags within Plex are not implemented yet - you can see this when you look in the Plex internal (sqlite) database, only artists and albums have Genre(s), the fields are empty for tracks.
Track level Year and track level artwork similarly don’t exist in Plex either, unfortunately.
Early 2021 clean-up: duplicate
