Music library not uploading

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

MODS, if this is in the wrong forum please move it to the correct one.

As the title says my music files are not uploading. When I click “Update Libraries” on my media server it uploads all my other libraries. When it gets to music it uploads 1 (one) song and that’s it which tells me that Plex is connected to my Music folder.

I have deleted my Plex music folder and reinstalled it multiple times with the same result.

This has been going on for months and is obviously an ongoing problem for many people. Why Plex cannot either fix this or do a rollback to a version that actually works is beyond me.

I’ve tired all of the online suggestions I could find including setting up a test folder with artist name, then a folder with the album name and made sure that all of the songs in the folder had correct metadata. It did not work.

The only thing I can add is that I do not receive any error messages etc. Plex just acts like I have one music file, uploads it and moves on.

Suggestions?

2

I’m not aware of an “Update Libraries” button or function. Do you mean “Scan Library Files”?

Plex doesn’t really “upload” libraries.

Do you mean it scans the other libraries, finds files, and adds media items - like movies & TV shows - to your Libraries?

Do you mean that it only finds one song from your music folders and adds that to your Music library? But other files aren’t added?

Those are guesses - am I on the right track?

It would be helpful if you used the same terms as the Plex interface, and it would be helpful if you shared screenshots.

Can you expand the description of what you’re doing, ideally by sharing screenshots of what you’re clicking?

Can you share a screenshot of your Music library config, especially the folders?

Can you share a screenshot of the music files in your library, the folders they’re in, their names?

3

I’m not aware of an “Update Libraries” button or function. Do you mean “Scan Library Files”?

Yes

Plex doesn’t really “upload” libraries.

Do you mean it scans the other libraries, finds files, and adds media items - like movies & TV shows - to your Libraries?

Yes

Do you mean that it only finds one song from your music folders and adds that to your Music library? But other files aren’t added?

Yes. It is an individual file, not in an folder with the artist name and then a subfolder with the album name.

Those are guesses - am I on the right track?

Yes

It would be helpful if you used the same terms as the Plex interface, and it would be helpful if you shared screenshots.

Sorry, I simply typed how I think of the function, I’ll try to be more clear in the future.

Can you expand the description of what you’re doing, ideally by sharing screenshots of what you’re clicking?

Not tonight

Can you share a screenshot of your Music library config, especially the folders?

I don’t have my music files in separate folders. As I said I created a test folder with one artist and placed the music files in the artist folder with the album name and double checked to be sure that the files had all of the metadata. It did not work.

Can you share a screenshot of the music files in your library, the folders they’re in, their names?

.>As I said they are individual files which up to some point in the past worked just fine, Plex uploaded them with no problem. Any idea why Plex not longer does so?

Thank you for your help so far. :slight_smile:

4

Here are screen shots of my settings;

FireShot Capture 003 - Plex - app.plex.tv
FireShot Capture 003 - Plex - app.plex.tv707×395 19.1 KB
FireShot Capture 006 - Plex - app.plex.tv
FireShot Capture 006 - Plex - app.plex.tv709×392 20 KB
FireShot Capture 009 - Plex - app.plex.tv
FireShot Capture 009 - Plex - app.plex.tv714×398 18.7 KB

As I said I don’t have my music files in separate folders, they are all individual files in my ‘Music’ folder. The format is Artist Name-Song Title.mp3.

The test folder I made that did not work was Folder (Artist Name), Sub Folder (Album Name), Music Files (Artist Name-Song Title.mp3) and I made sure all the files had the proper metadata.

5

This won’t work at all.

Did you point the test library directly to the folder Folder (Artist Name)? If so, then this won’t work either.

/Music <-- library points here
   /Folder (Artist Name)
      /Sub Folder (Album Name)
         Music Files (Artist Name-Song Title.mp3)

Do your files have the “AlbumArtist” meta tag populated?

side remark: “store track progress” only makes sense for audio books

6

Then what will? That is how I’ve always had my music files and it always worked in Plex until Plex changed their system.

Also if this “won’t work” why does it pick up one music file before ignoring the rest?

Did you point the test library directly to the folder Folder (Artist Name) ? If so, then this won’t work either.

/Music <-- library points here
   /Folder (Artist Name)
      /Sub Folder (Album Name)
         Music Files (Artist Name-Song Title.mp3)

I just tried that. The test folder is not visible when I point the music library to my music folder. The individual files are visible (but greyed out) but not the folder?

Do your files have the “AlbumArtist” meta tag populated?

Most of them do. But all the ones in my test folder do.

side remark: “store track progress” only makes sense for audio books

THX. I just posted that in case there was some setting that was wrong.

…

7

Sorry, what kind of “test folder” are you talking about?

8

Sorry, what kind of “test folder” are you talking about?

The one folder I set up with the artist name, a subfolder with the album name, and the music files with metadata that we’ve been discussing? The one that you said to point the test library to that I said was not visible? That test folder.

9

If you see individual files, you are already 2 folder levels too deep. You have then pointed Plex at the album level. Which causes Plex to only see the files, but not the folder structure. Which causes failure.

10

I found out the problem with my test folder.

I used the artist ‘.38 Special’ so I named the folder ‘.38 Special’. For some reason Plex wouldn’t recognize it until I changed it to ‘38 Special’ without the period (.) at the beginning.

I’ve also done some more folders and Plex is finding them.

So the solution is that I have to set up individual folders for each and every one of my Artists?

11

Yes!

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200265296-adding-music-media-from-folders/

Proper naming for music files- first time setup for plex - #3 by OttoKerner

‘.38 Special’ is funny - everywhere but Windows, a period . at the beginning of a file name has the effect of hiding that file/folder. Windows doesn’t behave that way, but it’s possible the Plex scanner does treat it that way.

There are some great tools like FileBot and bliss for doing this.

iTunes can do a good job of it, too. I kinda like this one for 1) not being iTunes 2) the price 3) supporting many formats:

Mp3tag:

Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor (ID3v2, MP4, OGG, FLAC, ...)

12

In your screenshots I notice you have the “Personal Music Artists” agent selected, and “Prefer local metadata”.

I imagine you turned those on when troubleshooting? Chances are that you want the “Plex Music” agent. Unless your music tagging is very good, you may also want “Prefer local metadata” unchecked.

13

THX everyone for your help.

14

Well this is an interesting turn of events.

After making separate folders for all my artists starting with the letter “A” Plex decided to go ahead and upload all my music files whether they were in a folder or not.

However, Plex will not update the metadata for the files no matter how many times I click “Refresh Metadata”.

Can somebody please explain to me WTF is going on?

15

Anyone?

I’ll take SWAG’s.

16

I removed the individual tracks from the folders I created and placed them in my Music folder, Plex located them and added them to my music library.

However, Plex will not download and add metadata to the tracks.

Once again, any suggestions?

17

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