All my music had [Year] set prior to import as YYYY, but once in Plex, each album has associated a YYYY-MM-DD ‘Originally Available’ date. It seemed to add the current MM and DD (i.e. day of import) to the existing [Year] tag which was daft, but I’m trying to establish EXACTLY from where Plex gets this date.
In some/most file types, the [Year] tag can actually be a full datetime, also there are available the [Release Time/Date] and [Original Release Time/Date] tags. Which of these will Plex use? Then I can ensure all my media files have it set correctly in their metadata so that on import, Plex uses this as the album’s ‘Originally Available’ date and sort correctly?
I don’t think that Plex reads any of the embedded metadata for date except for the basic YYYY tag. It doesn’t read the other tags such as original Release, etc. Even if you include them, they won’t be picked up by Plex.
So, albums that have matched correctly with MusicBrainz will have the detailed info. Unmatched albums will use the generic year tag you have included, and add the current month and day. I agree, that’s daft. I think I read somewhere it’s because the database requires the year/month/day so the current month and day are arbitrarily applied.
I’ve also read in other threads that they are once again re-vamping the way music libraries work, so maybe those type of shortcomings/oversights will be addressed.
How does Plex deal with a [Year] tag in full YYYY-MM-DD format? Just take the YYYY and add nonsense to it rather than simply use the full (and correct) date as provided?
Also
How does it deal with tracks of an album having different values in their [Year] tag, as can often be the case?
I guess I could wait before setting up my Music libraries again to suit new/better import procedures, but would be great to hear from Plex regarding any changes and perhaps be able to influence the changes. So often developers introduce new stuff, or make changes just to suit what they think, which can be very different from what users actually require. Some dialog between users and devs could really help improve Plex, especially in its handling of music.
I don’t think the year tag is actually supposed to have more than YYYY. I could be wrong. Other tags, like Release Date, Original Release, etc are supposed to be used for precise dates. (YYYY-MM-DD) Like I said, Plex doesn’t appear to read those tags.
I’m pretty sure that if the tracks have different dates (YYYY) Plex will add them as separate albums.
These shortcomings, as well as a whole list of others regarding embedded metadata, have been around for years. And pointed out to the developers many times. We can only hope that if they are working on improving the music system, all of this will be considered. In the meantime, we’re kinda stuck. Sorry.
I have many albums with different [Year] tags, especially for, but not limited to Various Artist compilations and Plex imports those perfectly. Ok, I’ve not checked that, but I sure would have noticed duplicate albums having been produced on first import and there were none.
I’m pretty sure that most formats allow the [Year] tag to be full datetime, certainly many do. Software that doesn’t like this (e.g. iTunes) simply displays the YYYY portion and ignores the rest. In fact I suspect iTunes only stores the YYYY in its library database file, even though the file’s tag contains YYYY-MM-DD.
