Music tags not being read

Hi all,

Running plex premium (or whatever it’s called - the one I pay for) server on ubuntu 14.04 server. Plex doesn’t seem to be reading my ID3 tags on my music properly. For example, it thinks all my AC/DC albums are titled “DC”. I have checked the ID3 tags, and can verify that this is not the case.

I have made sure that “Use Embedded Tags” is checked in my Music library, and that the agent is set to “Personal Media Artists”. In the “Artists/Personal Media Artists” agent, “Local Media Assets (Artists)” is listed first, followed by “Personal Media Artists”. (On a side note, all these Agents and their namings are super confusing, and don’t really make sense; reorganizing that would make for a nice improvement in the future).

Any help greatly appreciated!

Server Version#: 1.13.8.5395
Player Version#: 3.73.2


When you created the library, did you enable reading your tags?

Don’t totally remember the settings when I created the library, but I did force a full metadata refresh, and that didn’t solve it…

Reading embedded tags is disabled by default.

It is in the Advanced tab. Please see below.

Thanks. As mentioned in the original post, I have enabled embedded tags.

Go to any one of the items and obtain the XML (hover -> Get Info -> View XML)
Now also get the “MediaInfo” directly using your computer.

Lastly, if there isn’t some semblance of structure, Plex will have a hard time identifying everything.

What is the current structure?

XML included below, as well as the output from metaflac --list. Is plex able to read FLAC tags?

Structure of albums is /media/Music/random_folder_name/artist/album/various_track_naming_conventions.mp3-flac-whatever

user@machine:/media/Music/folder/AC-DC/Back in Black [24-96 Vinyl]$ metaflac --list A1\ -\ Hells\ Bells.flac
METADATA block #0
  type: 0 (STREAMINFO)
  is last: false
  length: 34
  minimum blocksize: 4096 samples
  maximum blocksize: 4096 samples
  minimum framesize: 2597 bytes
  maximum framesize: 18620 bytes
  sample_rate: 96000 Hz
  channels: 2
  bits-per-sample: 24
  total samples: 29850110
  MD5 signature: b554bdb599376440fd9db9d0f78acc36
METADATA block #1
  type: 3 (SEEKTABLE)
  is last: false
  length: 576
  seek points: 32
    point 0: sample_number=0, stream_offset=0, frame_samples=4096
    point 1: sample_number=958464, stream_offset=2957180, frame_samples=4096
    point 2: sample_number=1916928, stream_offset=5979762, frame_samples=4096
    point 3: sample_number=2879488, stream_offset=9162051, frame_samples=4096
    point 4: sample_number=3837952, stream_offset=12525934, frame_samples=4096
    point 5: sample_number=4796416, stream_offset=15922703, frame_samples=4096
    point 6: sample_number=5758976, stream_offset=19438251, frame_samples=4096
    point 7: sample_number=6717440, stream_offset=23059533, frame_samples=4096
    point 8: sample_number=7680000, stream_offset=26722379, frame_samples=4096
    point 9: sample_number=8638464, stream_offset=30353206, frame_samples=4096
    point 10: sample_number=9596928, stream_offset=34033122, frame_samples=4096
    point 11: sample_number=10559488, stream_offset=37745560, frame_samples=4096
    point 12: sample_number=11517952, stream_offset=41462066, frame_samples=4096
    point 13: sample_number=12476416, stream_offset=45225731, frame_samples=4096
    point 14: sample_number=13438976, stream_offset=49040937, frame_samples=4096
    point 15: sample_number=14397440, stream_offset=52761400, frame_samples=4096
    point 16: sample_number=15360000, stream_offset=56519916, frame_samples=4096
    point 17: sample_number=16318464, stream_offset=60274746, frame_samples=4096
    point 18: sample_number=17276928, stream_offset=63998102, frame_samples=4096
    point 19: sample_number=18239488, stream_offset=67769000, frame_samples=4096
    point 20: sample_number=19197952, stream_offset=71545227, frame_samples=4096
    point 21: sample_number=20156416, stream_offset=75263781, frame_samples=4096
    point 22: sample_number=21118976, stream_offset=79019377, frame_samples=4096
    point 23: sample_number=22077440, stream_offset=82771292, frame_samples=4096
    point 24: sample_number=23040000, stream_offset=86541228, frame_samples=4096
    point 25: sample_number=23998464, stream_offset=90302025, frame_samples=4096
    point 26: sample_number=24956928, stream_offset=94096321, frame_samples=4096
    point 27: sample_number=25919488, stream_offset=97935100, frame_samples=4096
    point 28: sample_number=26877952, stream_offset=101747457, frame_samples=4096
    point 29: sample_number=27836416, stream_offset=105540989, frame_samples=4096
    point 30: sample_number=28798976, stream_offset=109302837, frame_samples=4096
    point 31: sample_number=29757440, stream_offset=112842335, frame_samples=4096
METADATA block #2
  type: 4 (VORBIS_COMMENT)
  is last: false
  length: 2030
  vendor string: reference libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917
  comments: 15
    comment[0]: TITLE=Hells Bells
    comment[1]: ARTIST=AC/DC
    comment[2]: ALBUM ARTIST=AC/DC
    comment[3]: ALBUMARTIST=AC/DC
    comment[4]: ALBUM=Back In Black [Vinyl]
    comment[5]: TRACKNUMBER=01
    comment[6]: COMMENT=2003 - Sony Music / E 80207 / 180g EU Pressing / Vinyl

Technical Log:

blah blah blah

    comment[7]: GENRE=Hard Rock
    comment[8]: DATE=2003
    comment[9]: ENSEMBLE=AC/DC
    comment[10]: REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK=0.798706
    comment[11]: REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN=-0.840000 dB
    comment[12]: REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN=-1.080000 dB
    comment[13]: TOTALTRACKS=10
    comment[14]: LABEL=Sony Music

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionUUID="51f171b2-4220-48fd-9bc3-5ea8bd51e05e" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1537530240">
<Track ratingKey="5911" key="/library/metadata/5911" parentRatingKey="5910" grandparentRatingKey="5838" guid="com.plexapp.agents.lastfm://AC/DC/Back%20In%20Black%20%5BVinyl%5D/1?lang=en" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/4" type="track" title="Hells Bells" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/5838" parentKey="/library/metadata/5910" grandparentTitle="AC/DC" parentTitle="DC" originalTitle="AC/DC" summary="" index="1" parentIndex="1" ratingCount="1207" viewCount="3" lastViewedAt="1536438161" thumb="/library/metadata/5910/thumb/1541426619" art="/library/metadata/5838/art/1541300292" parentThumb="/library/metadata/5910/thumb/1541426619" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/5838/thumb/1541300292" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/5838/art/1541300292" duration="310939" addedAt="1452677575" updatedAt="1541426617">
<Media id="5176" duration="310939" bitrate="2912" width="500" height="456" aspectRatio="1.33" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="flac" videoCodec="mjpeg" container="flac">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="5176" key="/library/parts/5176/1415621840/file.flac" duration="310939" file="/media/Music/folder/AC-DC/Back in Black [24-96 Vinyl]/A1 - Hells Bells.flac" size="113164136" container="flac" hasThumbnail="1">
<Stream id="5198" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="flac" index="0" channels="2" bitrate="2911" albumGain="-3.05" albumPeak="0.959848" albumRange="5.738934" audioChannelLayout="stereo" bitDepth="24" bitrateMode="vbr" duration="310938" gain="-2.76" loudness="-15.24" lra="8.31" peak="0.798729" samplingRate="96000" displayTitle="Unknown (FLAC Stereo)"/>
<Stream id="1026120" key="/library/streams/1026120" streamType="4" codec="lrc" format="lrc" minLines="3" provider="com.plexapp.agents.lyricfind" timed="1" displayTitle="Unknown (LRC External)"/>
<Stream id="1026121" key="/library/streams/1026121" streamType="4" codec="txt" format="txt" provider="com.plexapp.agents.lyricfind" displayTitle="Unknown (TXT External)"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>

AC/DC is an annoying special case.
When I created my library, I had to resort to naming the artist folder ACDC. (i.e. without any separator inbetween. The dash is interpreted by Plex as a separator between album artist and album title. see https://support.plex.tv/articles/200265296-adding-music-media-from-folders/ )

In the embedded meta tags, I use then the correct name AC/DC.

You can continue to use the hierarchical folder/subfolder approach of
Artist / Album / tracks, but this is one of the cases where it breaks down.

Thanks for the info. I seem to have managed to get Back in Black registered properly after changing the folder name to ACDC, but all the others still show “DC” as the album name. Here’s an example of one of the bad tracks. It’s in a sub-folder that has dashes, but there are plenty of other mis-registered tracks that aren’t in subfolders like this. Any ideas?

Here’s info from one mis-registered track on the server:

user@machine:/media/Music/folder/ACDC/22-ACDC-1997-Bonfire/03-Volts$ mp3info 01-Dirty\ Eyes-mw.mp3
File: 01-Dirty Eyes-mw.mp3
Title:   Dirty Eyes                     Track: 1
Artist:  AC/DC
Album:   Bonfire - Volts                Year:  1997
Comment:                                Genre: Rock [17]

And here’s the Plex XML for that same track:

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionUUID="51f171b2-4220-48fd-9bc3-5ea8bd51e05e" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1540920214">
<Track ratingKey="5946" key="/library/metadata/5946" parentRatingKey="5945" grandparentRatingKey="5838" guid="com.plexapp.agents.lastfm://AC/DC/DC/1?lang=en" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/4" type="track" title="Dirty Eyes" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/5838" parentKey="/library/metadata/5945" grandparentTitle="AC/DC" parentTitle="DC" originalTitle="AC/DC" summary="" index="1" parentIndex="1" ratingCount="12765" viewCount="15" lastViewedAt="1536523369" thumb="/library/metadata/5945/thumb/1541501822" art="/library/metadata/5838/art/1541584114" parentThumb="/library/metadata/5945/thumb/1541501822" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/5838/thumb/1541584114" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/5838/art/1541584114" duration="201046" addedAt="1452677590" updatedAt="1541584132">
<Media id="5208" duration="201046" bitrate="128" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="mp3" container="mp3">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="570448" key="/library/parts/570448/1541501121/file.mp3" duration="201046" file="/media/Music/folder/ACDC/22-ACDC-1997-Bonfire/03-Volts/01-Dirty Eyes-mw.mp3" size="3217408" container="mp3">
<Stream id="1041993" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="mp3" index="0" channels="2" bitrate="128" albumGain="-7.96" albumPeak="1.000000" albumRange="10.182369" audioChannelLayout="stereo" gain="-9.75" loudness="-8.25" lra="3.32" peak="1.000000" samplingRate="44100" displayTitle="Unknown (MP3 Stereo)"/>
<Stream id="1043449" key="/library/streams/1043449" streamType="4" codec="lrc" format="lrc" minLines="3" provider="com.plexapp.agents.lyricfind" timed="1" displayTitle="Unknown (LRC External)"/>
<Stream id="1043450" key="/library/streams/1043450" streamType="4" codec="txt" format="txt" provider="com.plexapp.agents.lyricfind" displayTitle="Unknown (TXT External)"/>
<Stream id="1042136" key="/library/streams/1042136" streamType="4" codec="txt" format="txt" provider="com.plexapp.agents.lyricfind" displayTitle="Unknown (TXT External)"/>
<Stream id="1042138" key="/library/streams/1042138" streamType="4" codec="txt" format="txt" provider="com.plexapp.agents.lyricfind" displayTitle="Unknown (TXT External)"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>

Here’s what it looks like in Plex. Notice that in this case, tons of tracks are getting placed in a single album…

I don’t understand the 22 at the beginning of the album folder title.
Is this some kind of ordering tool, to have your albums sorted?

I also think that the abundance of dashes in the folder titles doesn’t help with your issue. I suggest replacing them with dots or (even better) with regular spaces.

The dash has a special meaning to the Plex scanner. It is used to separate album title and artist from each other. It is very likely it gets confused if there are too many dashes in there.

You should also get into the habit of enclosing (year) with parentheses.

Once an album has been misrecognized/mismatched, you may need the Plex Dance to purge the mismatch from the Plex database.
(with music, you can omit step 4 of the dance)

Thanks - the plex dance seems to have helped things along.

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.