Music tracks not showing up in plex music library

[agc34]

Running the latest version of Plex Media Server (version 1.41.3) on Mac Mini (late 2012, running Catalina OS 10.15.7) as a music library server (CD,albums, etc.) only. Loaded the music via XLD ripping software. All cd music is first loaded onto an external hard drive, and then migration of music is done after creating the music ‘library.’ I’ve noticed that there are cds that are missing tracks. I have deleted and reinstalled the Plex Media Server software, and the issue of missing tracks still exists. . .not always the same tracks missing. What am I missing? Any suggestions/comments will be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[OttoKerner]

@agc34

first loaded onto an external hard drive

Is that “external hard drive” actually a Synology NAS device?

Plex Files Unavailable but they’re not missing

Server Version#: 1.41.0.8992-8463ad060 Having a very unusual situation that I hope someone can shed light on. Updated to MacOS 15. I know. I know. Wait. But I ran a test on another machine to make sure everything worked. And it did. So I updated my main Plex Mac. For a few hours all was fine. Then… On my TV Shows library (which is on two Synology NAS devices) it sporadically stopped updating new files and said some files were unavailable but I could still play them. And when I clicked to see…

[agc34]

Thanks for replying. The external hard drive in not a Synology NAS device. The drive is an external 4TB, 3.5" drive. That drive is ‘cloned’ to a 4TB solid state drive.
The 3.5" drive contains all of the music that is first loaded via XLD. The 3.5" drive is the primary drive as it was the first drive I obtained and made it the “primary” music drive. If not clear, please let me know.

[dbirch]

I would check for duplicates, odds are either your metadata or file structure doesn’t follow plex’s naming schema.

Personally I just ensure my embedded metadata is correct and tell plex to only use that instead of trying to have it match it with online databases.

[agc34]

Thank you for the suggestions. Another can of worms has been opened: How can I find out if the “embedded metadata is correct”?

[dbirch]

I use a program like TagScanner - Download to view the metadata. In the case you need to update/fix metadata on more than a handful of files https://picard.musicbrainz.org/ might be your best bet

[agc34]

Thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded Picard., selected a cd (directly from the hard drive) from the collection that was missing several tracks (5) from my Plex Music Library. Performed the recommended steps through Picard to check metadata. It returned (saved) the cd with all tracks/metadata as being correct/accurate. I then deleted the cd from the Plex Music Library, and reinstalled it into my Plex Music Library. The same situation occurred, only this time, different tracks (4) were missing. Any other/further suggestions? Thanks

[dbirch]

Lets start with a basic test then:

1. create a new demo library (and create a file location for this library outside of your existing library)
2. remove the CD you updated the metadata for in the previous post from your library
3. scan your old library, empty the trash, and clean the bundles, and then optimize the database (we are doing a variant of the Plex Dance)
4. Then add the CD to your the new Demo Library
5. Perform a scan on the Demo library

This will tell us in isolation if it is in fact a plex scanner/database issue or if plex is just merging what it thinks are duplicated CDs/Tracks together.