Yes. The pattern is
[optional track number] - track name - [optional description]-video
Optional items gets ignored.
Including the artist name first is not the recommended naming method. It’s YMMV in that case.
I am still struggling with the Global Music Videos folder.
I am testing with ABBA as there are audio and also video files.
All videos (in GMV/ABBA folder) show up as Extras in Music/ABBA. However I have a couple of videos for actual tracks. They are each in a folder named as the appropriate album (identical to the Music library folder). I can not get them to be associated with the track. So e.g. in GMV folder:-
ABBA
The Visitors
video file
I’ve tried naming the video file as the track title:-
The Day Before You Came.mp4
and also as the track filename:-
11 The Day Before You Came.mp4
Neither show up as a video for that track within the Music library. Same thing with a different track and video.
If I move the video up into the artist’s folder, it appears as another Extra. But in the album sub-folder it remains invisible to Plex.
Clearly this can work as per the docs and as shown by @x1ao4 above. What’s the trick to getting this to work?
Global music videos are not tied to an album, only the artist, so they need to be at the artist level.
But the audio track files are in an Album folders. How can it link a video at the artist level to a track which is at the album level?
As I said, if I do place the video at the artist level (named to suit the track) it just gets listed as another artist video. Besides, if you have to name it as the track and the same track name exists in different albums, how can it know which is the track to link to and anyway that would require duplicate video filenames?
I don’t see linking a track at the album level to a video at the artist level makes sense, or is even possible. In fact it isn’t as it just gets listed as an artist video.
Are you in fact saying that it is only possible to link videos to tracks if BOTH are at the artist level?
If so, I’m afraid that’s really dumb as the natural folder structure (and that Plex supports) is to place track files in their own album folders.
Please tell me it’s not that bad.
Please keep this clear. Are you referring to the Global music video folder or your regular music library? For the music library, you put the video files next to the music files, that way they get linked together. For the Global folder, it only supports artists. You can link to a specific song by naming it the same. If you have that same song in multiple albums, I’m not positive, but I believe the video gets linked to all of the songs with the same name. There is no way to specify only for a specific album. If you need to do that, then you should place it in the music library. The point of the Global video folder is so you don’t have to do that level of organization.
Well indeed, let’s be clear. This discussion is about the Global Music Videos folder which does not only support artists as you in fact initially state above, but then contradict. Sorry, but this point causes much confusion and needs to be finally clarified.
Again, this is all about placing videos in the GMV folder.
Videos placed in a GMV/Artist’s folder show up under that Artist in the Music library. That much we know. It is associating a video with a specific track that is still desperately unclear.
It seems you are saying that videos will ONLY be found in the GMV/Artist folder and therefore will never be seen in an Album subfolder. Yes?
In which case what are the exact and precise rules that will associate a video in the Artist folder with tracks (in the Music library of course) that may or may not be in an Album subfolder? Tracks in Album subfolders is not only the sensible and logical structure for a music library, but also specified as supported (preferred even) by PMS.
It seems @anon18523487 you are saying that if named correctly, a video in the GMV/Artist folder CAN be associated with a track, but does that include tracks in Album subfolders and how should the videos be named in order to be matched?
Should the video name be based on the associated tracks’ Title, or its filename? They may of course be different, in particular with the filename starting with track number. Can they include ‘-type’ at the end and can they include an alternative name to be used? Can the Album name be included to enable matching with a specific Album?
Also, as you say, what about tracks (and therefore also videos) with the same Title. Are they associated with ALL matches?
In my example case of ABBA, there are 2 tracks on different albums but with the same Track Title, however filenames are different due to different track numbers. Each of those 2 tracks has its own (different) video though. The videos cannot be named solely by Track Title as that would cause duplicate filenames in the Artist folder. So how can each video be associated with the correct track on its correct Album?
There seems to be a miasma of confusion and ambiguity about all this. The docs are exceedingly unclear and misleading/incorrect advice is often dispensed on these forums. We need to get it clear, straight from the horses mouth, so as to speak. Those who have written the code that does this matching need to come clean and state PRECISELY what works, how it works and what does not. There is no point in having potentially very useful functionality if no-one actually understands how to use it.
Music videos at the artist level in the global folder can be associated to tracks at the album level in the music folder. The file name of the music video needs to be named according to the track file name, not the track title. But you will get duplicates. Like below.
If you have two tracks with the same track title in two albums, you need to distinguish the file names of the two tracks and then name the two music videos separately according to the file names, so that the two music videos will be associated to the respective tracks, but you will get duplicates (which is a bug that needs to be fixed).
Thanks, that’s as I previously understood it, but could not get it to work and then wanted to clarify what @anon18523487 was saying.
However, switching back to ‘in-line’ videos, from your example above, it looks like the video file CAN be in the Album subfolder alongside the track file? Again, as I previously understood, but worth clarifying here.
What is frustrating about all this is that information like this that identifies precisely the specific and complex requirements of a certain function/feature should be readily available to all in the official documentation. Instead we are provided with sparse, ambiguous docs that require much additional research on these forums, which as I have mentioned can sometimes provide misleading or even inaccurate information.
Documentation is everything.
These functions are a bit complicated and it took me a little while to figure them out too.
Actually if you put the music video in the music folder, it will only be associated with the track if you put the music video in the album folder alongside the track file and name it correctly. If you move the music video out of the album folder, the music video will not be associated to the track, it will only be listed in the artist’s extras. If you put the music video in a subfolder of the album folder, it will not be detected at all.
But if you put the music video in the global folder, either directly under the global folder or inside the artist folder, you can always have it associated to the track by naming it properly, but there are duplication issues at the moment.
The album folder is not available in the global folder. If you put the music video in the album folder inside the artist folder inside the global folder, it cannot be detected.
For tracks with the same track title, this is what I do.
/Music
/Katy Perry
/Smile
Katy Perry - Smile.mp3
Katy Perry - Smile - Smile-video.mp4
/Avril Lavigne
/Smile
Smile.mp3
Smile-video.mp4
If you want to use the global folder, you can do this, but you will get duplicates until the bug is fixed.
/Music
/Katy Perry
/Smile
Katy Perry - Smile.mp3
/Avril Lavigne
/Smile
Smile.mp3
/Global folder
/Katy Perry
Katy Perry - Smile - Smile-video.mp4
/Avril Lavigne
Smile-video.mp4
If you want the music video to be associated to a track, just name the music video file according to the track file name, never mind the track title. You need to refresh the metadata after changing the file name or moving the file.
Ok, so for both ‘in-line’ AND to use in GMV folder (not at same time), the naming of the video is the same and always based on the music track’s FILENAME?
The duplicates bug is not a bother as I can only assume it will be fixed. 
However, something still puzzles me. In your screen grab above, the ‘On the Ground’ video is in-line and in the same folder alongside the associated track file and it appears in the library as a track with video. BUT, it also appears as an Extra for the Artist. Is this correct?
I have always assumed that a video associated with a track would therefore appear only with the track and not as another Artist Extra. Am I in fact incorrect? That would certainly affect what is to be expected when testing.
I guess it’s acceptable, although not ideal as the interface puts all Extras in a line that has to be scrolled and the more entries the more problematic that is, so unnecessarily adding extra Extras seems a bad idea to me.
Or am I misunderstanding what your screen grab represents?
Yes, the file names of music videos are based on the file names of the music tracks.
Yes, the music video will show up in the extras regardless of whether the track is associated with it or not. All video content of the artist will be displayed in the extras.
No, it still appears in the extras.
Yeah, i think it would be better if you could click on the Extras to have a separate page showing all the music videos. Or even create collections or randomly play all music videos through Extras, currently you can only create playlists with music videos.
I have another question. @anon18523487
Recently Added Music Videos doesn’t show all my added music videos, I don’t know why, in theory all music videos should be shown here, none of the music videos I added today are shown here.
I would also suggest adding a random play feature to Recently Added Music Videos, as well as the ability to add to collections.
If Recently Added Music Video is time-limited, I suggest adding a list of all music videos, which are also a very important part of the music library and are now seriously neglected.
Also as @UKenGB said, wouldn’t it be better if the music videos were actually displayed on the album page? That way music videos that are associated with album tracks don’t need to be shown in extras, which should show other content, such as concerts or other videos of artists, or individual music videos without tracks. Also a section for all videos of artists should be added (Which is now the extras).
In short, the music video features have a lot of room for optimization.
‘optimization’ being a euphemism for ‘improvement’. 
Yes, Album related vides should show on the Album page, not simply jumbled up with everything related to that artist.
The GMV folder should work with the exact same structure as the Music library and respect the Artist/Album folder levels. Then:-
All videos in the Artist folder are displayed as Extras for that Artist.
Videos in an Album folder (subfolder of Artist) should then be associated with an individual track if appropriately named and/or be displayed as Extras for the Album. So same display system as for the Artist. I would suggest that videos associated with tracks are only displayed with the track and not in Extras, but some people might like them in both places. So it should be an option, whether to also include them in the Album Extras list or just next to track.
The point being that Album related videos are organised and displayed with the Album which is the most appropriate location and avoids cluttering up the Artist Extras list. Otherwise, with a lot of Albums and Album related videos, the Artist’s Extras list will become unmanageably long.
This is what Directories/Folders were invented for. To be able to group items together to make dealing with the items more efficient. PMS just wanting us to throw everything together is in complete opposition to accepted computing practice.
If we need to take the argument back to analogue, if I had additional material (posters, other paraphernalia) that related to an Album, I’d place that sorted with the Album, not just in a random pile for the Artist.
Structure is all important. And documentation. Structure and documentation are both all important. And support. Structure and documentation and support are all important. And …
Yeah, sounds good, I’ll second that.
Another factor I’ve just realised. The video’s -type HAS to be -video (or missing presumably) for it to be associated with the track. I had some I marked as -concert that were not matched. I changed to -video and they were matched.
I don’t think that is a valid restriction. A traditional Music Video of a track is not the same thing as a concert performance of the track, yet it makes sense to be able to link either type.
You might even have a -behindthescenes video of a track that should be linkable to the track.
Maybe the problem is having multiple videos linked to a single track as it looks like Plex cannot handle that. However, it is still possible there might be multiple versions of actual Music Videos of a track, so restricting the matching to only the -video type is not the full solution anyway.
Or can you have multiple videos for a single track?
You cannot, that’s what I’m trying to say. With the GMV you cannot specify albums. It’s only artist and track.
If you need the video tied to a specific track in a specific album, you’ll have to use the in-line method.
That is not true. It is also possible to bind specific music videos to specific tracks using GMV folders, as the following will do. You just need to distinguish the different tracks by their filenames.
/Music
/Katy Perry
/Smile
Katy Perry - Smile.mp3
/Avril Lavigne
/Goodbye Lullaby
Avril Lavigne - Smile.mp3
/Smile
Smile.mp3
/Global folder
/Katy Perry
Katy Perry - Smile - Smile-video.mp4
/Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne - Smile - Smile-video.mp4
Smile-video.mp4
I have three tracks all titled Smile, one by Katy Perry and two from two different albums by Avril Lavigne. All three tracks have different music videos, and by the naming scheme above each track is associated to the correct music video.
It’s just that some will produce duplicates and some won’t, and that’s something you need to work out.
By the way, because GMV has duplicates, as a test, only these three music videos were placed in the GMV folder, the other music videos are Inline Videos.
Yes absolutely. I have videos in GMV/Artist folder that are associated with specific tracks which reside in their respective album folder. The matching clearly works solely by track filename, I believe irrespective of whether the video is in the GMV/Artist folder or the GMV folder itself (but I’ve not tried the latter).
What does NOT work is if the video is in any (Album) subfolder of the GMV/Artist folder.
So using a GMV folder does work, but let’s be honest, it’s a mess. Even Plex employees are struggling to understand it all, although anyone reading through this thread ought to be able to grasp what works and what does not.
Here’s a suggestion.
I think Plex should dump the whole idea of the GMV folder and re-code PMS so that a folder of videos can simply be added as an additional folder to a Music library and the videos be integrated exactly as if they were in-line. In other words the folders effectively merged. The video folder would just need to be structured the same way, so a video in an Artist folder would appear to be in that Artist’s Music library folder. Videos in an Album subfolder would appear to be in that Album’s Music library folder. IOW, like a union filesystem mount. If videos and tracks are in different locations, they wouldn’t match. Only if they appear to co-exist in the same folder of the ‘merged’ structure, i.e. behaviour which would mimic videos stored in-line.
Basically this is exactly what PMS already does with multiple folders in the same library, but all that is required is to eliminate the nonsense of requiring an audio file before a video will be included. Just allow ALL videos to be recognised in such a structure, so independent videos, i.e. with no matching audio would also be included and displayed. This then means a ‘Music’ type library could handle just videos, but grouped at the Artist level, something that Plex is sorely lacking at the moment. Not only that, but it would be completely flexible, so such a library could be entirely audio, entirely video or a combination of both, either stored in separate folders or mixed in-line as actual in-line videos would also be allowed so the user is not forced into either mode.
These 2 methods (in-line or in separate library folder) would be entirely consistent, with the exact same matching rules and hence easier to understand. Also providing a coherent and manageable method of handling Audio and similarly structured Videos.
IMO this is the best solution to it all. If desired, videos can be kept separate from the audio files, so easier to maintain, yet it all works as if they were stored in-line. No worry about whether anything matched at different levels. They wouldn’t. Simple. Easy to understand and quite frankly, very easy to implement and the whole GMV farce can be scrapped.
Plex needs to do a complete re-think of how PMS handles all this and I believe the above would be a great solution that would be simple to implement and vastly superior for ALL users.
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In addition to the above, as we’ve discussed previously, Album related videos are also required.
So videos at the Artist level are displayed for that Artist and videos at the Album level are displayed for that Album. Both can be called ‘Extras’, but just need a better way to display than a horizontally scrolling list which is a technique that only works for half a dozen or so items. With larger numbers it becomes unmanageable. I’m sure I could come up with a better solution in a few minutes.
Also, it needs to be possible for a video to be matched to (associated with) tracks, even if the video is not the -video type. That current restriction is misplaced and entirely arbitrary. No sense to it at all. It’s just another example of developers doing something ‘because they can’, even when it makes no practical sense.
It should NOT matter what -type is a video. If its naming scheme matches a track (for that Album), then link the two. If it’s a -behindthescenes type, so what. This should be left up to the users to decide what they want to match. Not devs who cannot know everything all users want. “Let the user decide” should be the mantra for all developers.
