I have found that the new Plex Agent for scanning movies does not appear to respect the “Prefer local metadata” option in the library settings. Or at least, it does not seem to perform the same function as this options previously did under the old agent.
Previously, when having this option enabled, Plex would scan and pull in metadata for my files but would prefer to use any metadata fields that were manually filled out and embedded into the file. I would frequently change the “Sort Name” metadata for a file so that it would receive different placement in my library if it was part of a series. This would allow me to have a series of films show up concurrently with one another in my library under the MovieSeriesName #1, #2, #3… etc. So, take the James Bond films as an example. This would allow me to add a sort name for each film “James Bond 01, James Bond 02…” and have them show up under J in my library, in the correct film release order. This may not be the way everyone would want to order their library, but it works for me. Or at least, it did.
This worked and does still seem to work under the old “legacy” Plex scanner, but does not seem to work at all using the “new” agent. I don’t know if the purpose of this “Prefer local metadata” option has changed or if it’s just simply broken, but it really undoes a lot of work I’ve put in to making sure my libraries can stay organized. I prefer to embed information like this as local metadata as a precaution. Theoretically, if something were to happen to my Plex installation and I had to start from scratch, so long as I had the actual media files Plex would be able to scan them again and see the manual changes like this that I have made. Again, this is how it would have worked in the past. About a year ago in fact, I moved my Plex libraries to a Synology setup and this is exactly what I did. Rather than try to move Plex, I just moved the files and they retained my local metadata changes. Now, this doesn’t appear to work which also means that if I choose to upgrade to the new agent I will have to manually make these changes again within the Plex UI, and I won’t have any guarantee of those not being lost in the future.
I’d really appreciate some feedback from other users and the Plex team if at all possible to see if anyone else has faced this same issue and if there’s any chance of getting it fixed/having an option for it to work the way it used to with the old agent. I really enjoy using Plex but my entire workflow with it revolves around being able to set local metadata tags and have Plex recognize them.
For some further information and context on this issue, you can see my post in a separate thread on upgrading to the new libraries. This includes some screenshots I took that may be helpful in understanding how things work for me under the older agent: https://forums.plex.tv/t/should-i-upgrade-my-libraries/738870/77
Sadly, there are a few regressions with the new agents, at least when you use a lot embedded metadata. For now, out of my Music, Movies, Concerts and TV Shows library, only the Music one updated without too much pain. All the others have some issues that I’m waiting for fixes before updating.
Well, I’m sorry that you’re experiencing the same issues but I’m also glad to see I’m not the only one who used this feature and is holding out hope for it to be fixed. For a minute there I was starting to think I was going crazy and there was some other option I had missed to get it to work. Thanks for replying to let me know I’m not the only one!
Similarly, I’m holding off on upgrading my libraries until this is hopefully fixed. My TV Shows library should be fine but I really rely on that embedded sort name ability to keep the movie side of things organized in a way that makes sense to me. The rest of the known issues I can deal with. If I have to redo some movie posters, I’ll survive. I’ve been creating a duplicate movie library and upgrading it to the new agent every once and a while to see if it’s been fixed. Glad to know that the dev team should at least be aware of it. I realize it’s probably not the highest priority but hopefully someone takes a look at it soon. I’d like to upgrade for the supposedly better performance (not to mention to stop having the web UI nagging me to do so), but I’ll keep holding out as long as I can or until there’s a fix in place.
Here’s to hoping that seeing some more people voice a request to have this fixed will bump it up a little in the priority.
Just adding my “me too” comment. Ironically, the example you gave of James Bond movies is exactly how I had mine set up too. Another example I use for sort name is Disney Animation - Title to group these together for my grandkids to see. After sorting 800+ movies I’ve come back and all my work is completely undone.
Between this bug/issue, and the lack of ATSC 3.0 support, Plex is getting on my nerves.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who uses this sort of sorting method. I’m sure there would probably be some people out there that would think it’s a crazy way of doing it but, for me, it makes more sense to think “I’m looking for a movie in the James Bond series, look for James Bond” even though none of them actually have “James Bond” in the title. There are only a few very specific cases of this for me but I value being able to sort that way. Then there are cases like Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War for example, trying to sort alphabetically rather than their plot order. Being able to sort things is definitely important and I’m happy when it lets me do so using the embedded data.
This is great news. I really appreciate getting some feedback on this, I was worried it might be something that just gets lost since it is such a seemingly small thing, so thanks! I’ll keep an eye out for the next few server updates and try creating test libraries again to see if it’s fixed. Looking forward to being able to upgrade completely to the new agent.
So the server not only doesn’t seem to be picking up the sort titles, but it also doesn’t save the sort titles. I’ve changed them several times over, only to have them reset. So are BOTH issues being fixed? Thanks.
I can’t reproduce an issue with saving a sort title manually edited in UI. Make sure the lock on field is orange to save. Just tried and it seems to work fine.
the not picking up was fixed in the 1.25.5 update yesterday. Plex Media Server - #485 by janoskk Make sure “prefer local metadata” is enabled
