I started from scratch since it just wasn’t consistent. I would think the code flow would be something like this:
for each song in playlist {
if (prioritize_local_media_assets) then {
plex.artist = file.meta.artist
plex.title = file.meta.title
etc. etc.
endif}
next song}
BUT, it is not even close. As a specific example (format is field - File meta data - Plex meta data)
Title - Frosty the Snowman - Frosty the Snowman
Artist(s) - Jimmy Durante - Jimmy Durante
Album Artist(s) - Various Artists - Arabella Hong
Album - Billboard Presents: Family Christmas Classics - Christmas Cafe
Track - 9 - 9
Disc - 1 - 1
Album Art - (Picture of the Billboard Presents cover embedded in file) - (Picture of How the Grinch Stole Christmas album cover)
What the heck? A partial pull of some of the data, but others pulled from other files. Yes, I do have a ‘Christmas Cafe’ album - but why pull that?. Yes, I do have the Grinch album cover in another song - but why pull that? I have no idea where Arabella Hong is coming from, but I assume it is pulled from another song in my library.
I suspect (from my previous debugging) that Plex can’t handle ‘Various Artists’, but I find that hard to believe. Plus, EVERY song in this plex library has the same cover, album, and Album Artist. That includes files that have the artist the same as the album artist. (e.g. Bing Crosby is the Artist and the Album Artist, but Plex still pulled the Album Aritist as Arabella Hong).
I have also seen issues if different albums have the same album name. For example, there are a few artists that have created albums called ‘Merry Christmas’. Plex seems to want to utilize the same album art (and probably other meta data).
Really? Have others encountered this? What is the work around? Ensure each album name is slightly unique? One is “Merry Christmas” another is “Merry Christmas!” another is “Merry Christmas.” …
Just seems odd this isn’t handled more elegantly (or just followed my code example above) with some logic behind separating instances where the album name is shared, but the artist is different (much like when you have an artist with multiple albums).
That may be the issue and a critical point. My folder structure is
Music>Genre. In this case: Music>Christmas
I didn’t realize my directory structure was critical and I would have thought the local data settings would override discrepancies.
Wow. Looks like I need to create a script to restructure my music. By chance, do you know of a script that can do this? I doubt I’m the first to have this problem.
Interestingly, if I manually correct the Album Artist, plex changes to a generic photo of the artist (that must have come from the web). If I then manually also correct the album name, then plex displays the album cover I am expecting. So close… Does Plex have a scripting language? Maybe easier that way rather than churning my folders (but it sounds like that is the best solution for plex).
If you’re on Windows, you can use mp3tag to do that.
Provided, you have all necessary tags (‘Album Artist’!) already populated, you can use its “Tag to Filename” feature to create the necessary folder structure.
For instance with this format string E:\Music\$if2(%albumartist%,%artist%)\$if2(%album%\,)$if2(Disc $meta(discnumber)\,)$if(%track%,$num(%track%,2). ,)%artist% - %title%
(adapt the first part to the drive letter and folder name of your system. This format string is creating subfolders per disc, if the ‘disc number’ meta tag is populated. So make sure that this one is only used in multi-disc albums. Or modify the string to leave the subfolder creation out.)
Only do it “one album at a time”, to have a chance to spot errors and revert the action if necessary.
Another software you could use is Musicbrainz Picard. https://picard.musicbrainz.org/
It can optionally create the folder structure and rename the files as well.
Thanks for the tips @OttoKerner. I have MediaMonkey that seems like it can do it, too. I still like the idea of having my folders by genre. Would this work:
Music/Genre/Album Artist/Album Title/Tracks
I’d then make a separate plex library by pointing to the Music/Genre folder. For example, my Christmas library would point to Music/Christmas. Otherwise, I guess I would need to create playlists by the genre tag (which is hit or miss in my files).
I assume Plex then pulls the Artist and Song Title from the meta data.
