So I checked the Album and Sort Album and the meta data all match in Plex, but I now how 20-100 albums with the same name as a result. This makes no sense!
I renamed the Album Artist to āVarious Artistsā on a couple albums as a test and Plex is no longer using the embedded Album Artā¦
Yeah, this is a regression, I think since the last 3 betas (itās still in the latest 1.23.4.4805). Correctly tagged compilation albums (1 folder, Album Artist empty, Compilation=True) used to be scanned correctly, now Plex makes each track into its own album.
I know that Plex recommends retagging the files with a dummy value āVarious Artistsā in the Album Artist field, but that is a non-standard hack, and this wasnāt needed before. Should be fixed.
You can fix it manually after the scan: select all the tracks, Merge, and then edit the Album Artist to āVarious Artistsā. Thatās doable for a one or two new albums, but for a full library rescan Iād recommend reverting back to an older version for now.
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@OttoKerner seems convinced that this a feature not a bug.
In further testing here, if I do what you suggest, Plex deletes the Track Title dataā¦I would not upgrade to this versionā¦
@certuna Your suggestion only works on new albums.
Adding tracks to existing albums is also brokenā¦ So even if you manually match the Album and Sort Album fields, Plex will not match tracks in the same Album folder to an existing Album.
UPDATE: If you complete a āRefresh Metadataā after you manually add āVarious Artistsā to all the tracks like @certuna suggested, it will fix the metadata. (If the Refresh Metadata option is even available).
Please fix this Plex developers!
Yes indeed - the procedure for adding compilations is now:
- run library scan
- select all tracks ā Merge
- Edit ā change album artist to the pseudo-value āVarious Artistsā
- Refresh Metadata
- (optional) Fix Match (for fetching of the album review/record label)
Thatās doable if you have one or two new albums after a rescan, but clearly is unworkable for a full library scan with hundreds or thousands of compilations.
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Thatās only correctly tagged for iTunes. Plex is not iTunes. The Compilation tag is a proprietary extension made by Apple.
Set the āAlbum Artistā tag to Various Artists.
Itās no longer 2001, the Compilation tag has been universally adopted everywhere now, Plex is at this point pretty much the only library manager that doesnāt support it.
Also, the COMPILATION tag exists in FLAC (Vorbis) as well, which is a format that isnāt even supported by Apple and completely outside of the Apple ecosystem. Plex also has no issues using āproprietaryā extensions (which is a big scare word for one simple id3 frame btw) - it happily reads Musicbrainz tags for example.
Tagging compilations with Album Artist āVarious Artistsā or āDiverse KĆ¼nstlerā or āVarios Artistasā (i,e, treat compilations as if they were a regular album by a dude called āVarious Artistsā) is a hack for older software that cannot handle an empty album artist field, it makes no sense to impose that workaround on software that can.
Regardless, even if Plex doesnāt support the Compilation tag, it used to correctly detect compilations before, and since .4707 it doesnāt anymore - thatās a regression.
We all know why Plex always needs a pseudo-Album Artist and has all these limitations around track artists/album artists, itās a limitation in its database design. Weāre all hoping that at some point this gets refactored, but thatās the future. At this point the scanner needs to work around the limitations and populate the database with the pseudo-artist āVarious Artistsā. It used to do that correctly, now it doesnāt.
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The reality is that regardless of what the āAlbumARtistā tag is, Plex should accept it. Iād rather have my TAxi Driver soundtrack be sorted under AlbumArtist āTaxi Driverā and if it canāt match properly to anything, then so be it. I should still be able to use that and not have the risk of it throwing everything into some grouping so that when on shuffle play and 1 track plays it lists 20 various artist albums as having been played.
Maybe a check box on the album to keep it āUnmatchedā that excludes the album from future scans could work for us with deeper custom tagging and curating?
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Setting the Album Artist is not an option for usā¦ stop suggesting that we use this arbitrary āVarious Artistsā tag. This new Plex behavior makes no senseā¦
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āIt was put in at the request of a lot of users, so I donāt think so.ā
Who are these ālot of usersā - there is no evidence of that. Just stop breaking the Software that I purchased with a lifetime license!!! Never touch a running system - remember? Where are these users who prefer a useless tagging and sorting as it is now out of nowhere?
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1.23.5.4841 just made this worseā¦
Even if I label Albums with āVarious Artistsā, I end up having 50 albums with the exact same Album Artist and Album Titleā¦
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the lack of flexibility on this is bananas. You canāt even use tags to split them up since I canāt find a way to show collections in the Artist view I use.
Plex just unraveled all of my compilation albums into singles 200k+ tracksā¦ after updating to 1.23.6.4881.
Additionally, Plex will not compile any albums together that have colonsā¦ ā:ā
No one at Plex has any comments/insight?
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Bumping
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Bumping
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Iām now having issues with 1.24.1 re-adding music as āRecently Addedā which I believe is related to this.
Patiently awaiting a fix, while I stay with version 1.23.2.4656.
Anyone try the new 1.24.3.5033 yet? Iām excited this could be the answer we need:
- (Music) Avoid albums merging incorrectly in some cases when preferring tags (#13038)
- (Music) Local album artwork could disappear or be incorrect in some cases (#13038)
Think itās safe to upgrade?
Nope, if anything its even worse now. This new āuse Various Artistsā behavior that @OttoKerner is pushing is completely unreliable and unfixable.
Itās also completely unstable on QNAP.
Iāve been annoyed at this since day one. Why canāt the tracks from compilations appear in the artist. I do get the use of āVarious Artistsā. I would much prefer if they never had anything there. But I want to go into say āRolling Stonesā see all their albums and at the bottom a list of all compilations that have songs of theirs in. would be great.
Iāve noticed in āThe Beatlesā it shows albums and compilations of theirs but this is obviously due to them being all from one artist.
Maybe one dayā¦
bump
