This is a quote asking members to think through, before asking for a feature request “… is it something that will be used by a majority of the userbase?
Can your mother, father, wife, husband, sister, brother, grandmother, or grandfather use this feature without a CS degree?”
I have heard of the Plex Dance several times but I had to jump through quite a few links and read quite a few posts just now to actually understand the issue and what people are experiencing. Does this only affect certain versions of Plex Media Server? I’ve been using Ubuntu PMS for my 50TB of media for the last six months and haven’t had to do this once. I’m constantly moving media around and creating new directories so I feel like I would’ve hit this at least once by now. Is this a common occurrence for most people?
Read this post…
The poll is set up, like most polls, to bias the answers based on what the pollster wants.
It is quite clear that the pollster wants a “yes” answer so the wording makes “no” sound like a dangerous choice.
With an unbiased poll my answer might be “yes” as I would like a single button solution for the “Plex Dance.” But it might also be “No” as I like to be in control of my data.
A more proper way to word the poll might be:
Yes - I want a single button or menu choice to force a complete reset of all data for a show.
Yes 2 - I would like to see a single solution but I would not use it.
No - I prefer to have complete control over my data.
Oh, BTW: There no danger data loss from doing the “Dance” any more than there is from most any computer operation.
And in answer to the last question everyone that I know with an IQ above 60 (that does not include my dog 
) can move their data around so as to do the dance. Not only does it not take a “CS” degree but it does not even take much smarts. Anyone with the intelligence to effectively use Plex and manipulate and add data at the server level has the intelligence to move their data around on the computer and fix matches as needed.
Again I would like to see this added as a feature but I do not consider it very important because there is an effective work around that is easy and pretty quick to use.
Clearly I vote no. Wish I could still dislike posts too. 
Just so anybody knows, the Plex dance is not a bug and it has been wildly exaggerated on this forum to the point where it has acquired the name.
There are Pros and Cons to fixing it. It would be nice if implemented correctly to just refresh. Sometimes you aren’t logged into the server and can’t easily do the Plex Dance.
Reading @OttoKerner response in the linked thread outlines it pretty well as does @Elijah_Baley
I actually use it as it’s described… I pick a default agent for the library and only use other ones if the default doesn’t work for that one item
Anytime I’m testing out a new agent I make a little sandbox library and check it out… if I like it I wipe/create using said new agent
I’m ok with this as is personally… how often are you changing agents anyway?
I’m betting most people set and forget never to touch it again
@Elijah_Baley said:
Oh, BTW: There no danger data loss from doing the “Dance” any more than there is from most any computer operation.
If you’ve customized tags, posters, backgrounds, etc., within Plex, the Plex Dance is indeed data destructive, as you lose those customizations. Also, any statistics relating to the item, such as Watched status, date added, number of plays, etc., are lost/reset.
By the way, your suggestion of how to more “properly” word the poll changes the question completely. The issue isn’t whether to add Plex Dance as a feature - it’s whether the bug(s) that make the dance necessary should be fixed.
@cayars said:
There are Pros and Cons to fixing it. It would be nice if implemented correctly to just refresh. Sometimes you aren’t logged into the server and can’t easily do the Plex Dance.
What cons do you see? I can’t think of one.
Just so anybody knows, no, the Plex Dance is not a bug. It is the workaround for at least one bug, if not several, that has been around for so long, and affected so many users, that it has acquired a name. There has been no exaggeration.
1 Like
@beckfield said:
@cayars said:
There are Pros and Cons to fixing it. It would be nice if implemented correctly to just refresh. Sometimes you aren’t logged into the server and can’t easily do the Plex Dance.What cons do you see? I can’t think of one.
The fact that they might break something else in the process. 
Personally I do think this should get fixed and it should be an easy fix. For many of the reasons you listed (keeping stats, customized info, dates, etc).
@cayars said:
The fact that they might break something else in the process.
Ah, that one. That one would keep you from writing any code at all.
Yep, very true. To be more in depth in my answer the CON is that if the functionality is changed then lots of Plex Dance and the related forum posts to help people solve problems will be wrong/bad advice.
However I guess at the same time if they were to REFRESH the library or video or should fix itself so the problem wouldn’t show up in the first place.
Either way it should be fixed.
@cayars said:
Yep, very true. To be more in depth in my answer the CON is that if the functionality is changed then lots of Plex Dance and the related forum posts to help people solve problems will be wrong/bad advice.However I guess at the same time if they were to REFRESH the library or video or should fix itself so the problem wouldn’t show up in the first place.
Either way it should be fixed.
Agreed.
Elan, reached out by PM, and says " We’ve repeatedly asked for cases where this “dance” would be needed, because we’d love to fix those bugs."
I posted in the other thread.
I agree this poll is biased, but I still answered yes. The Plex Dance is the only way I can fix my duplicate song issue: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/263240/duplicate-songs-in-library#latest
@“Ryan Christensen” said:
I have heard of the Plex Dance several times but I had to jump through quite a few links and read quite a few posts just now to actually understand the issue and what people are experiencing. Does this only affect certain versions of Plex Media Server? I’ve been using Ubuntu PMS for my 50TB of media for the last six months and haven’t had to do this once. I’m constantly moving media around and creating new directories so I feel like I would’ve hit this at least once by now. Is this a common occurrence for most people?
Moving things around and creating new directories isn’t usually what necessitates the dance. If you edit embedded tags for items that Plex has already cataloged, the Refresh command in Plex is supposed to update that info in Plex’s database. But it doesn’t work. At least, not always.
If you’d like to see a list of threads where people have run into this problem, see here.
The wording of the OP is rather confusing, I’m not even clear on exactly what the poll is asking. Regardless, I’d love to see a fix for the issues that currently require using the Plex Dance as a workaround. There are countless posts by users confused by the bizarre behavior of the metadata refresh process. OP linked to one good example, which is a post of mine (https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/255316/plex-movie-agent-will-not-pull-metadata-from-imdb-for-existing-library-items).
In my case, the issue was: I changed my movies library to start using IMDb as a ratings source. But after doing this, it only applies to new items added to the library- existing items will not change the rating source at all. Who would want this behavior? More importantly, who would expect this behavior?
