Plex is ignoring local metadata

Plex Media Server
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Server Version#: 1.31.0.6654

In my server, I have two separate main folders, one for films, another one for Theatre productions.
The files on both are organised the same way, each file in a folder. And I’ve always used tinyMediaManager to fill in the metadata, specially as while generic films Plex can fetch info from IMDB & Pals, theatre productions are seldom if ever listed there.

In both the scanner is “Plex Movie” and so is the agent.
Both have checked the “Use local assets” and “Prefer local metadata”.
And in the general settings “Agents”, Personal Media is checked across the line.

When I add a film, everything goes smoothly.
When I try to add a stage play, Plex completely ignores the local metadata that’s stored in the folder with the file. It simply won’t fetch anything.
I’ve tried everything I could remember. Nothing seems to work.

I’ve tried it on both a Windows-based server and a Synology-based server, and the same is happening in both. So I’ve ruled out it being a platform-issue.

Meanwhile Jellyfin is reading and pulling all the local metadata normally.

Anyone has any advice or idea what’s going on and how can I fix this?

Thanks!

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I don’t think Plex supports .nfo files if that’s how you’re trying to import that metadata

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Hmm. Could be. tinyMediaManager does use .nfo files for the metadata.
Any idea what format does Plex use to read local metadata?

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The only way I ever do it is by putting info inside the properties of the file itself

I use it very infrequently so I just do it manually

I do not have an automated solution for you, although I’m sure a program exists that will do the job

Will probably take some Google investigation unless someone else comes along with a suggestion

5

Let’s see if someone from Plex can clear this up.

AFAIK, there’s no program on Windows to embed info into video files.

6

Prefer local metadata refers solely to embedded metadata in certain media file types (IIRC this will only work with mp4/m4v/mov containers).
As JaysPlex7 stated, Plex doesn’t support importing metadata from nfo files (or other external metadata files).

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OK, so there’s no way to actually import the missing information into those files, if it’s not on one of those websites Plex scrapes data from, is that it?

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There is – if it’s e.g. mp4 files with the metadata in question being embedded in the file itself.

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OK, so in my case, there isn’t.
From the info I found on Google, the only program to do that only exists on Mac, 'cause there’s some sort of weird limitation on Windows that prevents it.
I don’t use Apple products.
And the files are in mkv format.

Well, seems I’ll add this to the missing things aggravating me about using Plex lately.

Thanks for your help!

10

no idea what you mean by this.

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I tried to find something like “mp3tag” to embed info into mkv files, and all I’ve found was that such a program doesn’t exist due to some Windows restriction?
I don’t really understand the technological explanation behind it. I’m a lawyer, not a programmer. Most of the more intricate tech mumbo-jumbo flies right over my head.

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Natively you can’t edit the metadata in an mkv file in Windows. There are however multiple programs you can use to do this
Screenshot (1071)

None of that really matters since Plex doesn’t read embedded metadata from mkv files anyway

The only real solution is to convert the files from mkv to mp4. There are many free programs to do this without reencoding the file

1 Like
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MKVToolNix doesn’t really add the metadata missing from Plex (cast, crew etc).

I am aware of programs to reencode from mkv to mp4 . But re-encoding everything to mp4 now would be a ridiculous time-consuming task. And then I’d still have to go add metadata to it…yeah at that point it’s just not worth it.

I’ll just wait and see if Plex eliminates this ridiculous shortcoming in the near future. Otherwise, Jellyfin is making good progress in becoming more and more usable.

Thanks for your help as well.

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It can do that, although there’s no UI component to edit every possible tag. That’s partly because of how embedded metadata is supposed to work in MKV files, where each tag can be assigned on a multitude of levels (e.g. titles for collections, shows, seasons, episodes, episode-parts); to be perfectly honest, their metadata system is quite powerful but I’m not aware of a single app/player that’ll fully support it (e.g. VLC will simply pick the 1st or last title tag no matter to what level it’s assigned).

https://www.matroska.org/technical/tagging.html

Basically that’s why MKVToolNix will only write the metadata tags to the container from a manually prepared XML file. That’s admittedly quite a stretch if you’re used to edit metadata with apps like mp3tag.

1 Like
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Yeah that sounds rather cumbersome.

I think I’ve found a way to, at least temporarily, solve the issue via a plug-in (XBMCnfoMoviesImporter) but the only way I managed to get it to work was by putting that library with the Legacy Plex Movie agent.
And with Plex phasing out the use of plug-ins (dumb idea) and the chance of the “Legacy” agent eventually being removed, it’s definitely not a proper long term solution.

Any idea why on Earth doesn’t Plex just read nfo files? Is there are specific valid reason for it, or is it just a matter of whim?

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I suppose a lot of their more advanced features won’t properly work with external/free text metadata. While you shouldn’t have any issues with titles, descriptions or other basic data, you’ll cause some confusion with references (e.g. cast, director, writer).

Plex‘ own metadata contains references and can e.g. point to a specific person. Your free-text metadata will leave Plex guessing which of the two dozen of Robin Williams‘ is in your particular movie.

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Your free-text metadata will leave Plex guessing which of the two dozen of Robin Williams‘ is in your particular movie.

Not necessarily.
tinyMediaManager lets you link cast members to their IMDB or TMDB profiles.
However, because Plex’s solution for reading and importing Metadata is beyond subpar, sometimes it works well, others it doesn’t. So far it has been hit and miss for me.

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I haven’t said it cannot be done. Standard KODI nfo files however don’t seem to support it as part of their default schema.

From https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files/Movies

<actor>
  <name></name>
  <role></role>
  <order></order>
  <thumb></thumb>
</actor>
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