Server Version#:1.42.2.10156
I’m organizing about 2000 home videos over 27 years. The videos are MP4s on a Synology NAS. Plex is installed on the NAS as well. I’m adding the library as Other Videos. I’m creating Smart Collections based on year. Sometimes the year works for a few seconds to a few minutes. Then the date disappears from each video thumbnail when viewing the library and I can no longer sort by “year” (using advanced sort). When looking at each file in Plex, it says 12-31-1969 on the release date.
This is my first post on the forum, I hope I’m doing this right, and I apologize ahead of time. I’ve already read every similar topic I could find on here. I’m shocked there is no tech support for paying customers and I hate wasting the time of an unpaid community. But I’m really at a loss for what to do next. I consider myself pretty computer savvy and I’ve spent way too many hours and days trying one thing after another with the help of Google AI to no avail. Sharing home videos from our NAS is the only reason I use Plex. My relatives have paid for accounts so that they can view my home videos from their own houses. If I can’t get these dates figured out, this might be a loss for both of us. I’m starting to look at other options at this point. Maybe one of you has found the magic secret or can correct my mistake.
Apps: I’ve edited the MP4 metadata using Advanced Renamer, Exiftool, BulkFileChanger, Tiny Media Manager, Mp3tag, and EXIF Date Changer.
Tags: I’ve changed Date Created, Date Modified, Date Taken, CreateDate, ReleaseTime, Originally Available, accessed date, modified date, content create date, datetimeoriginal, YEAR, MediaCreateDate, and origyear. I’ve removed the “T” between the date and time in the tag. I’ve changed the time zone and time.
File names: I’ve renamed the files as YYYY-MM-DD and YYYYMMDD .
Cache: I’ve moved the MP4 files out of their folder, scanned the library, emptied the trash, cleaned the bundles, optimized, moved the files back in, rescanned. When that didn’t work, I created entirely new libraries of completely new videos that have zero cached metadata. (I’ve done all of this dozens of times with different files, testing each setting.)
Settings: Library type: “Other”; I’ve tried scanners “Plex Videos Files” and “Plex Video Files Scanner”; and agents “Plex Personal Media” and “Personal Media”. I’ve checked the box “Local Media Assets (Movies)” and dragged it to the top of the “additional agents” under “Movies” and “Personal Media” on the Agents "(Legacy) settings. “Plex Personal Media” does not have this checkbox or list to drag. I’ve tried turning off Local Media Assets and dragged it to the bottom. I do the entire Plex dance each time I test a setting.
I created NFO files and was going to learn how to install a 3rd party agent when I discovered that Plex has officially deprecated these. I read about some changes that may or may not be coming to Plex this year that entirely change the way Plex reads metadata.
So…what is your advice? I don’t need the solution to be free, I need it to work. And stay working when Plex updates their metadata agents. Is this date problem a real “bug” - if so, why has it not been fixed? It has been reported for 9 years. This leads me to believe it is user error and there is something I’m missing when setting up a library. Is the real solution coming with the next update and I would be better off waiting until then? What if it’s not for months or years even? If any of you can help me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
