Server Version#:PlexMediaServer-1.23.2.4656-85f0adf5b-x86_64_DSM6
Player Version#:ANY VERSION
I have huge problem with Plex recognizing my classical music. 95% of my 56Gb library is simply not recognized, any song to the library’s dedicated folder on my SynologyNAS and doing a scan library on plex triggers the “plex media scan process” up to 60% of CPU of my Synology NAS, process that never finishes. (I choose using local metada.) I have to stop and rerun the media server on the NAS because the process could work forever.
I still do not believe after having paid 100 bucks, in 2020’s when you can skype your familly while working in the ISS, that Plex is still giving such a poor (least to say) handling of classical music. It is a pure shame.
What is the real problem here ? Here is an example of problematic file (13 Musikalisches Opfer (Musical Offe.zip (15.0 MB)) Are it’s tag bad ? Why is Plex Media Server Scan unable to scan it properly in finite time ?
Plex certainly has some challenges in handling classical music, but if you get the files and tags in order, it will generally work, with a minor “cheat.” On that Help page, take note of the advice to organize your files into a folder structure. If all your music files are in one big flat folder, Plex will not do well. Hopefully there’s some improvement coming on that issue, but it’s necessary for now.
As the Help page linked above also notes, if you are configured to use embedded tags, they really do need to be accurate. Using the track you provided, and information I found on Musicbrainz, I mocked up the entire album, tagged them the way I would normally do, and let Plex scan it.
While the tagging standards allow for track numbers to be something like “13/16,” Plex doesn’t do well with that. Add to that, your file was tagged with the track number of “13/0.” That’s saying this is track 13 of a total of zero tracks. That would confuse any software. You’d be better off with the track number simply “13.”
In a multi-disc release, the disc number would be important (essential, really), but in a single-disc release, it’s optional. I usually leave it blank. But it, too, should be a simple digit, rather than a “1 of 3” or “1/3” format. Your file is tagged “0/0” which, again would confuse any program that relies on it.
More info on accurate tagging can be found in this Tips post.
After I got the files organized and tagged, this is what Plex came up with:
Artist:
As you can see, Plex did it just about right, according to the tags I used. The “cheat” I referred to earlier is that I used the composer’s name, Webern, as the Album Artist. Technically, the actual performer on this album is The Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Pierre Boulez.
Plex failed to find the album cover, but that may be due to the title in the Album tag not precisely matching what Musicbrainz has. If I had the album cover available locally, Plex would have found it anyway. I manually did a “Fix Match,” and Plex found the correct album and artwork.
All my music is organized as preconized in the second link you are pointing to.
Even if I only have one “song” in “Music/Bach JS (par Pierre Boulez)/Boulez conducts Webern, Vol. 2/13 - Musikalisches Opfer (Musical Offe.mp3” (the file I attached in my initial question), what I describe happens :
Naturally, when I say “95% of my library has the same problem”, it means that I tested a hundred of mp3 among the 95% by putting them alone in “Music”, with the correct hierrachy, and that I had the same problem.
My nas scanned 1Tb of movies in less that 5min. Hence it’s not a NAS (synology) issue. I have no plex problem with anything else.
