Server Version#: 1.25.3.5409
Player Version#: 4.73.3 (Web)
I’ve started to add music to my Plex server recently and started to manage different collections like “Favorites” and “Music for kids” to have access to them across all accounts. I use music bought on Amazon or my self ripped CDs which I have accumulated over the years. Before I add them to my library, I always modify these files to add or adjust ID3 tags including covers. I never just add them “as they are”.
Scanning my server for those files works as expected. However, today I noticed a strange behavior that I would classify as a bug. You can reproduce it by following these steps:
- Add an album with the “CD number” ID3 tag to your library. It should be imported correctly.
- Go to the album details page and add a song to a collection. Use a song with track number 2 or higher to reproduce the problem mentioned in the title.
- Reload the album page (or if you are currently playing a song: stop the playback).
- The ordering of the album is now messed up because by adding a song to a collection the “CD number” will be erased by Plex.
Refreshing the metadata for the album or song will fix the problem as it will parse the ID3 tags from the files again and update the metadata.
This is a huge problem for single-CD and multi-CD albums as you can’t play them in their sequential order until you refresh the metadata. My server settings for the music library are:
Scanner: Plex Music; Agent: Plex Music; Prefer local metadata checked; Cover from embedded metadata; Load biographies, album ratings, and reviews from the cloud.
(FYI: Adding songs to playlists instead won’t delete any metadata. Only for collections.)
Expected behavior: Plex should not erase the CD number.
Album list after the initial import:
Album list after adding song number 3 to a collection (and refreshing the album page):
Metadata for the song after the initial import:
Metadata for the song after adding it to a collection (and refreshing the album page):
