Plex - Organise by folder/filename instead of metadata

General Discussions
1

I’ve ripped my entire CD library to FLAC. I organise it carefully in a neat folder structure (artist, year+album, etc.) I don’t bother updating the metadata in the FLAC files, because I find songs by path/filename rather than metadata. As a result, the metadata is a bit of a mess.

When I copy those FLAC files into Plex, I end up with a really messy library. This is because Plex seems to prioritise metadata over folder structure. Also, I have WAV files which lack any sort of metadata, so I end up with “[Unknown Artist]” etc. in the Plex app.

I see that I can browse by folder using the Plex client, but the interface is not very elegant; it always shows big thumbnails instead of a more compact line-by-line view. This makes selecting albums and songs within the Plex client a real pain.

What is the easiest, most future-proof way to remedy this situation?

a) Normalise the Metadata and then re-import into Plex - I could Use MediaMonkey (or a similar too) to rewrite all the metadata based on path and filename, and then re-import into Plex. This would take a LONG time, and would require me to remember to normalise the metadata of any new CDs I add later. However, in theory, this seems to be the approach that makes Plex happy.

b) Get Plex server to normalise the metadata - Is there a way to get Plex to rewrite the artist, year+album, and song titles based on path and filenames? And does it need to be done each time I add another CD to the library? Or can it be done automatically?

c) Get Plex server to ignore metadata - Can we tell Plex to not trust the metadata but instead treat artist, year+album, and song titles based on filenames? Note that this is different from rewriting the metadata, since the files would not be updated, and therefore subsequent rsyncs from the source computer wouldn’t keep overwriting the metadata on the plex server.

d) Get Plex client to handle folder browsing better - Are there ways to configure the [Android] Plex app to handle folder-based album and song selection more elegantly? Hidden options, perhaps?

e) Use an alternate Plex client - Are there any good free ones that can stream to Chromecast as easily as the Plex app does?

Suggestions?

2

@tripecac said:
a) Normalise the Metadata and then re-import into Plex -

This is the only approach that has a chance of long term success.
If your folder structure and file names are always following the same schema, you can use software to automatically derive meta data from them.
I am using mp3tag for this purpose.
I can give you some examples for it.

b) Get Plex server to normalise the metadata

Ples does not change your media files in any way, so it cannot write back metadata into them.

c) Get Plex server to ignore metadata - Can we tell Plex to not trust the metadata but instead treat artist, year+album, and song titles based on filenames?

This is what Plex does by default if it can’t find embedded metadata.
But for this to work, your folder and file names must follow a certain schema:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200265296-Adding-Music-Media-From-Folders

d) Get Plex client to handle folder browsing better - Are there ways to configure the [Android] Plex app to handle folder-based album and song selection more elegantly? Hidden options, perhaps?

Unfortunately not.
Folder mode is always a crutch in Plex.

e) Use an alternate Plex client - Are there any good free ones that can stream to Chromecast as easily as the Plex app does?

A Plex client gets all data from Plex Server. It can therefore not change the way the server interprets and organises your files.

Here are some more tips regarding music:

multi-disc albums
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1050849/#Comment_1050849

possible ‘side car’ files for music
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1319703/#Comment_1319703

soundtracks and ‘various artists’
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1472799/#Comment_1472799

3

I normalized all my metadata. For single-disc albumso, Plex is fine.

However, for multi-disc albums, Plex sorts the songs alphabetically (ignoring the track numbering), which is bad. I think that Plex is getting confused by the fact that I name my multi-disc songs like this:

A01 Back in the USSR.flax
A02 Dear Prudence.flax
…
A17 Julia.flax
B01 Birthday.flax
B02 Yerba Blues.flax
…
etc.

My guess is that Plex does not like us using letter prefixes in the track number, and ends up treating all track numbers as having the same sort value; to break the tie it goes to the next field which is the song name, and sorts by those.

Is there a way to force Plex to sort by the entire filename at once, rather than using separate indices for the track number and song name?

4

To my knowledge, the ‘track number’ meta tag is defined as being numerical.
If you set it to a letter-number combination, you are violating the specifications. The results are therefore unpredictable.
Use all-numerical tags.
You can try to include an all-numerical track number in your file names.

1. Song Title - Song Artist.mp3
Is what works for me.

5

Do you think it is possible for me to keep the same filenames that I have now:

B01 Birthday.flac

…but change the track number metadata to use numerical values?

If so, what is the preferred format for the track number, using the first song on the second CD as an example?

a) 201
b) 0201
c) 2-01
d) 2.01
e) 2.1

Something else?

6

If you have a multi-disc album, there are also separate metatags for the ‘disc’ number.
You could use a) though. But this won’t show you a disc separator in the Plex clients.

Better way is to do it right and set all the meta tags like they’re supposed to.
‘The white album’ comes on 2 discs as a CD. So just set the DiscNumber and TrackNumber tags accordingly.

24u8ce0fv0xt.jpg1036×896 207 KB

7

I keep the stereo and mono versions of the White Album in the same folder.

So I have:

A01 Back in the USSR.flac
…
A17 Julia.flac
B01 Birthday.flac

and then for the mono I use “M” and “N” prefixed:

M01 Back in the USSR [mono].flac
…
M17 Julia [mono].flac
N01 Birthday [mono].flac

I also keep multiple masterings of an album in the same folder, giving each a different letter prefix.

How do you recommend setting the metadata for albums with multiple mixes and masterings?

8

Also, to confirm, can I keep the filenames they are now, and only change the track numbers (and disc numbers), and Plex will be happy? Or do I need to change the filenames as well?

9

Keeping all the different versions in one folder is definitely not going to work.
You’ll have to separate it out to different folders.

10

Hmmm. I’d rather not have to rename thousands of files when so far Plex is the only app I’ve seen which has problems with my naming scheme.

What if I re-tagged all the files, this time giving them all a track number of “1” and a song name equal to the entire filename (before the extension).

So, for the file “B01 Birthday.flac” the track number would be “1” and the song name would be “B01 Birthday” (rather than just “Birthday”). Similarly, for the file “A17 Julia.flac” the track number would also be “1” and the song name would be “A17 Julia”.

Would that work, forcing Plex to sort by the filenames rather than the track numbers (since all the track number tags would be “1”)?

11

I don’t think so.

12

So does that mean Plex tries to extract a track number from the first part of a filename, ignoring the track number metadata tag?

13

as per Otto’s statement… depends on your agent configuration.
if configured to, Plex will use the embedded metadata – if that includes track/tracks and disc/discs information, those will show up in Plex.

14

If all track number will be 1 then Plex will either sort by track titles or it will mess up the album structure, leaving out tracks or create several albums where should be only one.
So no, your approach won’t work I’m afraid.

15

So, the only way to get Plex to correctly handle multi-album CDs is to change the filenames, which in my case means thousands of filenames?

16

(Oops I meant to say: multi-CD albums, not multi-album CDs!)

How do we edit posts on this forum?

17

No, using specification-compliant meta tags will do as well.

18

Okay, so if I re-tag all of my files so that the track numbers are numeric (instead of A01 A02… B01) then Plex will sort by track number correct?

If so, then what do you advise:

a) set track numbers to 101, 102, …, 201, 202, etc.
b) set track numbers to 1, 2, 3… and disc numbers (1, 2)
c) use separate album names for each disc

19

I vote for (b)

20

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200265296-adding-music-media-from-folders/

Example - Structure:

MP3Tag (very helpful) View (note: Discnumber Field):

What happens (note: was once better, Plex decided to change it, now it is what it is):