# Plex refuses to use local metadata **URL:** \ **Category:** Metadata & Adding Files\ **Tags:** server-windows\ **Created:** [May 21, 2021, 5:52am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024 "2021-05-21T05:52:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aabeba](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/aabeba/32/140155_2.png) [@aabeba](https://forums.plex.tv/u/aabeba)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 5:52am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/1 "2021-05-21T05:52:08Z")
Server Version#: 1.22.3.4523 Player Version#: 4.57.2 Can someone help me out? I haven’t been able to get anywhere with this for a long time. Unless I edit metadata in Plex’s interface, it completely ignores file metadata for music files. Here is the file in Windows Explorer. It has a title, it has multiple artists, it has embedded artwork. ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/0/c/0c3854cca7fec2e5f913809576cc2c1506512620.jpeg) Here it is in Plex. No title, one artist, no artwork. Why is it ignoring the embedded metadata? ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/9/0/90012e9c0916bbbc4bc5b1b08786bb0b380fda34.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![CostaHT](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/costaht/32/193414_2.png) [@CostaHT](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CostaHT)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 5:59am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/2 "2021-05-21T05:59:01Z")
Edit your library \> advanced \> and check use local assets and prefer local assets. Also in settings \> agents move local assets to the top of the list then refresh metadata ---
**Author:** ![aabeba](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/aabeba/32/140155_2.png) [@aabeba](https://forums.plex.tv/u/aabeba)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 6:12am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/3 "2021-05-21T06:12:16Z")
I have these settings: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/e/4/e4f508ae4907d9d5726e7e5de73564ff67468f52.png) ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/f/e/fec72d5e1c2833d4029b2f57107e14d3369e2bca.png) Whether I refresh metadata or just re-add the library it doesn’t seem to help. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 8:12am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/4 "2021-05-21T08:12:55Z")
Plex has no support for multiple artists. Equally important to metadata is the hierarchical storage into subfolders. Where is it located? What kind of meta tags is used in the file? It should be ID3v2. Remove APE and other obsolete ones. Forget the Windows file properties. They don’t convey the whole picture. You can use e.g. [Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor (ID3v2, MP4, OGG, FLAC, ...)](https://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html) to see all tags and also clean up the obsolete tag stuff etc ---
**Author:** ![aabeba](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/aabeba/32/140155_2.png) [@aabeba](https://forums.plex.tv/u/aabeba)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 1:51pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/5 "2021-05-21T13:51:28Z")
Looks like ID3v2 after all. Does anything look off here? ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/8/2/8227903d586b60a1ea2b858c201cf3a364aa9868.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/6 "2021-05-21T13:58:04Z")
Which folder level has been added to your music library? Make a test by removing all track artists but one. The “Album” meta tag is blank. Not good. Fill it with sensible content. It must be identical in all tracks of a particular album. To see _all_ meta tags, use this icon: ![mp3tag_edit_tvshow_meta](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/7/b/7bf06b5c6f37888bdea14e29f5a9dd400f6b0810.png) ---
**Author:** ![aabeba](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/aabeba/32/140155_2.png) [@aabeba](https://forums.plex.tv/u/aabeba)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 2:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/7 "2021-05-21T14:17:03Z")
Weird.. I think that \< blank \> tag is a bug. I just inspected it again without changing anything and it was populated. ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/a/4/a47a614199e8a400917e19753d300c7367ba9a0c.jpeg) I actually did what you recommended – wrote only 1 artist to each file and saved, then refreshed metadata… Now it looks correct, though I’m not quite sure why: 1. The album artwork appeared 2. The titles reappeared 3. The genre appeared correctly I’m wondering if it has more to do with the metadata refresh than the metadata update. Any ideas? Thanks for the help at any rate! ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/3/0/306271da6d116cbe1cdc22402669853773984573.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/8 "2021-05-21T14:31:39Z")
Check if this album is present on [Musicbrainz.org](http://Musicbrainz.org) ---
**Author:** ![certuna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@certuna](https://forums.plex.tv/u/certuna)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/9 "2021-05-21T15:58:24Z")
Yeah Plex does not support multiple artists, so the only Artist it picks up in your case will be Derek Duke (the first one). Plex does support multiple genres, although only on the album level, not individual genres per track. This problem that Plex doesn’t pick up the track names the first time around I’ve encountered before, and I have the same experience as you: a metadata refresh fixes it. No idea why it doesn’t do it correctly on first scan. ---
**Author:** ![aabeba](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/aabeba/32/140155_2.png) [@aabeba](https://forums.plex.tv/u/aabeba)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 12:01pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/10 "2021-05-22T12:01:30Z")
Well, the album does not exist per se, because it’s a custom compilation. I stitched the tracks together from game files and put them into an album because the music is not available in any other format. But what confuses me is what caused the embedded album art to be displayed correctly. At any rate, Mp3tag seems like a neat tool I will likely use more. @certuna Thanks for confirming. I think that’s what ultimately fixed it, too. ---
**Author:** ![taraba](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/taraba/32/19432_2.png) [@taraba](https://forums.plex.tv/u/taraba)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 9:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/11 "2021-06-08T21:05:13Z")
After solving my issues and posting it in another thread, my bet is that it’s that dot in the album name that’s also in the path. Take it out or replace it with a simple - and I bet this works fine. Also make sure that all your apostrophes are the ones you can type on the keyboard and not a Unicode symbol and you don’t have any extended ASCII characters in there at all (letters with accents above) ---
**Author:** ![PlaidRadish](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/plaidradish/32/87472_2.png) [@PlaidRadish](https://forums.plex.tv/u/PlaidRadish)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 3:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/12 "2021-07-23T15:57:37Z")
I have jumped in to numerous threads on this topic, but this one was the most recent I found, so I’m going to add a comment here… I had been editing my ID3 tags (2.3 & 2.4) using kID3 in Ubuntu, and I absolutely COULD NOT get Plex to recognize the changes I made. I stumbled on something that worked, though: - I moved the folder from my Plex storage location to a different computer running a different OS (macOS in this case) - I edited the album using kID3 on the secondary OS - I ran the “Scan Library Folders” function in Plex - I checked to make sure the album was NOT in the artist’s list, since I had moved it - I copied the album back to the original Plex storage location - I ran “Scan Library Folders” again, and this time Plex recognized it and added the correct tag info Some limiters/delimiters that could be explored for confirming the workaround: - **In this instance, I FIRST attempted the “[Plex Dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064)” on the SAME OS/SAME MACHINE - it DID NOT work. At this point, I moved on to trying a different OS and a different machine.** - Test not performed on same OS/different machine - Test not performed on same OS/same machine/different application (MP3Tag, TagScanner, etc.) Hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![jwaltrip4](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jwaltrip4/32/11399_2.png) [@jwaltrip4](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jwaltrip4)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2021, 4:35am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/13 "2021-08-06T04:35:36Z")
That is called the “[plex dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064)” And you only need to move it to a folder outside of thr library ---
**Author:** ![aabeba](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/aabeba/32/140155_2.png) [@aabeba](https://forums.plex.tv/u/aabeba)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2021, 5:48am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/14 "2021-08-06T05:48:44Z")
The apostrophes should be okay – I occasionally do a find and replace to make sure they’re all the same typewriter’s apostrophe (’) rather than typesetter’s apostrophes (’). I might try again without the bullet point in the album title, though… @PlaidRadish I can recall times in the past when moving the folder about and rescanning has helped. Not sure I understand why this helps. Some form of caching? Though the metadata changes are made well in advance of the Plex import, so I really don’t get it. At any rate, thanks for your input. ---
**Author:** ![PlaidRadish](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/plaidradish/32/87472_2.png) [@PlaidRadish](https://forums.plex.tv/u/PlaidRadish)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 12:28pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/15 "2021-08-10T12:28:49Z")
Thank you for the reply: > [@jwaltrip4](#): > > That is called the “[plex dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064)” > > And you only need to move it to a folder outside of thr library Almost, but not quite. I’m familiar with the “[Plex Dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064),” and use it often. While it works most times, and possibly in the OP’s scenario, in my recent situation, it did not. For whatever reason, the ONLY WAY I could get the usual “[Plex Dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064)” to work was by editing the tag in a different OS. Since it appears there may be inaccurate assumptions regarding my previous post, I will add clarification: **In this instance, I FIRST attempted the “[Plex Dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064)” on the SAME OS/SAME MACHINE - it DID NOT work. At this point, I moved on to trying a different OS and a different machine.** (adding this detail to my original reply, as well) ---
**Author:** ![PlaidRadish](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/plaidradish/32/87472_2.png) [@PlaidRadish](https://forums.plex.tv/u/PlaidRadish)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 12:53pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/16 "2021-08-10T12:53:33Z")
I have started to notice (after 15+ years and over 1000 albums of editing ID3 tags) that batches of albums by certain original vendors appear to repeat this failure. Due to the quantity of edits I’ve completed, I cannot recall if they were Amazon, Apple Music, 7Digital, etc., or maybe older, discontinued stores (Windows Music, Google Play Music, etc.). However, I recently noticed 3 albums, purchased around the same time, required the use of a secondary OS to get the ID3 tag to be properly recognized in Plex. This likely means they were purchased from the same vendor and could be a clue to their failure to trigger Plex’s auto-scan ‘recognize and refresh’ without an outside OS to edit the file. So, I’m going to make an educated guess, here, based on these additional details… - Vendors may be adding an unrecognizable hash in their copy of the files to somehow “ID protect” their product. Most likely, this is a string that can’t be seen in an ID3 tagger, but might be found in some other non-destructive file editors. I’ll keep my eyes open for trends and comment back here when it happens next time. _REMEMBER: I’m strictly commenting on unrecognized ID3 changes in Plex that CANNOT be resolved by carrying out the “[Plex Dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064)”_ My Plex Server stats (for those of us geeks): - Intel Dual Xeon mobo - 2 Xeon 3150s - 32GB RAM - Ubuntu Server 21.04 - Kid3 tagging software ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 12:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024/17 "2021-11-08T12:54:00Z")
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