# Plex refuses to use local metadata

**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-refuses-to-use-local-metadata/717024
**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:** 1
**Showing post:** 16

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### 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")

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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

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