Plex server incorrectly grouping/tagging albums

Plex Labs
1

Besides other music I have my own music mixes. I want them to put along all the other songs.
So I tagged 3 of them with Kid3 software (id3 tag version 2.3.0) following:
1.
Artist: DJ Bacon
Title: Ballīte 2021.01.02
Album: Ballīte 2021.01.02
Year: 2021-01-02

Artist: DJ Bacon
Title: Ballīte 2021.01.09
Album: Ballīte 2021.01.09
Year: 2021-01-09

Artist: DJ Bacon
Title: Ballīte 2021.01.16
Album: Ballīte 2021.01.16
Year: 2021-01-16

All these files have cover embed.

All these mixes should show as separate albums with covers etc. What Plex does is, it’s making all these these under album “Ballīte 2021.01.16” as tracks and cover is from Ballīte 2021.01.02. Like this. Why, Oh Why?
When I manually correct album title for both (1st and 2nd mix) and they show as separate albums, but now they are missing cover image and I have to extract it from mp3 file and upload separately. That’s not a option. I have more than 2k of such mixes. Tried Analyze , but that did nothing.

“Prefer local metadata” is off. I tried with it on and same result.

Weird thing is that several different mixes it separated properly with all info and cover. All of these mp3 files are tagged with same software in same manner.

Plex Server: Version 4.51.1
OS: Synology DSM 6.2.3-25426 Update 3

XML data for these three mp3 files:

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionUUID="1f05074e-9c52-408c-8d50-b52d43881c4e" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1612639731">
<Track ratingKey="50531" key="/library/metadata/50531" parentRatingKey="50530" grandparentRatingKey="50529" guid="local://50531" parentGuid="local://50530" grandparentGuid="mbid://f64faa74-ded7-4692-8664-6f17d5c5337e" type="track" title="Ballīte 2021.01.02" titleSort="Ballite 2021.01.02" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/50529" parentKey="/library/metadata/50530" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/4" grandparentTitle="DJ Bacon" parentTitle="Ballīte 2021.01.16" originalTitle="Dj Bacon" summary="" index="1" parentIndex="1" parentYear="2021" thumb="/library/metadata/50530/thumb/1612700160" parentThumb="/library/metadata/50530/thumb/1612700160" duration="14408229" addedAt="1612700147" updatedAt="1612700160">
<Media id="47881" duration="14408229" bitrate="320" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="mp3" container="mp3">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="48531" key="/library/parts/48531/1612697726/file.mp3" duration="14408229" file="/volume1/homes/rudolfs/music/dj-bacon/Ballīte/Dj Bacon - Ballīte 2021.01.02.mp3" size="576862352" container="mp3" hasThumbnail="1">
<Stream id="36560" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="mp3" index="0" channels="2" bitrate="320" albumGain="-9.16" albumPeak="1.000000" albumRange="4.132327" audioChannelLayout="stereo" endRamp="-51.00 0.19;-36.49 1.09;-29.99 1.29;-21.59 1.59;-20.13 1.69;-16.48 1.79;-14.52 1.89;-8.85 1.99;-2.16 2.09;0.67 2.19;3.56 2.29;6.09 2.49;" gain="-9.16" loudness="-8.84" lra="4.72" peak="1.000000" samplingRate="44100" startRamp="-36.36 0.00;-2.95 0.10;3.80 0.20;6.06 0.30;" displayTitle="MP3 (Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="MP3 (Stereo)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionUUID="1f05074e-9c52-408c-8d50-b52d43881c4e" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1612639731">
<Track ratingKey="50532" key="/library/metadata/50532" parentRatingKey="50530" grandparentRatingKey="50529" guid="local://50532" parentGuid="local://50530" grandparentGuid="mbid://f64faa74-ded7-4692-8664-6f17d5c5337e" type="track" title="Ballīte 2021.01.09" titleSort="Ballite 2021.01.09" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/50529" parentKey="/library/metadata/50530" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/4" grandparentTitle="DJ Bacon" parentTitle="Ballīte 2021.01.16" originalTitle="Dj Bacon" summary="" index="1" parentIndex="1" parentYear="2021" thumb="/library/metadata/50530/thumb/1612700160" parentThumb="/library/metadata/50530/thumb/1612700160" duration="18056202" addedAt="1612700147" updatedAt="1612700160">
<Media id="47882" duration="18056202" bitrate="320" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="mp3" container="mp3">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="48532" key="/library/parts/48532/1612697726/file.mp3" duration="18056202" file="/volume1/homes/rudolfs/music/dj-bacon/Ballīte/Dj Bacon - Ballīte 2021.01.09.mp3" size="722782753" container="mp3" hasThumbnail="1">
<Stream id="36561" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="mp3" index="0" channels="2" bitrate="320" albumGain="-9.16" albumPeak="1.000000" albumRange="4.132327" audioChannelLayout="stereo" endRamp="-51.00 0.15;-35.78 2.25;-26.99 2.45;-22.85 2.55;-16.05 2.65;-0.61 2.75;2.76 2.85;4.12 2.95;6.05 3.25;" gain="-9.16" loudness="-8.95" lra="4.16" peak="1.000000" samplingRate="44100" startRamp="-51.00 0.00;-31.28 0.20;-0.86 0.30;2.22 0.40;4.26 0.50;6.12 1.10;" displayTitle="MP3 (Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="MP3 (Stereo)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionUUID="1f05074e-9c52-408c-8d50-b52d43881c4e" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1612639731">
<Track ratingKey="50533" key="/library/metadata/50533" parentRatingKey="50530" grandparentRatingKey="50529" guid="local://50533" parentGuid="local://50530" grandparentGuid="mbid://f64faa74-ded7-4692-8664-6f17d5c5337e" type="track" title="Ballīte 2021.01.16" titleSort="Ballite 2021.01.16" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/50529" parentKey="/library/metadata/50530" librarySectionTitle="Music" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/4" grandparentTitle="DJ Bacon" parentTitle="Ballīte 2021.01.16" originalTitle="Dj Bacon" summary="" index="1" parentIndex="1" parentYear="2021" thumb="/library/metadata/50530/thumb/1612700160" parentThumb="/library/metadata/50530/thumb/1612700160" duration="14456111" addedAt="1612700147" updatedAt="1612700160">
<Media id="47883" duration="14456111" bitrate="320" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="mp3" container="mp3">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="48533" key="/library/parts/48533/1612697726/file.mp3" duration="14456111" file="/volume1/homes/rudolfs/music/dj-bacon/Ballīte/Dj Bacon - Ballīte 2021.01.16.mp3" size="578777442" container="mp3" hasThumbnail="1">
<Stream id="36562" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="mp3" index="0" channels="2" bitrate="320" albumGain="-9.16" albumPeak="1.000000" albumRange="4.132327" audioChannelLayout="stereo" endRamp="-26.66 0.18;-23.60 0.28;-20.87 0.38;-15.43 0.58;-12.85 0.68;-10.45 0.78;-8.02 0.88;-5.25 0.98;-0.15 1.08;3.96 1.18;6.31 1.38;" gain="-9.16" loudness="-9.03" lra="3.54" peak="1.000000" samplingRate="44100" startRamp="-51.00 0.00;-38.38 0.20;-26.88 0.30;-7.99 0.40;-5.16 0.50;-2.34 0.70;0.02 1.10;4.63 4.50;6.87 4.70;" displayTitle="MP3 (Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="MP3 (Stereo)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>
2

put them in folder-per-album, as is recommended.

3

Well, most of them (mixes) are one mix per “album”. Plex should recognize that even if they are in same folder because they are tagged as different “albums”. They are not gonna be matched so plex should use info that is written in tags.

Anyway, thanks for reply. I will do that.

4

I understand that point of view for sure (and in the future we might be more respectful of that sort of thing if the “prefer tags” is set). For now though, separating into folder-per-album is the reliable way to get it recognized the way you want it.

1 Like
5

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