Plex tags music files without metadata as "[Unknown Artist]" "[Unknown Album]"

Plex Media Server
,
1

Server Version#: DSM 7.2.2-72806 Update 4
Player Version#: 1.41.5.9626

When I add a track without embedded metadata to my library (with appropriate structure and naming) the artist/album is set to some combination of “[Unknown Artist]”, ”Various Artists”, and “[Unknown Album]” or ““, depending on which scanner/agent, I think.

After many attempts at deleting/recreating a library, these are my steps:

  1. New empty library, using Plex Music and Plex Personal Media.
  2. Create Artist and Album subdirectories, and add one track, which has no metadata.

Result:

image
image1930×248 27 KB

My expectation is that the artist and album names, as specified here would be used as the metadata for the artist and album names, otherwise why have it?
I am working with unpublished media which is why I landed on the Personal Media agent.

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="25" librarySectionTitle="test2" librarySectionUUID="1179fa38-c3fc-4710-b0cd-2c9ba354e517" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1742290099">
<script/>
<Track ratingKey="159745" key="/library/metadata/159745" parentRatingKey="159744" grandparentRatingKey="159743" guid="local://159745" parentGuid="tv.plex.agents.none://159744" grandparentGuid="tv.plex.agents.none://159743" type="track" title="testfile" titleSort="testfile" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/159743" parentKey="/library/metadata/159744" librarySectionTitle="test2" librarySectionID="25" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/25" grandparentTitle="Various Artists" summary="" parentIndex="1" duration="362971" addedAt="1756773363">
<Media id="166633" duration="362971" bitrate="128" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="mp3" container="mp3">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="188264" key="/library/parts/188264/1756773363/file.mp3" duration="362971" file="/volume1/Media/Music/test2/foo/bar/01 - testfile.mp3" size="5807542" container="mp3">
<Stream id="373109" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="mp3" index="0" channels="2" bitrate="128" audioChannelLayout="stereo" samplingRate="44100" displayTitle="MP3 (Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="MP3 (Stereo)"></Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"></Extras>
<Related></Related>
</Track>
</MediaContainer>
2

You must tag your Music. Plex relies on the tags to organise your media properly.

You can disable Prefer local metadata in your music library Advanced settings, but that is not always effective. I would recommend against it though.

I recommend using Mp3Tag (free) to tag all of your music files with.

Your Music should be added to a Music type library that uses the Plex Music scanner and agent.

Since your music is unpublished, add tags that make sense to you and be consistent with them.

You should know the Artist’s name, but if not, make one up and don’t forget to add it to the Album Artist tag as well.

Your music tracks should at least have a Title, even if it’s a made up title and every track should have a Track Number.

It would be advisable to add the tracks to an album, even a made up one. The album may have many discs, just make sure you add the Disc Number tag to the relevant tracks in each Disc folder.

E.G.

Artist = Your name or the Artist's name
Album Artist = as above
Track Number = 01 etc...
Title = Melody 01 etc...
Album = Musings of a small mind
Disc # = 01 etc...

Plex will not be able to download any metadata, but you can always add your own Cover Art if you wish to.

Place an image file in the album folder named folder.jpg or add it using the Edit album dialogue.

It does not need to be an actual album cover, just as long as you know what it represents.