Server Version#: 1.21.1.3766-7e23ef53c
Player Version#: 4.43.4
I am having problems with my Plex server and using local metadata to properly sort my files. My music is all collected on my NAS in a folder: music>Downloads
It is then split into album folders. I listen to electronic music mostly, and so there are very few artist albums, more likely to find DJ mixes and things in there. So then the structure would be similar to this:
music>
Downloads>
Anthony Pappa - Moments Vol. 2
Sasha - Fabric 99
etc… So this seems like a suitable way of storing the albums. Plex is directed to the Music > Downloads folder for the music library. It is also setup to use local metadata for organising the files.
However, it is broken. It simply doesn’t work properly, and as such, my collection is ruined basically.
So, as an example, I’ll take one of my mix albums, Sasha & John Digweed - Communicate.
The tags / metadata is all there and correct. If I open up mp3tag, all the filenames, title, artist files are correctly filled in and displayed. However, in Plex, it only displays track titles, and not artists, for example. And this seems common among much of my collection.
Further to this, sometimes Plex applies random artist names to my albums. For example, for almost every Anthony Pappa mix CD I have in my collection, refreshing metadata changes the album artist from Anthony pappa to Art Of Trance, despite there being no Art Of Trance tracks on the mix, or anywhere in any of the metadata.
Now if I change the Artist to Various Artists, then sometimes the tracks within the album “fix” themselves. However, this is not ideal. I do NOT want these albums listed as Various or Various Artists. These are MIX CD’s performed by a single DJ, playing tracks from multiple artists. These mixes should be displayed / organised by the performing artist, NOT various artists, which may be fine for the latest Now CD, but not for this sort of collection. Where I may want to a DJ Mix from a specific DJ, but now it is much more difficult to find their mixes, as they are all listed under various artists.
Meanwhile, Other mixes such as Sasha & John Digweed - Northern Exposure: Expeditions works fine. It has Sasha & John Digweed as the Artist, and for each track in the collection, it is listed with track name - artist. This is the correct way for this to be listed. And now when I search for Sasha & John Digweed, I get this album.
How can it not be possible to use the DJ name in the Album Artist field, and the files tag data to populate the track names correctly? Even when use local metadata is preferred as an option is turned on.
Even worse, if I try to fix this issue, next time the metadata is refreshed, Plex somehow manages to overwrite all my work and time spent fixing these albums with the old, incorrect metadata. Even though I have attempted to lock the track names, and try to refuse anything other than local metadata.
This is really beginning to grind my gears. Plex needs to sort this out.
