Preferred Audio and Subtitle Language shows the same for TV show in different language libraries

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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1

Server Version#: 1.40.2.8395
Player Version#: 1.93.0.144-9b2f4a13

Context:
I have TV Shows (English) and Series (Spanish) libraries in my Plex Server.
For one TV Show, I have files with both English and Spanish audio.
I’m using the files for both libraries using hard links (different files and paths, same disk blocks).
I want to set the audio and subtitle preference at the show level to be different in the English library and Spanish Library i.e. preferred audio as English in the TV Shows (English) library and preferred audio as Spanish in the Series (Spanish) library.

Issue:
If I set the audio and subtitles preferences for said show in the Spanish library, the English library shows the same tv show as already configured with Spanish Audio i.e. reusing the same preferences as the Spanish library.

It seems that for some reason, “duplicate” shows (even though in different language libraries) are saved as one in the database. This shouldn’t happen as to be able to configure these preferences correctly at the library level.

Request/Question:

Is there any configuration that would allow the preferences to be unique per library even if the same show exists in both libraries? If there isn’t, could that be added?

Additional Question:
Languages Preferences exist at the account level and at the tv show level, could those also be added at the library level. It would be very helpful in my case since I have different language libraries that in some cases have the same shows but in different audio languages.

2

By querying the DB I see that the metadata is saved correctly.

Query 1 (English):

select extra_data from metadata_items WHERE metadata_type = 2 AND id = 1832

Query 1 Result:

{
    "at:audienceRatingImage": "themoviedb://image.rating",
    "ex:hasPremiumPrimaryExtra": "1",
    "ex:primaryExtraKey": "/library/metadata/20647",
    "pr:audioLanguage": "en",
    "pr:subtitleMode": "0",
    "pv:artBlurHash": "LID@,YJ8+~NL}9ADr=oJEL9|NZ${",
    "pv:blurHashesChangedAt": "2685983",
    "pv:thumbBlurHash": "TJC#}PX8wN+HNGV[Tdj]W.0}wdSK",
    "url": "at%3AaudienceRatingImage=themoviedb%3A%2F%2Fimage%2Erating&ex%3AhasPremiumPrimaryExtra=1&ex%3AprimaryExtraKey=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F20647&pr%3AaudioLanguage=en&pr%3AsubtitleMode=0&pv%3AartBlurHash=LID%40%2CYJ8%2B~NL%7D9ADr%3DoJEL9%7CNZ%24%7B&pv%3AblurHashesChangedAt=2685983&pv%3AthumbBlurHash=TJC%23%7DPX8wN%2BHNGV%5BTdj%5DW%2E0%7DwdSK"
}

Query 2 (Spanish):

select extra_data from metadata_items WHERE metadata_type = 2 AND id = 123335

Query 2 Result:

{
    "at:audienceRatingImage": "themoviedb://image.rating",
    "ex:hasPremiumPrimaryExtra": "1",
    "ex:primaryExtraKey": "/library/metadata/123394",
    "pr:audioLanguage": "es",
    "pr:subtitleMode": "0",
    "pv:artBlurHash": "LID@,YJ8+~NL}9ADr=oJEL9|NZ${",
    "pv:blurHashesChangedAt": "2894137",
    "pv:thumbBlurHash": "TJC#}PX8wN+HNGV[Tdj]W.0}wdSK",
    "url": "at%3AaudienceRatingImage=themoviedb%3A%2F%2Fimage%2Erating&ex%3AhasPremiumPrimaryExtra=1&ex%3AprimaryExtraKey=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F123394&pr%3AaudioLanguage=es&pr%3AsubtitleMode=0&pv%3AartBlurHash=LID%40%2CYJ8%2B~NL%7D9ADr%3DoJEL9%7CNZ%24%7B&pv%3AblurHashesChangedAt=2894137&pv%3AthumbBlurHash=TJC%23%7DPX8wN%2BHNGV%5BTdj%5DW%2E0%7DwdSK"
}

Audio Language looks correct in both cases, so I’m not sure why the result in the front-end looks different. The results during playback are the same, Plex plays the episodes in both libraries with the language that was selected last.

3

Audio and subtitle stream selections are not stored per library.
They are stored by user account, by guid (i.e. the movie title’s identifier).
And since it is the same movie in both libraries, the latest manual stream selections will be made regardless of which library you are in.

If you want an experience where you are selecting streams in a particular language, create a managed user account and set the language prefs of this account differently. https://support.plex.tv/articles/204985278-account-audio-subtitle-language-settings/
Then Switch User, depending on which language experience you want.
This would save you from creating different libraries (if you don’t mind the language of the movie titles and descriptions, that is.)
It will also enable you to track which movies you have already seen in a particular language and which not (because the “watched” flags are also stored individually per user account).

4

Maybe this could be a feature request then? We’re a multi-language household (more than 2 languages) and there are some things we prefer watching in one language and others in a different one.

Having more users just for the sake of languages doesn’t seem like a good solution in our case.

5

Are you aware that you can override the global language preference of your account with an adapted selection on any individual tv show?

6

Sorry for taking so long to reply.

I’m fully aware of what you say and more so, I was intending to use that.

The issue is that I have two different libraries, one in English and one in Spanish. I wanted to have different language preferences in a tv show that exists in both libraries, English and Spanish. But when updating the one in English, it also updates the one in Spanish. This means they share the same preferences independent of the library.

My ask was if maybe this could be added as a feature in future versions.

7

Please add your vote here: Default tracks language setting per library

8

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