Prevent Custom Metadata From Being Removed When Reorganizing Server

General Discussions
1

I’m sure this is out there already, but struggling to see if there is a solution or not. I spent a lot of time customizing metadata tags such as Genre so I can filter and find my content easier. If I do something like buy a new hard drive for additional space and move a movie to that drive, I lose all my custom data as Plex treats it like a new movie, when in fact its the exact same underlying file. Is there a way to tell Plex this file was already in the database, to keep the custom tags and not effectively refresh as though it’s new? Very frustrating and almost defeats the point of changing the tags. You basically need to set your server up perfectly the first time and never change anything in order to not lose all your work customizing your content.

3

Thanks. That definitely worked under the scenario of adding a new drive / folder so I appreciate it. Another issue I have come across which would be great if there is a solution / work around for as well.

I have two separate libraries pointing to two separate drives / folders. I want to merge the underlying folders into one of the libraries and delete the other to simplify my media browsing experience. To accomplish this, I was planning the following:

  • Add the folder path to the library I wanted to keep and update the library
  • Delete the library I no longer want
  • End result, one Movies library (two separate underlying folder paths) with custom tagging unchanged

The issue with above is once I do step one, it appears Plex is treating the content from the new folder path as though its new content to my server and starts fetching original metadata from the web. Meanwhile, at this point the “old” library wasn’t deleted yet and still contains my custom metadata. If I delete the old library I’d have to re-tag all movies from the second folder again. Is there a way to avoid this?

I would think Plex is smart enough to know it’s literally the same file in the same folder… I’m just pointing the folder to be included in multiple libraries. It’s not a stretch to assume a user would want the same custom metadata in both libraries.

Thanks in advance for the support.