Option to have plex not hide/delete videos/music it cant identify.
I have been informed about the personal media agent option.
I would like the advantage of plex automatically finding the information without the disadvantage of if it cant the files are deleted/hidden.
What I am recommending is at the very least an option to not have plex delete/hide what it cant identify. something as simple as a check box that says dont hide files that plex can not identify. This would allow someone to have access to these files and update them manually. I would rather do this than not be able to stream the files at all. An even more advanced advantage later down the road (because it would require more coding) could be relaying the manually entered information to a database that over time could recognize these files automatically as well.
The normal behaviour of Plex is to not hide files it cannot identify. The only thing it ignores, are files it cannot use. As in files it cannot play. And it makes no sense to keep those files either. The agents have no control over what files are shown in Plex. All they can do is load metadata information about the objects that do exist. Since you say hide/delete, I would assume that means you're actually having the objects added, and later they disappear. That COULD be caused by an agent matching multiple files as a single item, such as it identifies two diffrent home movies, as being two diffrent qualities of the same clip, but since you're talking personal media agent, that seems unlikely as, afaik, that doesnt do any ID matching like that.
actually Plex was going through and deleting them from the list (IE bottom left corner of the media manager listed items as being “deleted” but it doesn’t delete the actual data) I have resolved the problem by using a hash scan program to retag all my MP3s with the most up to date data and now plex notices all of them after scanning the library again. maybe plex could use musicbrainz ( http://musicbrainz.org/ ) to do this on its own as the Database is provided free. at any rate for un-PCsavy users that the option to not have plex hide/delete this data (from showing up) would solve problems short term. also long term (would take more coding than original idea)maybe Plex could use the hash scanning method used by “music brainz picard” that utilizes the free database at ( http://musicbrainz.org/ )
Plex trashes items (as you say, listing items as being deleted), ONLY when it can no longer find the file that the object points to. As for using musicbrainz, I've already released an agent for using that. Im doing a bit of reworking on it so it wont be updated for a while with bugfixes or anything but it should be fairly stable to use as it is currently, just not as useful as I want it to be :)
I was watching closely it would scan and find items and then turn around and "delete" them when it couldn't find information to tag/identify it. The data was still there and if I deleted the Plex section and remade it once again it would find then delete. sounds like a man with a plan! It seemed to me like a great idea as it scans the MP3 its self and not the name or tags. Thank you for your work Ive talked to people who write code and they say its almost a thankless task, So thank you from us users who don't know how. I do see your a member so will the Plex Devs adapt this code from you or will it be a secondary plug in? I hope they work this into there program somehow as its almost fail proof automation from what ive seen.
"I was watching closely it would scan and find items and then turn around and "delete" them when it couldn't find information to tag/identify it."
That wont be a reason for deleting it. The Scanner wont add it to begin with if it cant identify what it is, and if the agents cant find what it is, it's simply not matched which means no metadata, but the object will still be there. If for some reason your plex installation IS doing that, then you have possibly encountered a bug but it's not a feature that's needed for that then but a bugfix and for that to be possible, more data is likely going to be needed.
As for if plex will adapt my code. I doubt it as while I release the code publicly, I have not given any plex dev permission to adopt it. Im not even sure I will ever give that permission either. Had it not been for the way the plugins are handled, I wouldnt even have released any sources at all yet. I'll have to actually make it into something I myself LIKE to begin with before I start thinking about what exactly I'll do with it... Possibly I'll be selling it even. But that atleast wont be until it's actually good at doing its job. Right now, it's just a tiny bit better than the ones shipped with plex. But a tiny bit better than utterly useless, really isnt worthy of being sold :)
