I have thousands of music files which are from radio broadcasts of live performances. The metadata for these are obviously not available on public databases. These files have embedded metadata, in ID3v2 format. Since Plex cannot find public metadata for these files, it uses the embedded metadata for its index.
Problem - when I revise the embedded metadata in a file, there is no mechanism within the Plex interface that can force Plex to re-index the updated file. The old metadata is persistent, and neither “scan library files” nor “refresh all metadata” will force Plex to re-index the updated metadata.
The only way I have found that will work is to rename the file and then use the “scan library files” function. Plex now sees this as a new file and uses the new metadata.
Question: is there another, perhaps obvious way, to force Plex to index the new metadata? Changing the file name is rather tedious and forces me to use inconsistent file naming standards…
Remove the file from your library. Perform the changes outside of the library while Plex rescans the library to account for the missing file. Replace the file and rescan.
A longer version of what you proposed, but works in the case of any file type beyond just music. It’s probably medically the best option for your database.
Also, not ideal… I get that.
To add… I am swiftly learning the benefits of editing outside the library. Saves lots of possible glitching.
The reason for editing away from PMS is because PMS keeps a ‘fingerprint’ of the file. As long as this fingerprint (media_item_id) exists, it will not perform the full ‘workup’ on the file because it already has a matching fingerprint. It doesn’t read enough of the file to know metadata has changed.
Throughout the forum, you will see references to the Plex Dance. This is why.
- Move away and scan library (file is marked as deleted)
- Make changes / rename / etc
- Empty Trash
- Clean Bundles (removes the fingerprint)
- Move file back
- Scan files (sees there is no fingerprint so all processing must be done)
That is of course another workaround. Thank you for the suggestion. I might point out that this workaround is also somewhat tedious. Two “scan library files” processes would be required, if one doesn’t wish to wait for the automatic re-scan scheduled within the settings. But it is a useful method that would avoid the file naming process.
So I return to my original question: is there a way withing Plex itself to force it to update its index for a file with changed embedded metadata.
You can force the update by hovering over the Album or Artist, clicking the ellipsis to expose the popup menu. In the popup menu you will see
In some cases, this isn’t sufficient and the full scan is needed.
There is another way to perform the equivalent with less hard full scanning.
- In Settings - Server - Library, Enable “Update my library automatically” (Partial scan) and enable “Empty Trash after each Scan”
- Now move the file out
- Let PMS detect the change and empty the trash
- When it finishes,
Clean Bundles
- Move the file back
- It will automatically detect the file as new and only scan that one file.
Unfortunately I believe the answer to be No, not at this time.
I have a folder I call “Staging” that’s specifically for doing work outside of the library. If you want to avoid all of the extra scanning, you can wait a day after you make your edits to put the media back into place.
It sounds like you might be working fairly often on your files, so perhaps a staging area would work for you? Pull all of the files out you want to work on and leave them when you’re done. Next time you go to work, put what’s in Staging back in, and pull out your next batch. Just a suggestion, but it sounds like developing a process is in order.
Yeah, there’s no way to do what you want other than what you’ve done, or the Plex Dance (see ChuckPA’s post above).
Plex’s inability to refresh metadata is a long-standing problem that Plex has even resisted calling a bug. The Plex Dance is the workaround, but be careful, it can be data-destructive. If you’ve added your media items to a playlist, for example, when you do the Plex Dance, they will be removed from the playlist
