Either Refresh isn’t working for me in PMS, or I am confused about how it should work. It seems that once I add a movie or TV episode to my library, and PMS gets the initial metadata for it (title, description, poster, etc.), it will NEVER update. Even after I manually click on refresh for a movie, it never changes. If I go into the description, for example, and change it but don’t lock it, after a refresh it is not reverting back to what the agent lists. This also happens where occasionally I will add a TV episode and Plex fails to get metadata for it. It will NEVER update, even after a manual refresh. The only way I can get the metadata to load is to remove the file, update the library, then put the file back. I repeat that process until eventually the metadata loads.
Has anyone else experienced this? As long as a particular field is not locked, shouldn’t it update during a refresh? I am running PMS in a docker on unRAID BTW. It generally just works (and very well!), but this issue is driving me crazy. I even have the refresh all running weekly, but I don’t see the point if it doesn’t actually update the metadata in my library.
When Plex matches a movie or TV Show and gathers the metadata, it generates a local cache of that data. When you hit refresh, it reloads the data from this cached version so it doesn’t have to always go back to the internet. If you local cache version has bad or missing data, it won’t change. Follow this to clear that cache and see if that helps. https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/202967376-Clearing-Plugin-Channel-Agent-HTTP-Caches
@MovieFan.Plex said:
When Plex matches a movie or TV Show and gathers the metadata, it generates a local cache of that data. When you hit refresh, it reloads the data from this cached version so it doesn’t have to always go back to the internet. If you local cache version has bad or missing data, it won’t change. Follow this to clear that cache and see if that helps. https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/202967376-Clearing-Plugin-Channel-Agent-HTTP-Caches
So then what is the point of clicking on the Refresh button? All it does is pull in the same information that it initially got from the agent over the Internet? That doesn’t seem very useful to me. I thought it would check the agent again and overwrite any unlocked fields. Speaking of locking fields, why is there no lock on the artwork fields? If I select a poster, it never, ever changes (or any other field for that matter). I am just confused about when and why you would choose to click on Refresh, or to refresh an entire library. What if I just want a movie to get all new information from the agent over the Internet (maybe because I changed it and want to set it back, or maybe I know that it was updated and has a better description now)? How can I do that without removing it from my library and adding it as a new movie (and everyone losing their watched status for it)?
I would love to know the answer to this because this is driving me batcrap crazy right now. I am in the process of converting my expansive DVD and Blu-Ray collection into digital versions and I keep hitting TV series that are being ripped with an embedded Title like “SHOW NAME SEASON 1 DISC 1” and this is what is being displayed for every single episode title in Plex. I don’t want to have to manually update all of them. If I’m on the ball I remember to clear out the title in Windows Explorer first, but I’m not always on the ball. There needs to be a force refresh that ACTUALLY forces a refresh.
@Smelsela Give “Local Media Assets” lower priority. Settings> Server> Agents
Drag it to the bottom or you could disable it, if you don’t have need for it.
Also, I believe you can multi-select files and remove the embedded metadata in windows.
@Smelsela said:
I would love to know the answer to this because this is driving me batcrap crazy right now. I am in the process of converting my expansive DVD and Blu-Ray collection into digital versions and I keep hitting TV series that are being ripped with an embedded Title like “SHOW NAME SEASON 1 DISC 1” and this is what is being displayed for every single episode title in Plex. I don’t want to have to manually update all of them. If I’m on the ball I remember to clear out the title in Windows Explorer first, but I’m not always on the ball. There needs to be a force refresh that ACTUALLY forces a refresh.
If you’re using MakeMKV you can remove that annoying and dastardly Title that will stubbornly go on everything you create from there on out. Simply click the root directory in the left pane of MakeMKV, then highlight that Title Field in the right pane of MakeMKV, hit delete and press enter. It goes away. No Titles will be written to the files.
Handbrake also has an annoying habit of writing Title Fields into everything it makes (from WTV files most often in my case). I have come to expect this troublesome behavior and before my files hit the library I pre-whack Title Fields manually. I do miss one now and then, but with LMA in the bottom slot (EVERYWHERE!) nothing bad happens. I leave my LMA enabled. I do use the features it provides, but it doesn’t need to be in the top slot.
As soon as we can get Plex to realize that we’ll all be in a better place, but Plex is convinced everyone in the world is using MKV files. Unfortunately that couldn’t be further from what is happening in real life.
@OttoKerner said:
Embedded ‘titles’ are not read from MKV files in the first place.
This only happens in mp4 files.
@astrofisher and I automatically assume some people are going to use MP4 files so we throw that little tidbit of information in. Plex, @MovieFan.Plex and @OttoKerner may be under the impression that MKV files are the only file types in use on Planet Earth at this time, but that simply isn’t the case.
We don’t know what file types are being used above. There’s a pretty good chance an MP4 file could be in use. There’s an even better chance if a correct file name is being used and a bad match is still occurring. In fact the chances increase a great deal in that case. We don’t even know if a proper file name is being used and IMO that should be THE FIRST question that gets asked and proven before one more troubleshooting step takes place (it would separate the wheat from the chaff pretty quickly)… but I’m just a casual observer in this thread.
I do wonder why a refresh won’t refresh when I’m doing The Plex Dance® because a refresh just doesn’t get the job done.
@JuiceWSA said: @astrofisher and I automatically assume some people are going to use MP4 files so we throw that little tidbit of information in. Plex, @anon18523487 and @OttoKerner may be under the impression that MKV files are the only file types in use on Planet Earth at this time, but that simply isn’t the case.
I don’t use mkv files myself, only MP4.
I’m sure @OttoKerner’s comment was due to you mentioning MakeMKV, which well … make’s MKVs. So your comment to remove the titles during the process won’t help the user in this case.
@MovieFan.Plex said:
I don’t use mkv files myself, only MP4.
Welcome to the Dark Side. I’m sure you have LMA near the bottom of your Agent Lists - or we should talk.
I’m sure @OttoKerner’s comment was due to you mentioning MakeMKV, which well … make’s MKVs. So your comment to remove the titles during the process won’t help the user in this case.
Otto knows full well the depth of my OCD and he also knows that no file, regadless of it’s type is granted access to JuiceTown unless it’s had a full deep cavity search. Glove up and Mask up 'cause we’re going in!
That said, it’s very possible the user does as you and I do and recode those MakeMKV dumps to MP4 files and it’s very handy not to have them infected with bogus Titles.
My LMA is at the top because I like having local posters and subtitles. I clear out all my tags so I never have to worry about the LMA picking up stuff I don’t want.
I’m also on Windows so it’s easy to clear all tags out of all files. The only files I have with tags are ones I put into a personal series (workout videos and tutorials) where I want it to see the name. Now back on topic.
@mag1cm1ke said:
So then what is the point of clicking on the Refresh button? All it does is pull in the same information that it initially got from the agent over the Internet?
Refresh means to refresh the PMS data with online metadata. Since it already has online data, it doesn’t need to redownload it again. In most cases, the online data won’t change very often. Especially for movies. PMS assumes the data it got was valid. It’s just a matter of speed. There is a while discussion regarding this behavior. https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/242023/origin-of-the-plex-dance#latest
Speaking of locking fields, why is there no lock on the artwork fields? If I select a poster, it never, ever changes (or any other field for that matter).
Posters automatically lock when you manually select one. The other data should stay locked unless one of the things in this other comment apply, https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1066092/#Comment_1066092.
What if I just want a movie to get all new information from the agent over the Internet (maybe because I changed it and want to set it back, or maybe I know that it was updated and has a better description now)?
Clear the agent cache as mentioned above.
@MovieFan.Plex said:
My LMA is at the top because I like having local posters and subtitles. I clear out all my tags so I never have to worry about the LMA picking up stuff I don’t want.
I have local posters and subtitles and my LMA is at the bottom. LMA does not need to be on top to have everything it provides.
I just wanted to +1 this as this is an annoying issue I’ve been dealing with as well.
Having to manually delete the local cache just to refresh metadata (from the internet) is not how it should behave. If I manually press “refresh metadata” in Plex it should get the metadata from my agents not the local cache.
It’s 2019 and this is still happening… To refresh an episode or show, I have to move the episode out, scan the library, delete trash and clean bundles. Put the episode back in and re-scan. And then it will update all the show and not just that episode. So annoying!
