I’m updating my library of approx 7000 cds which I started about a week ago, and by my calculations it looks like it will take approx 1 month to complete. Is this normal? it’s updating less than 10 titles every hour or so!!
Here’s a snap shot of what’s going on…
6:26 PM Downloading metadata for The Rough Guide to Native American Music in Music
6:25 PM Loading metadata for The Rough Guide to Klezmer in Music
6:20 PM Finished processing The Rough Guide to Gospel in Music
6:08 PM Finished processing The Rough Guide to Hungarian Music in Music
6:05 PM Finished processing The Rough Guide to Gypsy Swing in Music
6:05 PM Loading metadata for The Rough Guide to Hungarian Music in Music
6:05 PM Finished processing The Rough Guide To Indian Lounge in Music
6:02 PM Downloading metadata for The Rough Guide To Klezmer Revival in Music
6:00 PM Downloading metadata for The Rough Guide to Klezmer in Music
6:00 PM Downloading metadata for The Rough Guide to Irish Music, Second Edition in Music
5:59 PM Loading metadata for The Rough Guide To Indian Lounge in Music
5:59 PM Loading metadata for The Rough Guide to Gypsy Swing in Music
5:43 PM Loading metadata for The Rough Guide to Gospel in Music
5:41 PM Downloading metadata for The Rough Guide to Gypsy Swing in Music
5:35 PM Finished processing The Rough Guide to Flamenco in Music
5:32 PM Finished processing The Rough Guide to Global Dance: World Beat Carnival - All Areas in Music
5:30 PM Downloading metadata for The Rough Guide To Indian Lounge in Music
5:30 PM Downloading metadata for The Rough Guide to Hungarian Music in Music
5:29 PM Loading metadata for The Rough Guide to Flamenco in Music
I’ve only recently bought the Plex life membership - could this be why it’s taking so long? I’ve had the free version for a few years, and the update was pretty swift… 2 hours maximum. I’m using a Synology NAS as my server.
The Synology NAS, unless you’re using the new DS3617xs, isn’t the fastest CPU on the block.
Trying to build a massive library all at once for the Atom processor is a “ant verus mountain” problem. It will get it done but will take forever. This occurs because the SQLITE database itself becomes lopsided (an unfortunate side effect of sqlite). There is an easy way to mitigate this.
Add a smaller block of media. e.g. /music/<gentre name>
Let it complete
Optimize the database
Edit the library and add another top-level genre directory
Let this complete.
Optimize again.
Repeat until done.
Perform one final optimization
While this does take manual intervention, I think you’ll be much happier with the progress. Depending on your internet speed, you could easily be done in a few hours.
I have 24/1.5 Mbps on a DS1815+, 800 CDs loaded and can achieve a full ‘reload/rebuild’ in about 5 hours
Thanks for your reply ChuckPa. And thanks you for taking the time to explain on a possible work around for my next future update.
Another question or two…
I’ve done some updates in the past (prior to purchasing Plex Pass), and they’ve only taken a few hours (not weeks). Is the Plex Pass gathering more data for my library than it otherwise would have if I was running the free version? If this is the case, can I roll back my account onto the free set up? I was more than happy with the free version, but felt like I should throw some support back to Plex in return.
Once this update is finally finished in a few weeks, what would happen if I performed the same update again on my entire library? Would it be any quicker since the metadata has already been acquired from the last scan? Or, just the same duration?
The primary differences with Free vs Plex Pass are:
Premium music library features. (more metadata is downloaded)
More thorough matching through Gracenote.
These two operations do take more time.
I personally find a Basic library more than sufficient but I’m more a videophile these days than an audiophile. Yes, I still have and use Sonar on a regular basis but I’m more on the composition side with it.
In addendum, afaik, you can still create a basic music library if you so wish whilst still paying for a premium account to support Plex (or gain other stuff for your movie library or such).
Personally I think you’ll like the additional data you get with the Plexpass music library. I would do as previously suggested and add your media in batches with the optimization thrown in between batches. Even on Windows with a stronger CPU this helps a lot when adding a lot of media at one time.
I like the batch update solution, but presumably that would mean chopping my music folder into compartments (instead of 1 x folder i.e. “music”) ?.. Plus I’ve got windows media centre + sonos cherry picking from the same directory too. This sounds like a daunting task due to my library consisting of approx 7K cds. I’m not sure even how to start this operation. Maybe I could split it into “A-K” and “M-Z” instead of “genre”??
@Rabbitoh said:
Thanks again for everyone’s comments / advice.
I like the batch update solution, but presumably that would mean chopping my music folder into compartments (instead of 1 x folder i.e. “music”) ?.. Plus I’ve got windows media centre + sonos cherry picking from the same directory too. This sounds like a daunting task due to my library consisting of approx 7K cds. I’m not sure even how to start this operation. Maybe I could split it into “A-K” and “M-Z” instead of “genre”??
Whatever you decide is entirely your decision. Do what’s best for you. Some think of genre first, others like the master-alphabetical.
I do the same for Movies as I do for Music. For example:
\music#
\music\a
\music\b
…
\music\z
I just use the movie name or the musical artist name to sort by. I’ve found most operating systems like this better than everything in one large directory. Makes navigating easier as well IMHO.
Of course for Plex you just point the library to \music and it will find all the sub directories itself.
This would allow you to add one letter at a time with an optimization in between to speed things up.
Or, if you want to add the whole directory as it, with subdirectories, you can use the ignore feature (search support pages - cannot remember the .plexignore functionality exactly) and you can add all sub dirs to that, but then remove the entries a few at a time and rescan.
@drinehart said:
Or, if you want to add the whole directory as it, with subdirectories, you can use the ignore feature (search support pages - cannot remember the .plexignore functionality exactly) and you can add all sub dirs to that, but then remove the entries a few at a time and rescan.
If you use this approach, it will still scan them. The ignore will inhibit processing. Such a procedure hasn’t ever been tried.
OK, I’ve consolidated A,B,Cand D into 4 seperate folders.
\music\A
\music\B
\music\C
\music\D
What do I need to do next?
I did a right click on “music library”, and went to edit library / add folders. I added \music\A, but it looks like I can only drop in 1 folder. Is this correct? I was under the impression I’d need to add 26 folders (A-Z)??
I just looked back through this discussion and noticed that cayar said, “Of course for Plex you just point the library to \music and it will find all the sub directories itself”, so that answers the question above.
I’m now going into each album and hand selecting the high-res poster / artwork. Is there a way to mass select my entire library, and make all my cds select their respective high-res cd covers??
