I have spent a year trying to get Plex working for me. Sadly I’ve come to the conclusion that it is only concentrated on Movies as the Music portion is an absolute joke. How can I be forced to put a Genre only on an artist? Beatles songs, for example, run the gamut of styles from Classic Rock to Top 40, to acoustic, to any number of genres by individual songs. I can’t import i-Tunes playlists. The plug-in setting still shows, as does the XML path but Plex doesn’t support it? Why is it even on the software screen then? The album art is a myriad of confusing settings from one area to the other. Can you not just say “use my album artwork” and leave it at that? Why all these confusing Personal or Local settings and so forth. I have a lifetime pass but I would never buy this again knowing what I know now. I used to be able to get playlists from iTunes onto my desktop but not with a NAS, but that might not even work.
I see some questions in the forum on this, but that was over a year ago from what I’ve seen and am frustrated beyond frustrated. Any very simple help would be appreciated.
I’m not sure if this is an actual feature suggestion or simply a rant?!
As for genres… they’re not limited to the artist level – each album can have its own genres.
There’s an existing feature suggestion requesting genres on a track level.
Oh, for sure it’s a rant, based on being duped into buying a lifetime pass for a system that takes away features originally allowed. That being said, I’m trying to focus on a solution. The “Music tracks need genre” post you supplied implies that the feature has already been requested so therefore, you don’t need it posted again. The fact is, he says in the request to have a set of virtual “not user editable” genres that are the combination of all the tags in the tracks. That is NOT sufficient, nor in line with what I need and want. I’ve googled for months and all I see is people complaining about this, hoping to not have to recreate iTunes playlists, that they can’t import iTunes playlists anymore (plug-in has been removed). Everyone complaining about that is in the same boat I’m in which is that I spent years curating my music playlists (I have over a thousand playlists) and I can’t use those. I can’t even come close to replicating in Plex because your system doesn’t even offer the user the ability to set genres or other elements on individual tracks outside of this “mood”. An artist can have an album of songs that run a wide gamut of styles/genres. So I’m forced to say Beatles-Abbey Road is a “Classic Rock” genre for the whole album for example? No. Here Comes the Sun is a different genre for me than I Want Her (She’s so Heavy). You can argue genres being used one way or another, but let ME decide how I want my library. And sadly, if Plex would just allow me to import my playlists, all this would be a moot point because I wouldn’t need to create any other playlists. I have done extensive research on the XML file and my songs match exactly what is in my iTunes, yet it doesn’t work. So yes, this is a rant because I have no other option - it’s quite clear. So I’m posting about it and representing others that maybe want to try and be less in-your-face about it. If you’re going to dump a feature or not allow iTunes playlists to be imported, then give me the tools within your system to replicate playlists to some level of similar degree. While it would suck spending weeks to accomplish that, at least I could make it happen. But not with the system allowing me to set a “Mood” for an individual track. Oh gee, golly, thanks so much for that. And if the feature isn’t available and not working, remove the view of it in the navigation. You still have a checkbox to “enable iTunes plug-in” but under Plug-ins it says “none installed”. So until Plex has some semblance of expertise with music, consider me as one who feels my lifetime pass is a waste. It’s not what was there before and it is useless to me. I don’t use it for movies, I’m a music guy. It is so geared towards movies it’s ridiculous. And yes, I have carefully set my music up so it’s in the proper folder layout that Plex wants. Everything is perfect on my end. I’m in the radio business and was a Program Director at the highest level (L.A., Houston, San Francisco). I was a SVP overseeing hundreds of stations. I am familiar with scheduling of music, setting up criteria and so forth. I would be considered an expert. What you have here is an archaic, woefully inadequate music platform that’s a joke if you’re serious about letting users control their music. So yeah, I guess it’s a rant. If you can’t get it so I can control individual tracks - not from an album level (though perhaps there’s “some” value in that) - then count me as one of the many (you call us the 2% ers) who are massively disappointed in your platform. The settings to import music offer more control than the music itself. And like I said, those settings are extremely disjointed. How about at “import my music, my metadata/album covers, my tags” checkboxes as at least one option instead of, or along with “Last FM, Personal Media/Local Media etc.” So sorry to be so vocal about it, but come on! Don’t pawn this off as a real music system if you can’t give users control of their music. You offer no live technical support. There is no where to turn and for users who have spent years setting up their music and ID3 tags, perfect album art, and so forth, it’s a huge disservice to us to give us a system so woefully inadequate.
How do I post a question? I have another question to ask and I cannot find where I posted a question. Did you shut me out?
There’s a guide on how to post questions in the forum – it’s no different than when you created this post. Except you shouldn’t push your questions (or this rant) as a feature suggestion. An no, you’re not blocked or shut out.
https://forums.plex.tv/new-message?username=discobot&title=Discobot%20Tutorial&body=@discobot%20start%20new%20user
We usually close duplicate suggestions (or non-suggestions) to avoid distracting attention from the existing suggestions. Given you’re perfectly entitled to express your opinion, I’ll however move this to a separate category.
Let’s change the verbiage of “rant” to “venting my frustration.” I think my points are extremely valid. Let me ask you since you’re a Ninja, how can I import my iTunes playlists? All will be solved if I can simply import them. Then I wouldn’t have to do any other manipulating. I’m on version 1.21.2.3943 and use Synology NAS. My iTunes XML is in the same folder as the Music (Artist/Title). I have set the XML location to the \volume1\music1 folder but when I add a music library it is not picking up any playlists. I have added a second folder of music to try another method (as I try to resolve this), but if I add a test playlist, it only shows on the first Music library I added (different files/different location). Anyway, if you could help me import my iTunes playlists, problem solved. Thank you.
And BTW, the iTunes library XML file for each individual song also points to the "volume1\music. For example:
file://localhost//volume1/music1/Beach%20Boys/Little%20Duece%20Coupe/Beach%20Boys%20-%20409.m4a
So the XML is pointing to the NAS. Everything plays fine in iTunes and on my NAS as well as Plex. I just can’t get playlists imported.
I cannot speak from experience when it comes to importing iTunes playlists. I’ve been asking around for a different thread some time ago and got a confirmation that it’s supposed to still be working.
From what I remember, the steps to make this work are:
- configure
Settings>[Server Name]>Plugins>iTunes library XML pathin Plex, pointing to the correct XML path - configure iTunes to allow access to the library.xml file (that used to be a restriction on macOS at least → should be
enable the xml file generation in iTunes) - verify the paths referred in the XML file are the same as Plex will see them (e.g. because the PMS is running on the same environment or uses the same mount point structure) – I suppose that’s what you’re pointing out in your last post
- create the library w/ import iTunes playlists checked
Step 1 should be correct on my end. This is where my XML file is located:
\volume1\music1
Step 2 - The version of iTunes I am on (10.7) does not have the “share XML file with other applications” but I manually copied it to the NAS (same folder where the artists/albums are). Please advise.
Step 3 - These are the same. In iTunes, the Advanced/Properties/Media file location is “\volume1\music1”. (Same as step 1). Each song in iTunes (and on Plex) show the same location (e.g. "volume1/music1/Beatles - Hey Jude.m4a).
Step 4 - I did this when I imported my second library.
A couple questions:
When I added the library the first time, I can’t recall if I checked the import with iTunes checked. Further, Plex didn’t correctly show the files. The first library consists of songs from a mapped drive which the NAS picks up. So those files show as “/volume1/music/MUSIC/Adele/21/Adele - Rolling In the Deep.m4a .” However, the song files show “ds720\music…” - meaning they’re not exact matches.
So I redid my entire iTunes library so that everything matches. I have two folders of the same music on my NAS. When I add the second library, related to the playlists, if I try creating a test case playlist, it will show up in the Playlist tab of the first library folder.
So in Plex, the two libraries are named:
MUSIC-Plex
MUSIC1
So the playlist tab does not show up for the Music1 library but instead shows up in Music-Plex (the different library). I want to delete that library once I get everything working on the second one I’ve added. The reason for this is because the XML data is not lining up.
I saw a post on these forums where someone said:
On the 3-dot menu on Playlists, choose ”Import from iTunes…” All of your iTunes playlists should download to Plex.
I don’t see any such 3-dot menu (this was posted in Dec 2019 with server version 1.18.3.2156). Was this removed? I’m not sure if there is this step which brings them in. I’ve always wondered - if iTunes playlists do get imported - do they magically show up in the playlist tab (before or after you create a playlist within Plex)? Or is there another step such as this gentleman was saying.
I appreciate the feedback. Like I said, if I can get my playlists imported into Plex, all my troubles will be over. I’ve spent a year getting here because I had to completely revamp my library layout to match the Plex suggestion for layout of the library. There was also a lot more I did but suffice to say it’s taken me a year to get here and if I could figure out this iTunes playlist importation into Plex, I would have been done six months ago. That’s how long I’ve struggled with this.
Thanks.
On the 3-dot menu on Playlists, choose ”Import from iTunes…” All of your iTunes playlists should download to Plex.
And I should point out one other thing I just reminded myself of (after looking at some other forums related to importing iTunes playlists) - on the left navigation pane where it shows your main library folders (e.g. Movies, Photos…), I do see Playlists (which only showed up after I made a first, test playlist within Plex). According to the post, you should be able to click the three dots (that’s what someone was referring to in my previous reply above, so now I know what he meant (I thought he was talking about the Playlists tab itself)) and you get the “import from iTunes” but that is NOT there. If it’s not on my Plex, then am I unable to import playlists? Is it because Plex doesn’t see the XML files? Is it because it’s a NAS versus a desktop computer? I am slowly crawling through the maze trying to get to my desired outcome.
Please advise. Thanks!
BTW, I saw on another forum
Where trumpy81 says:
Try installing version 1.23.5.4801 from Plex Downloads .
The Import from iTunes option has returned!
Can you confirm that it has? I will update the server if so. Also, he says to edit the XML file so that the %20 is missing from the file location line within XMl for the file is removed. Can you confirm if that is also necessary?
Oh, and he also says the XML needs to be in a different folder on Plex that Plex doesn’t read. I was putting it in the same folder “Music1” that the Artist/Albums resided in based on other input/research I had seen. If you could please clarify that would be great.
Sorry for not getting back earlier (still at work).
I have no personal experience with this, so I cannot really comment on how to further troubleshoot if the playlists aren’t imported. Also couldn’t find any clear answer in other threads.
Given you’re server is getting a bit dated, updating to the newer / current version could help but I cannot tell you for sure it’ll solve this problem.
I have successfully imported my iTunes playlists. It was a series of steps which included unchecking the iTunes plugin, restarting my Plex Media Server. Then restarting it. Scanning my library and some other steps. All is well except I haven’t been able to update the library after replacing the XML file with some new changes I did in iTunes. I also should point out that I ended up putting the XML in the same folder as my music library on the NAS.
There is still no ability to create smart playlists by genre for individual tracks. What good is the genre for an album. The Beatles “White Album” for example, (or any number of their albums) have a wide variety of styles/genres on a particular album. Are there plans to allow creating smart playlists based on genre? Mood option isn’t a genre. And I didn’t put a Mood on my iTunes library of songs before importing. So it would mean manually putting 15,000+ genres on individual songs. Crazy.
Please reply. Thank you.
Plex doesn’t usually comment on their roadmap or plans (nor ETAs for “leaked” features).
There’s the feature suggestion mentioned before asking for that feature. You can vote for this (though again… those are suggestions and don’t imply Plex must/will implement them)
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