Update and clarification using Plex Dance

General Discussions
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I have updated my music files fixing metadata and file structure and ready to swap out the files. Its been awhile since I’ve had to do the Plex Dance and was reading up on it. I found a thread from 2019 that implied updates were in work to eliminate the need for the Dance. Has that update been implemented, or are there still times the Dance is needed?

For my music files I fixed file structures to meet the recommended format, moved files around, renamed them and updated metadata all with Musibrainz and Picard. I don’t think I want to simply swap out the Library folder contents with the new files and all and then just do a scan and metadata refresh; it doesn’t feel right and too much to think PMS will handle well.

In reading the support articles it sounds like I should delete the music library and then add it back as if it was never there. Does this sound like the right process? I do have a couple questions:

  1. Does deleting the Library remove all existence of it? Including the the Library type i.e Music, or does that remain?
  2. Should I do any scans or refreshes or restarts after deleting a Library before adding a new one?
  3. Any other recommendations for swapping out music libraries?
  4. Should I just do the old school Plex Dance?
  5. If I did the Dance, is there any way to isolate the scan steps to just the music library and ignore movies and TV shows?

Thanks for the help!

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If you are making big changes to the files in a music library, and if you do not have any playlists or play history that you need to preserve, I always suggest deleting the library and re-adding it instead of trying to re-scan it or Plex Dance anything.

You do not need to take any additional steps when deleting a library to make sure it is really gone, but you might want to do a database rebuild, as it is suggested whenever you make “big” changes.

I would also go into the library settings when you recreate it and turn off Sonic Analysis and looking up concert dates and that stuff. Once you know the files are showing up correctly, then you can turn that stuff back on.

If you Plex Danced some music files, your TV files would not be impacted because you didn’t remove and replace any of them.

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