Server Version#:Current Version
Player Version#: Current Version
Hi Guys,
I’m currently loading my media I have created and audio book library. I used a music library and changed the name to audio books. It seemed like the logical choice since they are audio files. All my files are MP3 format and already have the correct metadata and cover art encoded. Plex seems to be hit and miss when it comes to the cover art. Is there a way to tell Plex to use the local metadata before it goes looking for it? I would rather not have to add cover art manually that is already there. Thanks for the help.
3 dots next to the library → Manage Library → Edit → Advanced
Refresh the library metadata afterwards
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I thought I remembered seeing this option somewhere but couldn’t remember exactly where. I’ll also have to enable this for my music as well and rescan but that’s OK I’m not that far along. Thanks again.
1 Like
No dice. Even after setting this option most of the audio books I have loaded are still missing their cover art. Additionally, now author images are blank.
Plex doesn’t really support audio books and I have no experience with that.
I know people do this so it is possible I just don’t know the specifics.
I recall seeing another post about this not that long ago. I will hunt around for it and see if I can’t ping someone to help you tomorrow
Thanks for the assist. Not trying to argue here but in my case Plex shouldn’t see the difference between an audio book and an album. In both cases they are MP3 files with the cover art embedded in the file. Audio books are one file per chapter, so they should look like an album to Plex. As an example, I have several of The Witcher audio books and only some of the cover art for the books is being displayed but all of them have the cover art embedded in the files. My music all seems to be fine but in the case of the audio books it’s hit and miss. All my files are spot on as far as metadata goes. Music has been tagged with Music Brainz and audio books also whenever I can find a match. When that’s not the case I enter it manually and then embed the cover art with iTunes. I went through a LONG tedious process of doing this and I have made sure to stay with it.
Thanks Again
Out of experience, I recommend you to additionally place a cover.jpg into the “album” folder.
This one can also be of significant higher resolution than what you want to embed into files.
Make sure the scanner is the Plex Music Scanner, and you set the agent to Personal Media Artist.
I use it for a large audio book library with minimal issues,
I will try that. Thank You.
You may want to try setting this setting to the appropriate value in the advanced settings of your audiobook library (before doing anything else). (For whatever definition of “appropriate” works for you.)
Edit: Refresh metadata for the album after making the change above.
Thank you, your suggestion seems to have corrected the cover art issue. I did a quick check and all my books now appear to have their covers in tact. There is one small issue and it makes sense given the configuration being used, there are no pictures of the authors being displayed. My question is, if I choose to use local files do the images get stored in the database or do they have to remain on my hard drive. I’m reluctant to use a URL because they can change or disappear altogether but I also don’t want these random pictures just sitting on my hard drive. Sure I download the cover images when I’m adding a new book but only long enough to embed the image. After that it gets deleted. Thanks for the help. It is appreciated.
Just get used to them. It is the easiest and safest way to have a backup of your chosen cover art/posters.
That way your Plex data can even get deleted or lost due to hardware damage. But you still have all relevant data and art in your media storage.
The file name to use for “album artist” pictures is artist-poster.jpg. They go into the "Artist " folder (i.e. not into the album folder but into its parent folder)
If you enable “Prefer local metadata” in the properties of this library, they will get used automatically.
Thank you… So the answer is No, they don’t get stored in the database and I do have to keep them. No thanks, I’ll pass. That’s precisely why I wanted to use the embedded cover art images. I’m a software engineer and I’ve NEVER liked the idea of storing information that is part of a database externally and that includes images. What web site does Plex use for these pictures? I’ll use it as well. At least I can be reasonably confident that they won’t disappear.
None whatsoever, as Plex doesn’t have offical support for audiobooks.
Which is what makes the workaround with local images necessary in the first place.
Earlier when I was having the problem with the cover art Plex was populating the author images. Where was it getting them from?
Maybe some of them are populated on MusicBrainz.org or last.fm
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
