Using "self-created" media assets (at album and artist levels)

General Discussions
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I would like to use self-created “Posters” for my PLEX media. The tools that PLEX uses to locate and secure “posters” and other information simply does not work effectively. Most of the time these tools find nothing, and when they do find things, they are seldom relevant. I would prefer not to ever use the “posters” or images that PLEX secures for me. In fact, I would rather have no posters or images whatsoever than to have these random images.

I have created a set of “posters” for this use. I created them in PowerPoint, and exported each slide as a PNG file. All such “posters” are in a 1/1.5 aspect ratio. I inserted them into each relevant folder, with no specific disciple on the file name for the PNG file. I assumed, probably wrongly, that if there were only one PNG file in a folder filled with audio files, that PLEX would find and use the PNG file. I tried to get them to be “found” by PLEX in a “Refresh Metadata” procedure, but, alas, PLEX found none of them. I am guessing that I named them incorrectly.

At a minimum, I would like to use my self-created “posters” at the “Album” level in my media folder structure. So, for example, I have a set of my favorite Beatles songs in a folder entitled “Beatles”. But, I would also like to have “posters” at higher levels in the folder structure—thus at one folder level above the “Beatles” folder, there is a “Rock” folder. Can I do this?

When I want a PNG image to be associated/linked with my Beatles set of songs, do I place this PNG image in the same folder in which I have placed the various song FLAC files?

Should I name the PNG image “Beatles.PNG” or something else? Should it be named “Beatles-poster.PNG”

For the PNG to be used at the level of “Rock”, should I place it in the “Rock” folder, which would have a great many sub-folders for various rock artists, but no other PNGs at that level?

Should I name the PNG image “Rock.PNG” or something else? Should it be named “Rock-folder.PNG”?

Obviously, I am a bit confused on this process. Your counsel is greatly appreciated.

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This used to be accurate, but was changed sometime in 2016. Plex currently prioritizes external image files over embedded, because external files tend to be larger and of higher quality.

Order of priority for metadata:

  1. Local artwork files (folder.jpg, artist.jpg, etc.)
  2. Embedded tags and images
  3. Online sources like Gracenote or Last.FM

That’s how it’s supposed to work, anyway - Plex currently isn’t picking up local images, and I’m not getting answers about whether they are investigating.

I’m not sure this is accurate either. It’s best if Album Artist is populated, but I have numerous albums where Artist is populated, but Album Artist is not. If Album Artist is blank, the album will still be listed under the Artist’s name if the Artist tags are identical for all tracks. If they are not identical, the album will be listed under “Various Artists.”

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