What is the difference between Labels and Tags?

General Discussions Hardware
1

I have found that using the Filters is a powerful option in PMS, but why are there two categories, Labels and Tags, that seem to function the same? What is the difference between the two, or what can one do that the other cannot? I can add new ideas under both rubrics.

2

When editing an item, those information are displayed on different sections – Tags and Labels.

  • Tags contains additional metadata, mostly it’s regarding the crew, categorization and collections.
  • The main purpose of Labels is to restrict shares. Although some users apply their own custom labels for basic filtering purposes (e.g. assigning a label for certain accolades or other information for which there’s no corresponding tag).
3

Thanks for the explanation.
After altering a few items I found that adding metadata via Tags is not to be messed with by amatuers. I thought I had entered a new tag, turns out that I had accidentally renamed the movie and a host of other problems.
I learned that Labels is the correct way to filter by user-created categories. For instance, I created the Label VHS to show which titles came from VHS-to-DVD (the resolution is terrible,) and it added nothing to the record nor took anything away from it, but still allowed me to pick out just those titles from my library.

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4

I’m curious what you mean by this

5

In my clumsy way I was trying to say that adding a Label did not alter the metadata of the mp4 file.
I’m only guessing now but I suppose that Labels only exist in the Plex environment, and that if I loaded the mp4 file into Jellyfin or WMP that those programs will know nothing of the Label field that Plex applied to its library listing. Sorry to have been obscure.

6

Plex does not edit your files at all. ( except in the case of DVR recordings removing commercials). What you initially see after it scans and reads from your MP4s it add to the Plex Media Server database. Edit the Genre or any other tag only edits the database it does not alter the metadata in the files.

Since you have Plex Pass you can actually use the Category pivot which are based on the Genres. Like here I added the Christmas as a genre tag to Die Hard and it creates the category in my movie library. And when clicking on that it goes to the library filtered on that genre.

I’m not saying you should change what you are doing. If it works for you that great. Just want to make sure you knew the possibilities

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