Why doesn't LOCK mean LOCK when editing content details?

General Discussions
1

I create libraries that I want organized a very specific way. I edit the various fields to reflect this. These fields appear locked with the nice lovely orange padlock. I manually change DOZENS of titles. The next day, they are all put back. All that work is lost. I try anything I can think of to get them to stick but get bupkis.

After searching the forums and giving myself carpal tunnel clicking on the multitude of posts about this EXACT issue and reading about all the complex hoops to jump through that were suggested.
They started getting outrageous and borderline superstitious.
There came a point after being told that when making my changes, I should: hit the enter key [not mouse], don’t trust what I see, lock, save, unlock, save, lock, save, do a dance, say a prayer, restart, create a new library, add dynamite, blood sacrifice, cry in the shower, etc, etc… that I finally had this realization:

  • Shouldn’t LOCK mean LOCK?
  • I mean, under what circumstance would somebody who locked a field want it automatically changed to something else?
  • Should it really matter what information is in the agents, or metadata, filename or anything else? If I’m given the option to change it, then also given the option to LOCK it, what else really matters?
  • Even with conflicting information, doesn’t a lock trump everything else?
  • Shouldn’t it?

It’s as if PMS is insulting me:
> Me: I’d like this field changed.

 Server: No, you idiot.
 Me: Please?
 Server: No. Get lost.
 Me: :((

I guess the essence of my question is:
“What exactly is the point of the padlock if my edits aren’t permanent?”

Thanks for reading this.
Double thanks for an answer.
Quadruple thanks if there is an answer that requires doing nothing more than clicking the padlock button to permanently lock my changes to a field.

ps. posted this here because it’s a [seemingly] hard problem that doesn’t appear to have been resolved.

2

See this other response I had for the same question. https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1066092/#Comment_1066092

3

Thanks for the response.
I hear you, but shouldn’t a dedicated padlock button - which implies locking that field from any further changes - overrule EVERYTHING else?

I have read that post in my previous search. And there are many posts with differing, while similar suggestions. That post does speak to the heart of the problem: should it really matter if or how the movie is matched or what agent is used to match it if I’ve personally gone in, manually edited that field, and locked it from further editing? Why can anything change that field after that point?

Locked should mean locked, right? Otherwise, what is the point of the button? I genuinely don’t understand. What am I missing?

1 Like
4

The lock is to prevent the metadata from changing for that movie. However if a movie is not matched and is then later matched, the entire entry in the database (including the lock) is removed and a new entry is used for the newly matched info. I do not know why the mechanism is to delete and add instead of just editing the current database entry, but that is the way it is done now. If you really want to leave the movie’s unmatched, use the match button to bring up the search option, then change the agent to personal media. This way it will not try to look for a match again.

5

Hmm.
What’s weird is that the library is already set to personal media. Granted, what I enter into the edited, locked fields does conflict with the file metadata, but it seems counterproductive for what I enter to be continually overwritten. But I need the metadata to stay one way for a different media program and I altered PMS fields to accommodate how it’s organized in this library.

I’d understand if I had asked Plex to match, rematch, or to reset, or something similar. But, I didn’t. Programming PMS to automatically reset everything when I specifically ask it not to seems like an odd choice. Even in the instance of a non-personal media agent, it makes more sense for the agent to match every field EXCEPT for the locked ones. Again, otherwise, the padlock button doesn’t appear to serve any real function. Why even have one? It’s a little puzzling.

6

If you have your library set to personal media, then that’s a different story. These should no be changing on their own, unless you are modifying the source file somehow so that PMS thinks it’s a different file.

7

Totally agree with the OP here…
The Plex Lock is about as effective as using a twist-tie to hold a Cruise Ship at the dock.
And makes just as much sense.

1 Like
8

Huh. I think we’re getting somewhere. (and I do appreciate the explanation)
So, the impression I get is that except in very select, specific circumstances, the padlock button serves absolutely no purpose.

Would recommending that LOCK mean “lock” (regardless of what circumstances it is pressed) be considered a feature request rather than a bug? Because right now, it’s about as useful as teats on a boar.

9

Every entry in the database has a unique identifier called the guid. This guid is unique to the agent used, so the guid for the same movie using the Freebase agent will be different than the guid when using the TheMovieDB agent. This guid is also different for an unmatched movie since it is not connected to an agent yet. As long as this guid does not change, the lock works. The 3 scenarios I referred to are situations were the guid can change. The idea of the lock is to prevent data from being overwritten when you refresh the metadata from the source.

10

@MovieFan.Plex said:
… The idea of the lock is to prevent data from being overwritten when you refresh the metadata from the source.

Thank you for the in-depth explanation… But think Bicycle on a Rack here…
My idea of a lock is to protect something when “I” am the one who locked it… regardless of what source it could have been “chained” to.
I am the source… Stay.

I think that is what most of us lock-complainers were expecting. :slight_smile:

11

@Plexhilarated said:

@MovieFan.Plex said:
… The idea of the lock is to prevent data from being overwritten when you refresh the metadata from the source.

Thank you for the in-depth explanation… But think Bicycle on a Rack here…
My idea of a lock is to protect something when “I” am the one who locked it… regardless of what source it could have been “chained” to.
I am the source… Stay.

I think that is what most of us lock-complainers were expecting. :slight_smile:

I have to agree. A lock that doesn’t lock isn’t a lock.

12

I understand what you guys want and I understand the frustration. I’ll pass along the desire to respect the lock no matter what.

13

@MovieFan.Plex said:
I understand what you guys want and I understand the frustration. I’ll pass along the desire to respect the lock no matter what.

Thank you! Genuinely.
I find some solace in verbal confirmation that this behavior is of the: “it’s a feature not a bug” ilk. I find great hope in the possibility that a change in this “feature” might be at least considered.

14

Bump on this! I am fed up with content being changed by the system! Is there no way to say “no automatic updating”? At this point, I am only adding content here and there…I am happy to manually search and match it on each item. I am sick of picking out my favorite poster, for example, then a couple weeks later finding it changed. Ridiculous! (oh yeah, and I bought a lifetime Plex Pass several years ago, if that makes any difference…you know…one of those that believed in you before everyone else jumped on the bandwagon?)

15

I spent a lot of time yesterday updating fields (movie -> title and sort title) only to have them change on me when the movie library was updated. The last post was June and now September is almost over. Has this been changed/fixed yet? I’m referring to manually changing fields and locking them only to have them change back on me. Let me know if I should be doing something a different way. Also, I noticed that for the same movies that get changed back, the release-year doesn’t show up in the poster view but they are loaded into the database. I’m assuming it’s connected somehow. I loaded 40 movies yesterday and about a third have field lock updating problems and they don’t show the year.

16

I know it’s been a long wait, but the newest PMS update 1.4.3 will now enforce the lock, except for the poster. There are technical issues that make this not possible right now, but all text should stay locked.

17

Newbie here and have been having the same exact problem as the OP except it is now July 2017 and this was seemingly fixed in March.

I too am particular (or anal) in the way I want my titles to appear and thus be filed and listed. I have literally spent hours working on this only to be shocked and upset that upon return 50% of what I did was undone for no reason. What is really weird is that it was roughly 50% which I don’t understand, some of it took and some of it didn’t although I used the same process throughout. I really like Plex but it does seem awfully buggy.

So, to be clear, what I now do is edit the field, it appears below (usually) in the auto drop selector, I click on it. I click lock. I change the second name field the same way, click lock. Save. Reopen and relock each again. Then I hope it sticks. Is there a better way?

18

@dabster32714 said:

So, to be clear, what I now do is edit the field, it appears below (usually) in the auto drop selector, I click on it. I click lock. I change the second name field the same way, click lock. Save. Reopen and relock each again. Then I hope it sticks. Is there a better way?

When you type in text and/or select from the dropdown list, the lock automatically turns orange, indicating that the lock is active. If you click the lock while it’s orange, you are unlocking the field, which leaves it open to overwriting.

So make sure the lock is orange when you click Save, and the field should be protected.

19

Thank you Beckfield. I was trying to figure this out via trial and error. Much appreciated. :slight_smile:

20

Also, don’t change tabs before hitting save. Hit save on that screen first before moving on to another tab.