But it’s not just about ‘large collections’. When there’s a metadata issue (like this one: Multiple series mis-identified as ‘McMafia’ - WTF?), repeatedly having to do the Dance instead of just being able to click “Force Complete Rescan” for a folder is a royal PITA. That could happen to anyone with just 2 series in their collection.
Agree 100%. I would also love to see options on the auto dance like “Retain Cover Art” for all the imported art I used for covers and posters. I don’t want a full metadata scrub redo to remove all the links to the art I brought in and may not be able to find again. The whole process seems just nutty that you can’t just ask for a library re-check.
The solution to this is that manual selections of posters and backgrounds should be lockable, just like all the other fields in the metadata windows. That prevents new scans from overwriting your choices.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the way it is.
A “refresh Metadata” function should/could give two options (both of which do the steps for the Plex Dance)…
Full Refresh - This does a complete refresh of all metadata, images, everything as if it was brand new
Partial Refresh - This would do a search for new metadata but only update the fields that were not “locked” already.
Ideally, to me, you could select items like you do when you merge things, and only do the refresh on those without having to do the full library.
Ok , then lets not Dance
I might accept that if it didn’t do all the steps of the Plex Dance. Remember, the Dance has destructive side effects, some of which I listed earlier. Aside from database corruption, there should never be a need to go that far.
I’ve been having a very productive discussion with @elan , one of the Plex co-founders. I think we’ve identified the primary cause for most, if not all, the issues that lead to the Dance. I’m hoping we’ll be dancing the last dance soon.
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While Plex for the most part works reasonably well, stuff like this, and more so, the attitude Plex has toward any faults that get pointed out and the level of arrogance they exhibit is the reason they will never get a dime from me. I continue to use Plex because it’s the devil I know, but sooner or later something better will come along and I’ll make the switch.
Why? 'cause Plex, that’s why.
Well, that hope has faded.
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Some of us made the switch to Emby. It’s a matter of opinion if it is BETTER, but it’s definitely on par with the Plex I remember and loved.
There is no such thing as an “Emby dance”, if that’s an indication 
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If you (along with @elan) found the causes, or even just a large majority of the causes, why would your hope fade? Have they said, “Hey, we know there are these bugs and why there are these bugs but we like these bugs…they are our friends!”?
“…soon” is the object of my lost hope.
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God this is the best UG post I’ve read in years! Doing the Dance is worth the price of admission.
First post by Juice, poetry!
I myself am a virgin but can’t dance until I finish binge watching “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” OTA. Can’t afford to loose my watched markers and haven’t used an ink pen in over a decade (now THAT’s hyperbole!)
