Why is there no simple UI option to disable article stripping (ArticleStrings)?

General Discussions
1

I don’t really understand why something as basic as article handling in title sorting still requires editing hidden server settings.

If a user wants Plex to stop ignoring leading articles like The / A / An / Der / Das, the only supported way is to manually change ArticleStrings (XML, registry, SSH — depending on the platform). On NAS systems like QNAP, this means multiple unnecessary detours just to reach the setting.

This feels overly complex for what is essentially a sorting preference.

A concrete example from a German library:
Der mit dem Wolf tanzt ends up being sorted under M (mit) instead of D (Der) or at least W. Explaining to someone that they have to look under M when searching for this movie is… not great UX.

Some users want articles ignored, others don’t — both preferences are valid.

So why is there:

  • no simple checkbox like “Ignore leading articles when sorting”

  • no UI field to adjust or clear ArticleStrings

  • no per-library option?

The functionality already exists — it’s just hidden.
Exposing it in the server settings would save users from undocumented edits, restarts, and metadata rebuilds.

Is there a technical reason this can’t be a simple UI option?

Thanks, and apologies for the slightly frustrated tone — but this one really stands out compared to how polished the rest of Plex is.

2

Thanks for reporting. There are some settings are the hidden and are called out in this support article https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/. We are planning on improving our server settings pages so I’ve added your report to that project.

We do provide a way to have the Title and it’s Sort Title be different in the UI. This is by individual title.

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3

I,ve already tried this way, but it doesn’t work…and with a QNAP Server the way is everything else but easy.

Especially in Germany with it’s 3 articles “der” (male), “die” (female) and “das” (neutral) are two different ways of sorting. “die” is also an english word, so it’s not ignored…but ”der” and “das” are ignored.

4

Changing this preference will not retroactively affect items which are already in your library. It has only an influence on newly added items.

Maybe this can be of use to you: Qnap faq.....read me first! - #5 by ChuckPa
Ensure to use an editor which can handle UNIX line feeds, and doesn’t convert these into the Windows way of CR+LF.