Looking for help, Plex music

chili

chili

chili

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Joined
19 Mar 2011
Posts
833
So i am dumoing apple music and spotify and going to use plexamp along with my synology nas.
I have transfered some albums to the nas and all the metadata is showing true information ie covers artist etc

however when i try to add a folder of mixed various artists with my favourite tracks all the metadata becomes screwed and i cannot figure out how to get it to display correctly

anyone able to help?

thanks
 
Plex is a nightmare for music. The way it does it is actually broken, and works only if you follow certain rules.

Firstly, it does not do mp3 id tags the way you would expect, bear this in mind.

1. How the albums / music appear on the system is a function of how you have the files saved on the disk, in folders etc.
i.e. if you want 2 tracks to appearon the same album, you must put them in the same folder, the id3 tag is irrelevant.

it must follow artist/album/01 track.mp3 structure

music brains can sort all this out

2. if you add more tracks to a folder after it's already 'ingested' into the plex, plex will see this as a new thing and it will appear 'split' in the listings. Solution - remove the whole album/folder, and then re-add as a single item. (you may also have to do 'the plex dance')

3. the id tags are used to display the artist/ track name etc so you use the folders structure to make them appear the way you want, and the tags to have the labelled/named the way you want. If you mess about with tags and metadata after ingesting to plex, to get it to update you may hev to do the plex dance again.

4. Even if you tick - use local metadata plex still sometimes has difficulties. It really really wants to and works best when you have plex get all the metadata using it's own engines. Sometimes you have to correct matches etc. There documentation on this on plex website.

5. The plex app interface no longer does music, so to play back you should use Plexamp on your phone etc.

6. Why oh why oh why couldn't they just do a simple tag based mp3/music player - i haven't found any good solutions yet.


edit i meant to say that for compilations and various artists, if i remember the way to do it is to have the album artist as 'Various Artists' for each track, and the album tag should be the same. and all the files for the album should be in the same directory on your disk
 
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hornetstinger said:
I don't use Plex, I use picoreplayer. What I do for VA

Use Various Artists for "Album Artist" tag
Browse by album then select compilation

ibb.co

pi2 hosted at ImgBB

Image pi2 hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co
ibb.co

pi hosted at ImgBB

Image pi hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co
Click to expand...
yes you have to do this in plex, but you also have to have your files arranged in the prescribed way. If you take an album various hits or whatever and just put half in one folder and half in another, most normal music apps will go by the tags and see all the files together making up the album and play and display it as such. Plex will see each folder as a separate album despite the tags and display it as such.
 
whitecrook said:
Plex is a nightmare for music. The way it does it is actually broken, and works only if you follow certain rules.

Firstly, it does not do mp3 id tags the way you would expect, bear this in mind.

1. How the albums / music appear on the system is a function of how you have the files saved on the disk, in folders etc.
i.e. if you want 2 tracks to appearon the same album, you must put them in the same folder, the id3 tag is irrelevant.

it must follow artist/album/01 track.mp3 structure

music brains can sort all this out

2. if you add more tracks to a folder after it's already 'ingested' into the plex, plex will see this as a new thing and it will appear 'split' in the listings. Solution - remove the whole album/folder, and then re-add as a single item. (you may also have to do 'the plex dance')

3. the id tags are used to display the artist/ track name etc so you use the folders structure to make them appear the way you want, and the tags to have the labelled/named the way you want. If you mess about with tags and metadata after ingesting to plex, to get it to update you may hev to do the plex dance again.

4. Even if you tick - use local metadata plex still sometimes has difficulties. It really really wants to and works best when you have plex get all the metadata using it's own engines. Sometimes you have to correct matches etc. There documentation on this on plex website.

5. The plex app interface no longer does music, so to play back you should use Plexamp on your phone etc.

6. Why oh why oh why couldn't they just do a simple tag based mp3/music player - i haven't found any good solutions yet.


edit i meant to say that for compilations and various artists, if i remember the way to do it is to have the album artist as 'Various Artists' for each track, and the album tag should be the same. and all the files for the album should be in the same directory on your disk
Click to expand...

I tried Plex. A total mess. Uninstalled it after a few hours.
 
whitecrook said:
yes you have to do this in plex, but you also have to have your files arranged in the prescribed way. If you take an album various hits or whatever and just put half in one folder and half in another, most normal music apps will go by the tags and see all the files together making up the album and play and display it as such. Plex will see each folder as a separate album despite the tags and display it as such.
Click to expand...

That sucks, as I have CD1, CD2 directories. With LMS just need to label 1/2 in disc tag, and 2 in total discs. Doesn't have to be in the same directory either can be anywhere, just need to ensure album is the same, ie if CD 1 has Best of CD1 , and CD2 has Best of CD 2 tag you'd need to change "Best of" tags to both.

Reason not to use plex.
 
hornetstinger said:
That sucks, as I have CD1, CD2 directories. With LMS just need to label 1/2 in disc tag, and 2 in total discs. Doesn't have to be in the same directory either can be anywhere, just need to ensure album is the same, ie if CD 1 has Best of CD1 , and CD2 has Best of CD 2 tag you'd need to change "Best of" tags to both.

Reason not to use plex.
Click to expand...
yes. indeed. Look at the absolute BS official plex recommendation to handle this ....(!) https://support.plex.tv/articles/205661857-changing-artist-album-or-track-information/

for best results with plex, have your stuff named properly and tagged properly and then add to your library but once in don't change it or mess it about, and you'll just about be fine.

plex wants to use it's own DB ontop of your folders and tags. It's a weird hybrid system with too many gotchas glitches and bugs.


In that link the whole premise is off : "

Editing Artist or Album Titles​

So, you’ve got an album of Carl Orff’s wonderful scenic cantata “Carmina Burana” in your library. Unfortunately, it actually got scanned in under an artist named Carmina Buranainstead of Carl Orff.
"

the point is even if you have meticulously tagged your files, Plex will still do this! i.e. mis identify and tag your music with wrong stuff, that you then have to go in and fix.. I added each album on my plex 600+ albums one at a time and checked each one to make sure it as all fine.
 
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I've used Plex and LMS together for years too; along with Tag Scanner and MusicBrainz. I've never used Plex for at home listening mostly because LMS's blend of Spotify, Radio and local files works best for my needs. I use Plexamp on my phone a lot, but only for random shuffle out and about.

I've never encountered the Plex issues above, but that'll be down to my tagging and not using it for specific album listening. It's primarily for my videos.
 
NutritioN said:
I've used Plex and LMS together for years too; along with Tag Scanner and MusicBrainz. I've never used Plex for at home listening mostly because LMS's blend of Spotify, Radio and local files works best for my needs. I use Plexamp on my phone a lot, but only for random shuffle out and about.

I've never encountered the Plex issues above, but that'll be down to my tagging and not using it for specific album listening. It's primarily for my videos.
Click to expand...
I used plex for years before discovering these issues. It came about when I was recording weekly radio shows and plex does NOT like 'adding' to existing 'albums'. I spent way too long figuring out the exact problems. If you consider that the display of music in plex (from the filesystem), is completely SEPARATE to the tagging and labelling of your music (from the metadata), as well as what plex actually displays (from it's lookup dbs') then it makes it somewhat easier to understand, if not still batshiz-insane.
 
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