Album art and metadata keeps changing when I have everything set to local tags

[gh0sti]

I don't get why this keeps happening to me for starters.

I have followed both your guide and seanaps guide on modifying audiobook meta data to my liking, creating the library, and adding audiobooks to my library.

Using mp3tag I add the data that I want: album cover, artist, book name and album. I have it formatted to a specific way. I upload it to my gdrive and have plex scan it in. I have the library set to settings I have listed below.

artist agent

album agent

Library setting

My metadata changes constantly. I have a set album art that I want, formatted a specific way and it keeps changing. I am losing my mind as to why my audiobook metadata changes and what is causing the issue. Plex pulls in album art that is not apart of the metadata of the mp3/m4b file that I set in mp3tag. I don't get where it's getting this 2nd album art and why it trys to default to that over the album art that I have set. From my understanding of plex settings that I have it should prioritize my local metadata first before trying to match with audnexus audible data. Has anyone else had this where they add their own metadata from mp3tag and upload and plex just changes the metadata of my albums?

[rabelux]

I totally get your frustration and your settings look good to me.
Plex messing up metadata (and Plex apps not being able to continuously play audio) is exactly the reason why I plan to switch to audiobookshelf asap.
Sorry @djdembeck for advertising a different tool but I spent hours trying to cope with Plex and audiobooks and it definitely wasn't worth it. Just trying to safe others from going down a very unsatisfactory road.
Feel free to delete my comment if you don't like it.

[djdembeck]

I'll look into why this is happening. Not all the settings are in my control. I believe Plex handles the "prefer" settings without asking the metadata agent about it (I could be wrong).

I have no problem suggesting other products @rabelux. Audiobookshelf uses the same audnexus data anyways. For me personally, Plex works really well (with prologue/Bookcamp).

[gh0sti]

@djdembeck I appreciate the debugging. I just can't understand why this has been an issue. It might have happened with a Plex update. I enjoy using Prologue/Plex setup.

[csandman]

@gh0sti I have a couple ideas as to why this might be happening. However, my experience might be a bit different because I have a slightly modified version of the Audnexus agent.

First, have you tried setting your "Album Art" setting in your library settings to "Local Files Only"? That seems to give me the best results. As far as I know, I still get the artwork from the agent too, but it doesn't override the ones extracted from my book files.

Second, when you're setting your metadata/covers with mp3tag, are you removing any existing cover art before adding new art? I have found that if I simply drag new artwork on top of existing art in mp3 tag, it doesn't replace the original art, just adds the new art to the file in addition. MP3/M4B files can have multiple album art images at a time. You can check my loading up your book and deleting the album art you added and checking to see if the original art appears. If this is the case, Plex might be extracting both of them and, since they have the same level of priority, switching which one it uses at random.

[gh0sti]

@gh0sti I have a couple ideas as to why this might be happening. However, my experience might be a bit different because I have a slightly modified version of the Audnexus agent.

First, have you tried setting your "Album Art" setting in your library settings to "Local Files Only"? That seems to give me the best results. As far as I know, I still get the artwork from the agent too, but it doesn't override the ones extracted from my book files.

Second, when you're setting your metadata/covers with mp3tag, are you removing any existing cover art before adding new art? I have found that if I simply drag new artwork on top of existing art in mp3 tag, it doesn't replace the original art, just adds the new art to the file in addition. MP3/M4B files can have multiple album art images at a time. You can check my loading up your book and deleting the album art you added and checking to see if the original art appears. If this is the case, Plex might be extracting both of them and, since they have the same level of priority, switching which one it uses at random.

@csandman yes I did have it set to Local Files only.

Also when I edit mp3tag I make sure to delete the previous album, match it with audible which overwrites previous album art and there is only one album art.

[SirJeffersonIII]

By default it disables local media assets. I solved this by enabling them and giving them priority. Make sure to use Mp3tag or a similar tool to tag them properly.

[gh0sti]

By default it disables local media assets. I solved this by enabling them and giving them priority. Make sure to use Mp3tag or a similar tool to tag them properly.

I've done this as well in OP my screen shots are like that. I have since moved to using just audiobookshelf as my AudioBook Server with this weird issue that I experience with Plex.