Plex Meta Manager - Liberate Your Library with Auto Collections & More

hi guys and welcome back to another apricorp video  thank you so much for coming back this week and   checking out our new video it's an absolute  pleasure to have you back with us now you may   have seen some of my teasers the last few days  about what this video was going to be about and i   tried not to reveal too much but today is finally  the day where we can tell you what the project is   so today we're going to be looking at plex meta  manager or pmm for sure so what is pmm well if you   guys have used plex for quite some time and you  want to freshen up your libraries you want to make   it a little bit more user intuitive and something  similar to the lines of netflix for example   in terms of the way libraries are presented then  this is going to be the add-on for you now it is   an independent application or technically a script  but we're going to be able to run it in docker and   we're going to be following some instructions now  the official documentation is the best place to   follow the official guide which you can find here  on github on the plex meta manager but we've also   written a guide ourselves on docs the ibricorp.io  so as you can see here we've started to write up   the guide that's going to accompany this video so  if you like you can follow this particular guide   the written guide that we've done to match what  our video is today and if there's any confusion or   anything you're not sure about be sure to jump in  our discord and ask for some help we're more than   happy to help we've also got the main developer  of the application in there too so hopefully we   can answer your question alternatively we  always recommend checking out the official   docs as well as it can cover stuff a little bit  more comprehensively that isn't necessarily shown   in the video and you can always find that under  our useful link section here on our documentation   pages and just to give you a quick example of  what plex meta manager is capable of here's   what our collections are so here we have some  collections for example trending got popular top   rated you know best of this year or best of that  year oscar-winning etc etc and the beauty of this   is that we will have these added and refreshed  all the time as a little bonus for you we'll also   be showing you how to get a seasonal collection  like that for christmas to automatically update   and keep things moving and freshen up your library  so here's just a couple of the features that pmm   can provide you so you can create and update  plex collections using a variety of sources   including tortoli so if you wanted people  to know what was popular on your plex server   it would be able to do that you can add media  that you want that's in collections for example   imdb to top 250 movies and have it added to radar  and sonar for you through the script you can have   custom posters custom content add custom overlays  including 4k and hdr banners using yamls to edit   media metadata such as titles to sort titles and  descriptions and you can add custom episode orders   for plex via the yamls as well so guys if you're  using plex and you want to freshen up your library   give your users a more seamless experience and  one that is constantly updating and has a bit of   life to it then this is going to be the video for  you so stick around and let's get stuck into it alright guys so like i said we're on the docs page  now and we've got all of our instructions written   out here that we're going to be following along  to now before we start the video i do need to make   it very clear to you guys that i would consider  this topic a little bit more advanced so if you're   a complete beginner to setting up libraries or  setting up plex then please have a look at some of   our other beginner oriented videos like you know  plex tips and tricks things like that so please   please be careful make sure you're reading the  instructions as we provide them and on top of that   remember that you're taking the risk of messing  up your library if you don't do things correctly   or if something goes wrong so what we're going to  do at this stage as normal is i'm going to move   this documentation over to my other screen and you  guys can follow along with me if you like the rest   of it we're going to be starting the install and  just getting straight into it all right so here   we are on our unraid server osiris so as usual  the first place we're going to head to is the   app store so let's go do that search for plex  meta manager and you'll see the option here by   roland's repository once you've got it go ahead  and click on it and click to install now in the   template we're going to see various different  options starting from the top to bottom let's work   them out so the network type for this one it's not  as important but i would still highly recommend   you set the custom docker network and that's  because if you wanted to refer to sonar and radar   or plex via hostname it's going to make your life  easier so i always just do it anyway adding it to   our custom docker network for the time to run  is exactly as it says what time do we want this   script to run now keep in mind depending on what  setup you have it can take quite some time to run   this so if you're not too worried about your  processing time or impact on your server then   i guess you can pick any time you want but  preferably something overnight and then on   top of that preferably a time that doesn't clash  with your collect scheduled tasks for example and   that way you can sort of clean up after itself the  divider character we don't need to change you can   leave that there screen width we also don't really  need to change the config path so that's going to   be our app data location make sure that matches  what you want and that's pretty much it those are   the options that we have to configure everything  else is left as is once you're ready go ahead and   click apply now under our docker tab we can see  the application is here the docker container is   there we'll left click and click start or if  you've got yours off the store then it should   already be started however it may stop and the  reason is it may not have a config file the other   thing you might notice is that even if we run  it and click on logs there's nothing going to   be in the logs here and the reason is because it's  actually waiting to execute the script at the time   that you have set but this can make it difficult  when troubleshooting because we can't actually see   where it might be stuck if the script was to  run so what we've explained in our documentation   if necessary is to left click click on the  console and you can paste this command python   plex metamanager.pi python r that will then  execute the script manually and then if there   is anything wrong with your config then it will  be able to tell you and you'll be able to see it   so let's say we've got that going that's fine  nothing's really going to happen just yet so what   we actually need to do then is stop the container  so now we're going to navigate to our folder   the appdata folder that we created for the plex  metamanager app now in here there are three files   that we need to create one is the config.yml one  is movies.yml and the final one is tv.yml now on   our documentation we've actually got examples for  you so let's go and have a look at those now if   you're following our documentation you'll notice  that on the sidebar we've got the configs there   so let's start with configuration file so this  will be our config.yml as we've described in the   top here as we've written be sure to update  all the fields relevant to your environment   including but not limited to all these parts so  of course instead of having hashes for a token   make sure you're putting in the correct tokens but  let's go through it together and i'll help explain   what it's doing so as we cruise through the file  we're going to be looking at these things here   so this is our libraries this is where we're  mapping the libraries that we have this needs   to match the name of your library in plex so in  myplex environment the movies library is called   movies and tv is just tv so in here we then have  a file that's going to be the file that we have   to create and it's where it's referenced so config  at this stage if you followed our setup is our app   data folder so the root folder is app data slash  plex meta then we have the movies.yml file in   there we're then also saying we want to include  these lists as well now what are these lists if   you go to the github they've got some template  lists of metadata that you can use so if you   don't want to set up your own you can use these  template ones that other people have created and   added to the repository which is really cool so  there are actually different types of ones you can   get on there different ones that you might want  to use so this is pretty customizable i wouldn't   say you have to use these sources i'm just  giving you a standardized list that you can use   and this comes from the original template so in  here we've got movie charts studios imdb genres   and people and what it's saying is anything in  our movies yml we want as well as these the same   goes for tv so there's our tv.yml and we also  wanted to show charts and networks for example   then we get into some settings so what kind of  settings you want to change or modify there is a   whole list here that can be amended for your setup  now there are plenty of settings here and i highly   recommend you read the official documentation  just to make sure you understand each particular   function usually the name is pretty suggestive of  what the parameter will do but i highly recommend   you still read it anyway so once you're happy  with all that this one here again i've tested this   myself and i've had no issues myself so if you're  happy to use this this is what we're providing   but if you'd like to change it just make sure you  understand what's going on under plex we want our   url so make sure you configure your plex url  with the port then you will need your plex   token now there's a variety of different ways  to get your plex token so the best and easiest   way i've found is to go into an item let's say  this one here click the three dots go to get info   click on view xml once it opens in the url bar go  all the way to the end and you'll see your plex   token at the end add the plex token in here and  then keep moving on the next thing we've got is   the the movie database so i highly recommend you  create a free account there create an api key and   add that in here for yourself tortoli same applies  there make sure the url and the api matches then   do the same for radar with radar and sonar it's  really important that the root folder location   as well as the quality profiles match exactly  what's in your application so this is the quality   profile i use and this is what it's called so i  spell it exactly as is with spaces and all and   that's our root folder path inside of radar same  applies to sonar make sure you do that as well and   then you've got tracked so if you wanted to use  tracked which we'll explain to you shortly then   you will need your client id and client secret if  i go back to the main page here for documentation   we've also listed how to create the tracked api  so that's what you put in that's what you put into   the redirect uri click save and it will give you  your id and secret the next two files we have some   different versions for you so the first version  is what i'm using and then the second version   here is from our community member drazeezy so big  thank you goes to drazeezy for sharing his config   and helping actually create this documentation  quite often we'll ask the community if anyone is   knowledgeable on a particular subject and wants to  help create the documentation and that just means   we can help better represent what the community  understands and what the community wants to see   so thank you very much for your contribution  we really appreciate it so here's what our tv   yml looks like now in here there's nothing that  needs to reference the sonar or anything like   that however you might want to change certain  names of things for example if you wanted this   collection to be called you know uh ibra core  popular then you might want to change that to   ibra call popular and as you roll down then you  can see all the stuff that's in this file now   like i said if you have something that's not part  of the original templates but you want to set it   yourself this is how you do it you've got the emmy  winners for example register as a template then it   asks what the list is that we're using so then  it's basically got a url directly to that list   and the summary is the description that people  see when they click on the collection now if we   look at drizzy's tv config you can see it's a lot  more cleaned up and you know very specific to what   his interests are so as we can see here we've got  template studio collection there's the different   studio collections and general collections that  he's got in there we've also then added editing   tv series metadata so in this yaml you can see how  to sort titles are set for multiple shows as well   as adding custom names and summaries for each of  their seasons so as you can see you can customize   it the way you like and have it reference that  data in multiple levels here's some extra examples   we've provided for you as well again thanks  to drizzy he wrote these parts up then there's   also setting up custom tv episode orders so if you  had a specific order that you wanted something to   show up in plex it will actually override plex's  automated metadata agent so it is quite a powerful   application and that's why you need to be very  careful because it can mess up your library if   you are not careful after tv setup then we've got  our movies config and this will be our movies.yml   and the same thing applies guys we've got  a template here for you to use and if you   like it use it if you want to customize it go for  it drazeezy also added his as well there is one   extra thing that really stood out to us from jazzy  that we really appreciated and that's this holiday   movie collection so if you want for example  to have lists run for holidays a collection   that's just for holidays for example christmas and  every year you want it to refresh for christmas   and have you know top trending christmas movies or  whatever the case might be this is the one for you   every season you can just go and say i want this  collection shop on my plex user's home page a lot   of instructions there and it's very very detailed  so i highly recommend you follow that through   if you're interested in setting up the holiday  collections so once you've created our three files   that's the main configuration done now  the rest of it is pretty much hopefully   fingers crossed automated so if we scroll down  we'll follow our documentation here as it says   so we've gotten up to this step we've created the  three files and we've made sure it all matches   what we want if you wanted to use tracked then  we need to authenticate it so as it says we'll   stop the container and follow the instructions  for either tracked or my anime list and add the   relevant values to your config yml now we've  already done that because we've done the file   first so on your first run like i said we'll start  it up click on it again and go to the console   once we run this command on the first run it's  going to ask you to authenticate with tracked   you click on the link as it says and it will take  you to another page to sign in with tracked and   tracked will ask you for your permission in which  case you allow it and then the script will pretty   much proceed you only need to do it once and once  it's done you're right to go now believe it or   not guys that's pretty much it because if you've  configured the files that's going to go ahead and   work but i'm going to show you a couple of other  things that are really really important so believe   it or not guys that's pretty much it once you've  done this it will start creating your collections   for you so there's a lot of things it can do  so let's have a look at the config real quick   and let's have a look at sonar for example you can  see there's a few parameters here these are some   important ones so the first one we're going to  see is search so do we want when pmm runs and says   it runs a list of imdb's top 250 movies it'll  check plex you'll find which of those 250 movies   you already have and put them in a collection  let's say 150 of those movies are missing do we   want that to be added to radar and then do we want  radar to go ahead and search for it the other way   around is do we have content in plex that's not  in radar and not in sonar so then it will actually   allow you to add that content to radar and sonar  you never say do you want it to be monitored   you know maybe you wanted to add something  but not actually monitor it we can do that   so we've got add which is false and then we've  got monitor and then we have search so you have   all three levels there as separate parameters  and that the script can actually run for us   so using this particular config file that i've  used it actually took me about three hours on the   first run and about two hours on the second run  after doing all the renaming that i needed to do   so it can take some time but if we have a look  here under movies we've got our collections and   then on the tv we've also got our collections  too now if you're a plex user and you want these   collections to show up on your user's home pages  the process is pretty simple go to the collections   view in the three dots section here we'll click  it click on visible on and then pick where you'd   like the collection to show up once you've ticked  these three boxes if we then go to settings go to   libraries then under the libraries if we click on  manage recommendations these are the lists that   we've created from this point you can then you  know change the order that you want them to appear   in or whether you want them on just your home  screen or your user's home screens for example   so if we go back to home we can see all of our  collections that we've created right here so   another good one for example would be doing that  for the christmas collection so if you wanted all   your christmas movies you know maybe the 1st of  december you could go in and assign that to your   users so it shows up on their home page you've  got control of that and you can manage it the   way you like and i mean as you can see it really  gives the user a better experience with plex and   makes it feel a lot more like the big names for  example netflix where you can actually break down   into different categories and pick ones that you  like you know in our scenario we've got even by   studios we've then got our genres we've then even  got by actors you can go by directors producers   whatever you want however you want to set it up so  guys that was plex meta manager i hope you really   enjoyed it i was wrapped when i stumbled across  it last week and really put some time into it   and spoke with our community i think it really  deserves some attention it isn't the simplest   thing to understand at first but as usual here at  ibra cook we try to make it as easy as possible   for you guys to pick it up where we might have  struggled so i hope this video got you going and   got your library looking really really nice if you  have any more tips for pmm that you think others   should know please drop it in the comments below  we'd really appreciate it please also feel free to   join us in our discord we'd love to have you there  we're going to keep the content coming and we have   a lot of updates coming up we're especially  looking for ways to improve our documentation   uh as well as finding all of our different ibra  corp services so that's all the work in progress   thank you very much for watching and we'll  see you in the next hebrew hall video

Channel: IBRACORP

Views: 14,995

Keywords: ibracorp, ibraco, ibra corp, plex meta manager, pmm, plex media server, plex meta manager setup, plex metadata, plex metadata editor, plex collections, plex auto collections, plex server, plex setup, plex live tv, ibracorp unraid, plex, how to setup plex, media server, unraid, 2021 plex setup, plex vs netflix, unraid tutorial, what is plex, plex 101, plex pass, review dork plex setup, unraid plex, unraid docker, unraid guide, linux whonnock, selfhosted, ibracorp plex, pms

Id: dF69MNoot3w

Length: 18min 1sec (1081 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 21 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Verustratego]

Thank you for making any videos at all. No matter the content. Your effort and time providing useful information is greatly appreciated.

[u/lunchplease1979]

Love your videos as I'm sure you know but can we get some more non-plex related stuff for a while... Seems a little Plex heavy this past month or two thank you:)

[u/jpotrz]

EXCELLENT video for an excellent app.

​

I have a couple of questions though...

I set everything up with a simple movies.xml file to start. I ran the script and it seems to be making collections. However, it's making collections not specified in the movies.yml? IT's making "Plex Popular" and "Popular" and "Top Rated" but those are not specified in the .yml file? Where are those collections being specified??