PlexAmp plugin and large music collections

Plugins
1

I have a large music collection stored on a single Plex server, which I access from the Volumio app through UPnP, with the chain

Media Servers->MyServer->Music->Music->All Artists

This works, but for years I’ve had the issue that in my case, “F” is the last letter of the alphabet :grinning:. My music collection is big enough (and apparently front-loaded enough) that no artists appear from the second half of the alphabet. Volumio’s dynamic memory allocation for this task is too small, and there does not appear to be an easy way of increasing it. I know the problem is not on the Plex server side, as other applications are able to ingest my entire artist list.

Will the PlexAmp plugin solve this problem? Thanks!

2

Yes. Unlike Volumio’s built-in UPnP browser—which must load your entire “All Artists” list into a limited memory buffer—the PlexAmp plugin talks directly to Plex over its API. In practice that means:

  1. You’ll get a true “All Artists” view, not truncated at “F.”

    • PlexAmp asks the server for smaller, paged chunks of artist metadata rather than pulling every single entry into RAM at once.
    • Even if your collection is front-loaded (i.e. most artists start with A–F), PlexAmp will still let you scroll down into the G’s, H’s, etc., because it streams only what is needed rather than loading the entire index into memory.

  2. Performance will be better (even if somewhat slower to load initially).

    • The plugin must still fetch thousands of artist records from Plex, so the first time you click “View all Artists,” you may see a brief loading delay.
    • Once the artist list has been populated in the PlexAmp UI, however, it won’t drop you back to “F” just because Volumio’s UPnP engine runs out of buffer space.

  3. Setup is straightforward (assuming you already have your Plex server running):

    1. Install the PlexAmp plugin from the Volumio Plugins page (or via SSH with volumio plugin install plexamp).
    2. Open Volumio’s Web UI → Settings → Plugins → PlexAmp.
    3. Enter your Plex server address (e.g. http://192.168.1.17:32400), your Plex login token (or credentials), and hit “Save & Enable.”
    4. Go back to “Browse” in Volumio and you’ll see a new “PlexAmp” entry right alongside your UPnP server. Drill down to Music → Artists → All Artists, and you’ll be able to step through the full A–Z list.

  4. A few caveats to be aware of:

    • Large libraries still take time to index. PlexAmp will paginate the artist list, but if you have 10,000+ artists, expect a short lag when scrolling. That lag is much shorter than UPnP simply stopping at “F,” though.
    • Metadata comes from Plex’s database. If an artist or album hasn’t been scanned correctly by Plex (e.g. non-standard tags), PlexAmp may group or sort some entries differently than Volumio’s UPnP browser did.
    • Network speed matters. Because PlexAmp streams metadata over HTTP, a slower connection between Volumio and your Plex box will result in longer load times than a local UPnP share, but it will not truncate the alphabet.

In other words: Yes, installing the PlexAmp plugin is the recommended way to work around Volumio’s UPnP memory ceiling. Once PlexAmp is up and running, you’ll finally see artists all the way down to “Z.”

3

Thanks for the detailed reply, Xone. I’ve tried to setup the PlexAmp plugin, but have not been successful yet. Followed the instructions, created the Plex ID, got “Account Linked” on the Plex page, enabled the plugin, and rebooted. I see the new PlexAmp tile on the main screen (with no graphics, just a blank tile). Clicking on it shows some familiar Plex categories (eg. Recently Added Albums) but clicking on any tile produces “Connection failed, server is unreachable.” (Server is alive and well on my home network). And, if I go back to try viewing the PlexAmp Settings page again (Installed Plugins->Settings), it never displays. Other Plex functions seem to still work in this state. Plex version is 3.812 on a Raspberry Pi 3. Q: Does the PlexAmp plugin depend on having a paid account on Plex? I’ve never had one, just the free variety. Thanks.