I have just installed Plex on my computer and am trying to follow the instructions to load libraries and I wonder if the / is the problem? I am using Mint 19.0 (built on Ubuntu I am told) My media files are on a Seagate Plus USB drive. That much shows up when I try to add a library but nothing more. I have tried adding “/Movies” and “/Movies/” to the default that shows up when I try to add a library but it still says there is nothing in the library when I go back to the home page. It tells me the library is empty. Any suggestions?
Is my question posted in the wrong place?
I believe you are dealing with a separate issue - you may wish to start a separate topic for it.
Thanks, How do I start a new thread?
I will move this out to a new thread for you Irish666
1 Like
Here is your new thread. We will continue here.
The information you need is already prepared in a How-To.
Here is an edited version of my question: I have just installed Plex on my computer and am trying to follow the instructions to load libraries. I am using Mint 19.0 (built on Ubuntu I am told) My media files are on a Seagate Plus USB drive. That much shows up when I try to add a library but nothing more. I have tried adding “/Movies” and “/Movies/” to the default that shows up when I try to add a library but it still says there is nothing in the library when I go back to the home page. It tells me the library is empty. Any suggestions?
Yes… Linux Permissions.
User plex must be given permission (it usually doesn’t get it by default) to read the new directories.
Since you mounted at /Movies, here’s the quick & dirty way of handing it.
- Unmount
/Movies -
sudo chmod 755 /Movies(this handles the base mount point itself) - Mount
/Moviesback again sudo find /Movies -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;sudo find /Movies -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
This presumes that your Linux username owns the media.
If not, one final
sudo chown -R YourUsername /Movies
will correct that.
Sorry, but that also assumes I know how to get to /Movies in the command line. The name as it shows up in the menu is Seagate Backup Plus Drive 1 and that is too many arguments to do a change directory to get there. It also shows it self as being ‘/dev/sdc1’ but that is not a directory. I’ll bet you hate it when a novice like me tries to do this 
As long as you tell me you’re a novice, Everything can be fixed 
hehe
It sounds like you’re getting the automounter. Not cool.
Also, being a USB drive, the drive letters will change.
Please do follow the steps I’ve shown above for USB drives. Of primary importance is to get the bkid information for the partition and use that in the /etc/fstab entry.
Your goal is to create an entry in /etc/fstab which looks like:
UUID=Partition-UUID-value /Movies ext4 defaults,auto,rw,nofail,bg 0 0
If it’s not ext4 formatted, we will change the value there. The other common value is ntfs
Here is where I am. I copied the input and output I did in the first part of the instructions and got this: Sorry formatting goes to pot
irish@irish-ZBOX-BI325:~ df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on udev 4005988 0 4005988 0% /dev tmpfs 807644 1380 806264 1% /run /dev/sda1 960379920 50187980 861337516 6% / tmpfs 4038212 40032 3998180 1% /dev/shm tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock tmpfs 4038212 0 4038212 0% /sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs 807640 80 807560 1% /run/user/1000 /dev/sdb2 3906885628 1006683528 2900202100 26% /media/irish/Seagate Backup Plus Drive /dev/sdc1 1953513556 1586057784 367455772 82% /media/irish/Seagate Backup Plus Drive1 irish@irish-ZBOX-BI325:~ sudo sh
blkid /dev/sdc1
/dev/sdc1: LABEL=“Seagate Backup Plus Drive” UUID=“A0DEA515DEA4E4AE” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTUUID=“1a91735b-01”
The Location
sh: 2: The: not found
mkdir /disks/media/irish/Seagate Backup Plus Drive1
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/disks/media/irish/Seagate’: No such file or directory
mkdir / disks disks/Seagate Backup Plus Drive1
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/’: File exists
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘Backup’: File exists
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘Plus’: File exists
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘Drive1’: File exists
I am out of time right now. I’ll try to get back tomorrow and try it again. I really want this to work.
Just like Windows, spaces in names require quotes but you can’t put the quotes in /etc/fstab easily.
I suggest:
- track down those errant directories “Backup” “Plus” and “Drive1” and remove them. They were created in whichever diretory you’re in
- use this sequence… (copy paste)
sudo sh
mkdir -p /disks/seagate/plus-drive1
chmod -R 755 /disks/seagate/plus-drive1
We will mount that drive there. It gives you room to add other seagate USB drives later
In /etc/fstab , add this line
UUID=A0DEA515DEA4E4AE /disks/seagate/plus-drive1 ntfs defaults,auto,rw,nofail,bg 0 0
After saving /etc/fstab, TEST the mount:
sudo mount /disks/seagate/plus-drive1
If it mounts without errors and is visible, you’re done.
I’m stuck. After about 2 hours I managed to delete the errant directories, then typed the next three lines as I couldn’t get it to copy and paste. I finally figured out how to get into fstab, but I’m having no luck editing it to add that line. (I bought a book called “Linux Learn in 1 Day” but I can’t remember from one page to the next and its on my Kindle so this is really slow going. And the battery just went dead so I have to wait for it to charge.)
I get into the fstab file, using “vi fstab”, put my cursor as far down the file as it will go, which is on top of the last 0 and then press “A” to add a line, but it goes south after that. If I accidentally touch the wrong key I can’t back up to fix it and I hit the wrong key a lot After the battery gets charged I’ll get back on it. My only question at this point is there an easier more user friendly editing program?
I have a suggestion…
Install the program named gedit (the graphical editor)
sudo gedit /etc/fstab
your life will be infinitely easier since it’s entirely graphical
Brilliant! I did add the line and saved it and no error showed up until I tried the test mount. I got this error message:
“Mount is denied because the NTFS volume is already exclusively opened.
The volume may be already mounted, or another software may use it which
could be identified for example by the help of the ‘fuser’ command.”
After a false start I did run “fuser /disks/seagate/plus-drive1” but it came back empty (no output) so that should mean everything is good right - you only get output if it goes wrong I thought.
I may have it now. I had to share the drive which required a reboot of the whole system, but right now it seems to be sorting out the directory! This will be wonderful if it works 
OK… now there’s progress.
- type
sudo mountand see where it’s mounted. You will see the partition listed. - type
sudo umount put-device-name-here( umount is short for un-mount ) - Now mount it as instructed above
Last evening I let the computer continue to update Plex as we went to bed. I have 1.4 TB of video in 3629 files plus 1.6 GB of audio in 25,930 files so from previous times copying the disk I was not surprised it was taking so long … but then I thought it was only making an index.
This morning Plex would not work at all. Turns out it can’t find the hard drive – in fact the computer can’t find it at all any more. I did a little diagnosis – tried a different USB port, tried another similar USB HD, and put the original in another computer. The disk will not work in any of the USB ports on my computer. A similar 2.0 TB HD worked just fine in my computer, and the original worked fine in another computer (my wife has one identical to mine.)
The icon in the Computer window is now different (it looks like the internal HD rather then the Seagate USB HD) and the name changed from “Seagate BUP BK: Seagate Backup Plus Drive1” to “Seagate BUP Slim BL.” When I select the icon and tell it to safely remove the drive I get “ Unable to stop drive The drive in use: Device /dev /s dc1 is mounted” When I try to open it I get “ Unable to mount location Can’t mount file” For properties it shows location as “computer:///”
I have rebooted the computer and checked the System Monitor and the disk shows as being there.
My last Timeshift snapshot is 4 days ago so I am reluctant to blow off all the progress we made getting here. Frankly I probably don’t remember half of what I did
Once again I am stuck. Do you have any suggestion other then try the Timeshift?
Linux will not unmount a disk (partition) if it’s in use.
In-use also qualifies as “The file explorer is looking at it”, “You have a terminal window open and did a cd to a directory on it”
The easiest way to stop it from mounting is:
- Open a Terminal window
- sudo gedit /etc/fstab
- Type a # as the first character of the line (the one not to mount) … makes it a comment.
Now you can reboot
