It would be nice if the system would allow me to set up a archive date. After that date, the movie and all other files associated with it would be moved to another drive/directory to free up space, but keep a image of the movie poster in the list, perhaps with a indicator that its been archived.
Then, if I want to watch it, the system can retreive it, and move it back automatically, perhaps then moving the next older film to archive status
What would be the purpose of archiving them.
From your description I take this is not about freeing up storage space (if you move it do a different drive, you’ll still need to provide the same amount of storage on your separate disc), nor about tidying up the library itself (posters would still be there, “cluttering” the library).
Just trying to understand where you’re coming from / what you’re trying to achieve by moving the files around?!
I have a storage array, I could go through and re-allocate drives to a particular drive. It would be easier to move a film to a smaller drive that isn’t used as much for storage, but still not be in the active rotation. Much easier than removing the movie manually and then copy it to a different drive, where I may forget about it, and then my main drive stays current with the latest films, TV shows, etc.
just create a movies folder on the 2nd drive, link that to your library and add new movies to that folder.
- hover your mouse over the library on your homepage
- click
... > Edit - go to
Add folders
In on the fence with this one… @tom80H is completely right you would not save storage space and you can easily do this manually and add the second drive as a folder in Plex.
IMO the only time where i could see this being useful is if you had tape backups as you deep storage. (im not sure how many of us are going to buy a 40 tape array). I guess you could have a second NAS that is a lot slower that acts as deep storage, but unless you have multiple people pulling from that storage it wouldn’t matter. the last option I can think of where this would be useful is if you where using Amazon Glacier and wanted Plex to pull the media from that to a local array. there would then be the matter of queue time based on your internet connection.
I have some movies that aren’t actually on Plex - they are on Google Play - but I like to remember that I have them - so I created a 30 second video that I drop in to Plex as a placeholder - then I still have the poster and cast list etc - and I remember that I own the movie somewhere else. I can’t see why you couldn’t use the same technique to remind you when you have movies that you have “archived”. I agree with others though - I don’t see the point in un-necessary coding being needed to make this automatic, because some sort of message would need to be provided to the end user to explain why the movie they wanted to watch is not actually available - it goes against everything Plex is designed to provide. It would be like logging in to Netflix to watch a film, but being told you have to wait 47 minutes until you can watch the movie because it’s not available at the data centre you are connected to.
Early 2021 clean-up: duplicate
