Server Version#:1.41.3.9314 (Windows and Linux)
Windows: Windows 10 Pro (version: 22H2)
Linux: Ubuntu 24.04.1 TLS (firmware: 2701)
I’ve been having this issue for at least 4-5 months now. For that amount of time, my Plex Media Server no longer automatically detect the new media I add onto my drives. This pertains to Movies, TV Shows and Music. I started out with my Server on a Windows machine running Windows 10 Pro. Up until 4-5 months ago, everything was working fine. When new media was added, plex detected it right away and updated the library. Then 4-5 months ago I noticed this stopped as I added something new, went to go turn on my TV to watch the new content and was confused when it wasn’t there. I completed a manual scan and the new media appeared. I thought it was a one off so a week later I added another media file and the same thing happened. I had to resort to enabling a scan every 15 minutes in order to get my new files to be seen on Plex.
On the flip side, I went and spun up a new Server on Linux (Ubuntu) almost a month ago and tested it out there and the same thing is happening there. New files are not being automatically recognized. Both servers are pointing to the exact same storage locations. And for that, I initially had them pointing to hard drives connected to my Windows machine. I then pointed them both to my NAS and the same action persisted. A manual scan or scheduled scan results in the new media being shown but for the life of me, the automatic updates no longer works. The one thing I know for sure is from when the issue started, there has been at least 2 Plex Media Server updates completed. My initial thought is those updates broke something within their coding because a fresh install of the latest version has the same issue. I’ve tried disabling “Scan my library automatically” and “Run a partial scan when changes are detected” as well as “Scan my library periodically” (which is set to every 15 minutes), restarting the server and re-enabling those settings and the issues still persists.
Someone please provide me with a solution for this.
Before anyone says anything about permissions, please know that no changes were made to my Windows machine at all when the issues started happening. Also, permissions is not an issue as the server is able to see the new media and add them successfully after a manual/scheduled scan with no issues. If there were any permission issues, Plex would not be able to update with the new media after the scan.
Can you upload some of your server logs? Folks will definitely wanna see those to get more details about what your server is doing since others aren’t having this problem and that’ll provide insight for them (I’m not good at reading them but others are).
Can you detail your server setup a bit more? I’m not sure I understand the dual server situation. Do you have different media stored in two locations or same media in two locations or media in one location but two different Plex Server instances? That kinda thing is unclear.
It’s likely not a permissions issue since a manual scan is fine.
But since the manual and scheduled scan is fine it makes me think about something else. I know there is a file limit on the auto scan - if you have too many files then there’s a limit file systems can hit where OS won’t notice new files automatically anymore which is what triggers the auto scan. It’s a pretty big limit but folks with music and\or photo libraries can hit it. I can’t find it right now though… my search-fu is failing. But it might help if you share how many files you’ve got and how they’re organized. Someone else will know the limit I’m talking about and can say if it applies or not.
Automatic scanning of network file shares is a gamble. It can work, but it might be not reliable. The signaling whether a new file has been added to a file share or folder doesn’t work over a network – particularly if the file share is accessed per SMB/CIFS protocol. And even more so if file server and plex server are running under different operating systems.
The link to the Synology FAQ that was posted above, might only apply if the server is accessing the file share per NFS protocol.
The automatic scanning doesn’t work when the files are being read locally on the Windows PC (which did work before) or on the network. I’m not running anything on Synology, so although the article had some things to consider, I can’t implement some of it.
