Can you change the location of your "Optimized" versions/library?

General Discussions
1

I have a WD Wireless Pro and optimized over 2 TB to the WD WP. I originally connected the drive via USB to accomplish this, so the drive was mounted locally at the time.

Moving forward, I don’t want to have to plug the drive in for new movies and shows to be added, so ideally I want my optimized library to point to the network location. Is there a way to do this??

2

Yes, you can change it when you set up the optimize.
All of my storage areas are network. The only caveat is that the location needs to be part of a library.

3

I tried that, but says the “Media Version Already Exists”. Based off my initial testing days ago, I believe I would have to remove the original “Optimized” library then add this new location since it’s all the same content, however…if I remove the original, it deletes all the optimized files along with it on the WD.

I don’t want to change any content on the WD, I just want my main Plex Library to use the network location instead of the local location when plugged in.

4

So that didn’t go well and exactly what I was afraid of.

I removed the “Optimized Library” from the main server…got the warning it would delete all optimized versions, but the drive wasn’t connected so it couldn’t. I then proceeded to create a new “Optimized Library” but now pointing to the network location. None of the files had changed, just the path. Well it started re-optimizing each file, even though it already existed in the folder. I stopped it, plugged the drive in locally and added the original path back hoping it would recognize all the files are there, but noooope…it is again re-optimizing.

5

Hmmm, strange.
Do you have it set to automatically optimize?

6

I think I know the issue. After I added the network location as a library, I need to let the library update and then add that folder as an “Optimized” location. As long as the library is updated, it sees the optimized files and doesn’t re do it.

I am testing that now.

7

I dunno…can’t really make sense of it. By doing what I described it seems it finds about half, but still wanting to re-optimize the rest.

8

You can’t move the location of a previously optimized file. Plex cannot pick up files that way. Unfortunately, you’ll need to re-optimize the files.

9

Yup…figuring that out. It does seem to get some but not all.
Oh well. Thanks!!

On Thu, Aug 4, 2016 at 3:56 PM -0400, “MovieFan.Plex” forums+d227603-s6025034@plex.tv wrote:

Plex Forums https://forums.plex.tv/

MovieFan.Plex answered your question: Can you change the location of your “Optimized” versions/library?

You can’t move the location of a previously optimized file. Plex cannot pick up files that way. Unfortunately, you’ll need to re-optimize the files.

10

Just went through this process, and it looks like plex found most of my files in the new location.
Step 1 - turn off automatic library updates
Step 2 - move files from location A to location B (in my case, from external to internal storage on FreeNAS)
Step 3 - scan library. Wait a few minutes for it to identify all of the “new files”. Fix any incorrect matches that may occur.
Step 4 - Navigate to Optimized Settings and delete the optimized version
Step 5 - Recreate optimized version (same bitrate, etc) pointing to the new location
Out of a few hundred optimized files, only four needed recreating.

Hope that helps others.

Thanks - Mike