Can't Add Folders to Library - Plex Server Can't See User Folder -LINUX-

[just-robert]

Hello!

Yesterday, I installed Linux Mint 21 on a Dell Laptop.
After that, I upgraded system and then Installed Plex Media Server.
Now, at the time to add folders to library, Plex Server can’t see any folders on
/home/myuser

How could I add Music and Videos folders?

I have triple check permission on folders, and this is the terminal output

roberto@my-user:~$ ls -l
total 36
drwxr-xr-x 2 roberto roberto 4096 dic  3 11:33 Descargas
drwxr-xr-x 2 roberto roberto 4096 dic  2 23:20 Documentos
drwxr-xr-x 2 roberto roberto 4096 dic  2 20:05 Escritorio
drwxr-xr-x 2 roberto roberto 4096 dic  2 23:19 Imágenes
drwxr-xr-x 2 roberto roberto 4096 dic  2 20:05 Música
drwxr-xr-x 2 roberto roberto 4096 dic  2 20:05 Plantillas
drwxr-xr-x 2 roberto roberto 4096 dic  2 20:05 Público
drwxr-xr-x 2 root    root    4096 dic  2 22:40 sambashare
drwxr-xr-x 4 roberto roberto 4096 dic  2 22:06 Vídeos

Permissions look ok.

Can you please help me out?

Server Version#: 1.29.2.6364-6d72b0cf6
Player Version#:

[ChuckPa]

Linux is very strict and /home is normally protected so you can’t see other users’ files.
(Linux supports multiple users at the same time)

To relax the permissions:

sudo chmod 755 /home

[just-robert]

sudo chmod 755 /home didn’t work.
Issue still persist.

[ChuckPa]

Get me the log files please (Settings - Server - Troubleshooting - Download Logs)

attach the ZIP file please.

I will advise you right now –

Putting media in your home directory is bad practice.

You show this:

drwxr-xr-x 2 root    root    4096 dic  2 22:40 sambashare

If this is your media on a NAS, mounted with SMB/Samba, it won’t work.
If it is indeed a NAS, does it have NFS support ?
(In windows you use SMB, In Linux, you use NFS)

This will help you learn Plex on Linux

Linux Tips

Tips & Tricks of the Linux trade. Below, you’ll find a collection of tips, tricks, and how-to’s to help make setting up, administrating, and using Plex Media Server on Linux a little easier. Reporting problems Using other hard drives (Windows or Linux) with PMS Customizing your Plex configuration on systemd based systems Using other EXT4, NTFS, or other drives (internal or USB) Mounting CIFS + SMB network shares for Plex use Mounting NFS network shares for Plex use Moving…

This will help you mounting your media

Linux Tips

Using other hard drives (Windows or Linux) with PMS This How-To is written to help with Internal and External drives. It also is written to demonstrate how to cope with NTFS and EXT4 formatted drives. By logical extension, any format supported by Linux can be handled using the technique shown here. In all cases, the goal is to give user plex permission to read your media files which Linux doesn’t allow by default due to its strict security model. We will walk through the steps needed …

and

Linux Tips

Mounting NFS network shares for Plex use The basic checklist Prepare the NAS: Create a ‘mount point’ directory structure on your Linux machine which will be where all your media shares are grafted and made available for Plex use. Create an entry in /etc/fstab for each share you wish to mount. Mount and debug as needed A. Prepare the NAS. This is unique to each NAS. In general, you only need grant read permission. Should you desire Read/Write for yourself, we will allow for it On Lin…

[just-robert]

I don’t have movies or music files on home directory.
The image you’re refering to, that shows
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 dic 2 22:40 sambashare
is listed ther because I just wanted to give some information about permissions of folders on /home/user.
I don’t have a NAS nor external hard drives.
Music files are in Music folder and movie files on Movies folder on /home/username/Music and /home/username/Videos on my linux system.
Here you have the log file.
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-12-03_22-04-02.zip (304.1 KB)

[ChuckPa]

You changed the logging.
You added VERBOSE

Please turn it back OFF & SAVE

with it on, it logs every mouse motion and click.
it makes debugging extremely difficult and wastes huge amounts of log buffer space

Thank you for clarifying your home directory.

By relaxing the permission on /home above,
It seems you need to do it again but include your home directory.

cd
chmod 755 .

OR

chmod 755 /home/USERNAME

What’s happening here is Plex runs as username plex:plex
You are username:username

You and plex don’t have anything in common so Linux won’t allow it to see your files unless you explicitly grant it.

That’s what we are doing with the chmod commands.

You’ll also need to do this for your music and other folders and files you want plex to read. All that is in the Linux Tips section I referenced above.

I’ll help you here but these are basic Linux skills you need to master as you go forward

[just-robert]

Mr. ChuckPa,

Yesterday, I did /home/username and issue was still there.
Today, aftere reading your’e comment… I just did

sudo chmod 755 /home/username
sudo chmod 755 /home/username/Vídeos
sudo chmod 755 /home/username/Música

and I could add forlders that I wanted.

Thanks a lot.

What if someone use sudo ckmod 755 -r /home/username
Could that command grant permission on everything inside username?

[ChuckPa]

Not the correct commands

@just-robert

What if someone use sudo ckmod 755 -r /home/username

This way:

1. Get into home directory
2. Set permission for directories
3. Set permission for files

cd
find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

I am VERY concerned this is necessary because 755/644 is the default permission for files in your home directory