Change location of Plex Media Server folder on Mac OS

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
1

Server Version#: 4.47.3

Hello,
I am running PMS on my MacMini which has only 128 GB SSD and the metadata folder is eating up all the space.
I would like to move the PMS folder to an external USB drive (which is always connected to the Mac Mini) and found the following post https://forums.plex.tv/t/help-moving-55gb-metadata-folder/181603

I tried it with a symlink but it does not seem to work. Upon renaming the old folder, the PMS folder was created again on the SSD…

Can someone please help me with detailed instructions

Thanks

2

Have a read through this article.

3

Thanks. Are you confirming that a symlink will be the solution to my need, i.e. I need to fix the symlink I created ?

4

Yes and Yes, it’s the only good solution for you other than Thunderbolt External SSD with MacOS installed. Expensive option.

5

Yes. The symlink method should work. Note that it has to be a symlink created in Terminal.app, not a Finder Alias.

The USB drive you’re using, was it formatted for the mac? - I don’t think things will behave if it’s a FAT/FAT32/exFAT drive.

You’re following these instructions? Share the commands that you typed.

Help moving 55GB metadata folder - #7 by jdingwell

In Terminal.app, create the symlink again. Then do this and share the results. It will show where the symlink is pointing.

ls -l ~/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server

And this, which will show the contents of where it’s pointing - note the / at the end:

ls -l ~/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/

6

Thank you, I managed to create the symlink correctly and everything seems to work. I have renamed the old PMS folder on SSD and kept it for now in case I run into problems with the newly created one on the USB HDD. Thank you again for your support.

1 Like
7

Thank you. It seems everything is working ok now. Please see below the results and let me know if anything needs to be corrected.
Regards

Last login: Sat Jan 2 09:36:31 on ttys000
sondophan@Sons-Mac-mini-Crozet ~ % ls -l ~/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server
lrwxr-xr-x 1 sondophan staff 47 Jan 2 09:30 /Users/sondophan/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server → /Volumes/Music_Maxtor_USB_4TB/Plex Media Server
sondophan@Sons-Mac-mini-Crozet ~ % ls -l ~/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/
total 168
drwxr-xr-x 7 sondophan staff 224 Jan 1 20:02 Codecs
drwxr-xr-x 23 sondophan staff 736 Jan 1 20:02 Crash Reports
drwxr-xr-x 2 sondophan staff 64 Apr 16 2020 Diagnostics
drwxr-xr-x 3 sondophan staff 96 Jan 2 09:13 Media
drwxr-xr-x 7 sondophan staff 224 Jan 2 09:13 Metadata
lrwxr-xr-x 1 sondophan staff 47 Jan 1 19:09 Plex Media Server → /Volumes/Music_Maxtor_USB_4TB/Plex Media Server
drwxr-xr-x 8 sondophan staff 256 Jan 1 20:02 Plug-in Support
drwxr-xr-x 3 sondophan staff 96 Apr 8 2020 Plug-ins
drwxr-xr-x 3 sondophan staff 96 Jan 2 09:13 Thumbnails
drwxr-xr-x 7 sondophan staff 224 Jan 1 20:02 Updates
-rw-rw-rw- 1 sondophan staff 263 Jan 2 09:58 sync.ffs_lock
-rw-r–r-- 1 sondophan staff 79844 Dec 26 17:02 update-log.txt
sondophan@Sons-Mac-mini-Crozet ~ %

8

Your symlink looks OK, and it looks like the new path has all of the necessary stuff in it. Yay!

You’ve also got a funny extra symlink, located at /Volumes/Music_Maxtor_USB_4TB/Plex Media Server/Plex Media Server. That’s probably what went wrong the first time.

It’s not causing any harm, but it could be confusing in the future. You can delete it if you’d like to keep things tidy.

rm -iv "/Volumes/Music_Maxtor_USB_4TB/Plex Media Server/Plex Media Server"

9

Thanks, is it ok now?

sondophan@Sons-Mac-mini-Crozet ~ % ls -l ~/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/
total 160
drwxr-xr-x 7 sondophan staff 224 Jan 1 20:02 Codecs
drwxr-xr-x 23 sondophan staff 736 Jan 1 20:02 Crash Reports
drwxr-xr-x 2 sondophan staff 64 Apr 16 2020 Diagnostics
drwxr-xr-x 4 sondophan staff 128 Jan 2 10:25 Media
drwxr-xr-x 7 sondophan staff 224 Jan 2 09:13 Metadata
drwxr-xr-x 8 sondophan staff 256 Jan 1 20:02 Plug-in Support
drwxr-xr-x 3 sondophan staff 96 Apr 8 2020 Plug-ins
drwxr-xr-x 3 sondophan staff 96 Jan 2 09:13 Thumbnails
drwxr-xr-x 7 sondophan staff 224 Jan 1 20:02 Updates
-rw-r–r-- 1 sondophan staff 79844 Dec 26 17:02 update-log.txt
sondophan@Sons-Mac-mini-Crozet ~ %

1 Like
10

Looks good!

11

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