Creating Plex Server on a Windows host and using a NAS for the file storage

[stryker396]

Server Version#: 1.18.9.2571
Player Version#:
I have a Plex Server on a Windows 10 host. The media files are on a QNAP NAS, which is running Linux. The Windows host can see and access the shared directory on the NAS but when I go add the media directories to the Plex Server, it doesn’t see the shared folders on the NAS. I have no issues when using Kodi but I would really like to set the Plex Server to access the shared folders on the NAS. What am I doing wrong?

[OttoKerner]

Part 1

How to add files on a NAS to a Plex library on Windows

If you have installed Plex Media Server on your Windows computer, you add shares on your NAS this way: Surf to the media on your NAS using the Windows file explorer: [UNC_path] click into the address bar of file explorer once and press CTRL+C to copy the so-called ‘UNC path’ into the Windows clipboard. Then switch into Plex Web and create a new library. (or edit an existing one) On the ‘Add Folder…’ tab, click on ‘Browse for Media Folder’ in the resulting window, delete everything from th…

Part2

I cannot access some of my library files on my external hard drive

Whenever you have to access file shares, don’t rely on Windows storing the access credentials for that file share. It is not reliable. What you should do: Create a user account on the file server/NAS which uses identical username and password as the Plex server. This will always give immediate access, in my experience.

[Joseph_Haggar]

Hello,

Since you are using Qnap ,
i do recommend that you use the ISCSI to create a LUN
then using the windows ISCSI initiator , you attache it to your windows
this way the data will be on your storage but the Plex Server will see it localy

you can also try to do drive mapping , just tried it , it is working perfectly

[stryker396]

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I mapped the drives and it’s working perfectly. Much appreciated.