Database files HUGE - com.plexapp.plugins.library.db file is 149GB

Plex Media Server
3

Question: DSM version?

Question: Do you install with Package Center or are you using Docker?

Database Bloat - Fixing the Problem

As @pl_5309 mentions, it looks like your system was afflicted with the database bloat bug in some 1.41.7 releases.

See my edit to the first post in this thread: Library.db size more than doubled in latest version.

It will give you info on two methods. Letting Plex clean the database will take many hours during which the server will be running, but not available. Using the shell script may still take a long time, but it will be faster. The tar file (in this post) is configured for DSM 7 systems with Plex installed via Package Center (hence my question above).

Read the info and write back with any questions.

Deleting Backup Datbase Files

The -tmp file is can be deleted. It is possibly a leftover from Plex trying to clean the database (note the date is 09/12/2025).

The files with dates appended are backups and not actively used by Plex. They can be deleted if necessary to free up space.

Before deleting them, suggest you do the following (I’m being a bit paranoid):

  1. Scan a library (generates activity).
  2. Pull the log files (settings → troubleshooting) and unzip.
  3. Look in Plex Media Server.log and the rollovers, .1.log to .5.log, for any ERROR entries that mention the database is corrupt or malformed. You can search for corrupt and malformed.
  4. If you find any such entries, stop, write back, and include the log files.

If there are no such entries, then:

  1. Stop Plex Media Server
  2. Delete the files with dates appended.
  3. Copy the active database files, com.plexapp.plugins.library.db and com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db, to a place outside the Plex Data Folder (so you have a backup)
  4. Start Plex Media Server