Server Version#:1.42.2.10156.
Player Version#: 4.147.1
I have set up settings in many shows to auto delete episdodes after a day, a week, or only to keep the latest episodes. In all cases I get the same messages in the logs:
Garbage Collector: Skipping deletion [FILENAME] (it was added after it was last played).
I have looked at several of these cases and in every case the error is not correct. The file was played after it was added. Here’s but one of a lot of examples:
$ ls -la urder
-rwxrwxrwx 1 scstraus users 1377392927 Sep 17 01:10 Only.Murders.in.the.Building.S05E04.1080p.WEB.h264-ETHEL[EZTVx.to].mkv
It was clearly played after it’s creation. The time on the server shows correctly. It’s able to delete it if I manually tell it to.
Empty trash automatically after every scan is turned on
Allow media deletion is turned on
I am logged in as the only user that exists which I expect is the admin user.
It just somehow cannot figure out that the show was played after it was created. Seems like a bug to me. Any ideas?
Logs below:
Plex Media Server Logs_2025-12-04_21-21-45.zip (3.9 MB)
Take a look at the UNIX timestamp in the Plex media info XML of an affected item.
It should be in the XML property addedAt="xxxxxxxxxxxxx"
You’ll have to convert it from UNIX “epoch time” to human-readable form. For instance here: https://www.epochconverter.com/
The Added At appears to translate to Thursday, October 2, 2025 12:10:50 AM. Any idea why that would be when that clearly is not when the file was created and the server shouldn’t have taken that long to scan it?
Here’s the rest of the XML that seems like it might be relevant.
<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionUUID="41669343-7fed-4487-8c88-e872cb7d9bdb" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1758205129">
<Video ratingKey="88446" key="/library/metadata/88446" parentRatingKey="85640" grandparentRatingKey="85639" guid="plex://episode/688224e50a4af83eebb7ff00" parentGuid="plex://season/671e9e2b11926aff6622fb8f" grandparentGuid="plex://show/5f2e583c684902004303e54a" grandparentSlug="only-murders-in-the-building" type="episode" title="Dirty Birds" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/85639" parentKey="/library/metadata/85640" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/2" grandparentTitle="Only Murders in the Building" parentTitle="Season 5" contentRating="TV-MA" summary="Snooping goes sideways when three billionaire suspects catch the trio and invite themselves over for an evening at Oliver's." index="4" parentIndex="5" audienceRating="9.7" viewCount="1" lastViewedAt="1758734850" year="2025" thumb="/library/metadata/88446/thumb/1763860262" art="/library/metadata/85639/art/1764819477" parentThumb="/library/metadata/85640/thumb/1758500954" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/85639/thumb/1764819477" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/85639/art/1764819477" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/85639/theme/1764819477" duration="2206784" originallyAvailableAt="2025-09-16" addedAt="1759363850" updatedAt="1763860262" audienceRatingImage="themoviedb://image.rating">
<Media id="622218" duration="2206784" bitrate="4991" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="eac3" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="622218" key="/library/parts/622218/1758064248/file.mkv" duration="2206784" file="/data/New/Only.Murders.in.the.Building.S05E04.1080p.WEB.h264-ETHEL\[EZTVx.to\].mkv" size="1377392927" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="6" requiredBandwidths="8438,6728,5654,5654,5654,5654,5654,5654" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="4634234" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="4735" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="1088" codedWidth="1920" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="4" requiredBandwidths="8181,6472,5403,5403,5403,5403,5403,5403" scanType="progressive" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p" extendedDisplayTitle="1080p (H.264)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="4634235" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="eac3" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="256" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" requiredBandwidths="256,256,256,256,256,256,256,256" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="English (EAC3 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (EAC3 5.1)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="4634236" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="2" bitrate="0" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="English" displayTitle="English" extendedDisplayTitle="English (SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="4634237" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="3" bitrate="0" language="Spanish" languageTag="es" languageCode="spa" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Spanish" displayTitle="Spanish" extendedDisplayTitle="Spanish (Spanish SRT)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Image alt="Dirty Birds" type="coverPoster" url="/library/metadata/85639/thumb/1764819477"/>
<Image alt="Dirty Birds" type="snapshot" url="/library/metadata/88446/thumb/1763860262"/>
<Image alt="Dirty Birds" type="background" url="/library/metadata/85639/art/1764819477"/>
<Image alt="Dirty Birds" type="clearLogo" url="/library/metadata/85639/clearLogo/1764819477"/>
<UltraBlurColors topLeft="3b1404" topRight="4c0c0b" bottomRight="482303" bottomLeft="4e2e15"/>
<Guid id="imdb://tt33333200"/>
<Guid id="tmdb://6402103"/>
<Guid id="tvdb://11256811"/>
<Rating image="imdb://image.rating" value="7.7" type="audience"/>
<Rating image="themoviedb://image.rating" value="9.7" type="audience"/>
<Director id="11572" filter="director=11572" tag="Chris Koch" tagKey="5d776834e6d55c002040cd60" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/people/5d776834e6d55c002040cd60.jpg"/>
<Writer id="11664" filter="writer=11664" tag="Kristin Newman" tagKey="5dd8721bedf40c001de94ea4" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/c/people/c6a1199c3d24b4d616be4deab9036902.jpg"/>
<Role id="285" filter="actor=285" tag="Steve Martin" tagKey="5d77682a3c3c2a001fbcbd29" role="Charles-Haden Savage" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/7/people/72d1d60a7709e747cebd8b82807bbf86.jpg"/>
<Role id="1791" filter="actor=1791" tag="Martin Short" tagKey="5d7768255af944001f1f63cd" role="Oliver Putnam" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/b/people/b50a9f8754322edaa7a69e4b3cbacc84.jpg"/>
<Role id="410" filter="actor=410" tag="Selena Gomez" tagKey="5d776838961905001eb94d6e" role="Mabel Mora" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/5/people/5bcf63c509bd55813bf8a0165150d262.jpg"/>
<Role id="11334" filter="actor=11334" tag="Michael Cyril Creighton" tagKey="5d77687651dd69001fe0ca93" role="Howard Morris" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/b/people/b8c005b63084520d85190fb2e3dc54e4.jpg"/>
<Role id="1625" filter="actor=1625" tag="Jackie Hoffman" tagKey="5d7768266f4521001ea98d3d" role="Uma Heller" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/8/people/80bc4d74923a99018469bf0edd652f99.jpg"/>
<Role id="939" filter="actor=939" tag="Richard Kind" tagKey="5d7768285af944001f1f720f" role="Vince Fish" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/e/people/e3fa015076f58dd55c1a952a28421c29.jpg"/>
<Role id="11564" filter="actor=11564" tag="Jermaine Fowler" tagKey="5d776b70f617c900201760d4" role="Randall" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/c/people/cd1a636bfe1364bd3286202ac8c8fe14.jpg"/>
<Role id="11574" filter="actor=11574" tag="Beanie Feldstein" tagKey="5d776b75fb0d55001f568a02" role="Althea" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/5/people/52378652bb588d2f6d79ce59cf202ad8.jpg"/>
<Role id="11575" filter="actor=11575" tag="Logan Lerman" tagKey="5d77682a5af944001f1f7852" role="Jay Pflug" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/3/people/315a40156fe7e738e15e1c88ada5bf62.jpg"/>
<Role id="11576" filter="actor=11576" tag="Christoph Waltz" tagKey="5d77682c7228e5001f1dd6af" role="Bash Steed" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/3/people/3a908fb6b5c0dbc6d9468729b8e2c543.jpg"/>
<Role id="11577" filter="actor=11577" tag="Renée Zellweger" tagKey="5d77682785719b001f3a0efd" role="Camila White" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/e/people/e485a4161e6b370509dd423840ecd148.jpg"/>
<Role id="11665" filter="actor=11665" tag="Simone Recasner" tagKey="5f4006e2cae2c60042ed5647" role="Podcast Executive" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/c/people/cd014502c07c72aefc34913c593b590f.jpg"/>
<Role id="11666" filter="actor=11666" tag="Tony Daniels" tagKey="5d77684854c0f0001f3059a2" role="Regis Voice Over" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/e/people/efc7e215af1512ad84fe3a3cc67e8bc6.jpg"/>
<Role id="1021" filter="actor=1021" tag="Paul Rudd" tagKey="5d77682685719b001f3a0b81" role="L.E.S.T.R. (voice)" thumb="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/3/people/369c689e7e325cc7b9a3fae21aaf9be2.jpg"/>
<Producer id="11601" filter="producer=11601" tag="Jill Risk" tagKey="5dd2bc754bd3ce001f7add77"/>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Video>
The file may have been removed from the library and then re-added.
This can happen with
- media file storage outside of the server device
- mechanical hard drives allowed to spin down their platters
In both cases you should disable the checkbox “Empty trash automatically after every scan” in the server settings.
Okay I’ll give it a try thanks.
FWIW there’s no media storage outside the server device. It’s all on the same host, however I am running Docker so it’s mapped. The drives also should not be spinning down. Unless maybe I restarted the server. Would that cause it?
Is there any way I can fix it so that it deletes the old stuff or do I have to manually go through and delete them all myself?
Also won’t turning off empty trash after scan leave things permanently in the trash? I don’t really want trash at all, I just want things to be deleted when they are deleted.
