Deleted music files still show in library, old and new/premium, error on play.

General Discussions
1

I’m having an issue similar to this (deleted music files still showing up in library), but is happening on both old and new/premium libraries: http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/202717/premium-music-library-wont-delete-data#latest

Music files have been deleted, but still show up in my Plex Music Library. Of course, when I try to play the deleted files, it errors.
My setup is currently:
Update My library Automatically - Checked
Run a partial scan when changes are detected - UnChecked
Empty trash automatically after every scan - Checked
I’ve created two libraries, one old, one new/premium, and the problem is happening on both.

Thanks in advance.

2

Figure any out on this @eugovector?

I’m having essentially the same issue with TV libraries. I’ve deleted watched episodes that I do not want/need to keep, and after refresh they still show-up; but when looking at details show ‘unavailable.’

3

I figured it out! (on my issue at least)

My library had multiple directory path targets; and it turns out that directory targets that either no longer exist or that are empty can cause this.

Deleted that bad directory from the library targets (and of course it did a quick scan upon saving that) and all of my phantom episodes disappeared!

Worth a double-check on your issue. Good luck!

4

Thanks for the reply @johnnyphoenix . Definitely not the directory, I only have one music directory.

5

I can try to do a screencast recording tonight if that would be helpful to see the problem.

6

Okay, how about this: I’d at least like to be able to wipe out the library and start from scratch. I uninstalled and reinstalled the media server, but it pulled the old info back in; the same entries for files that no longer exist are there. What do I need to delete to wipe out my library info entirely so that I can repopulate from scratch and, hopefully, solve the problem?

7

The issue with empty subfolders isn’t only contained to when you’ve specified multiple library pointers. The same logic is still enforce at subfolders of your library Music folder. If you’ve removed items but kept an empty subfolder (for artist or album for instance) this could happen if I’m not mistaken.

Regarding starting over, you haven’t said which OS, but there’s a help article that might proven useful - https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201941078-Uninstall-Plex-Media-Server

You couldn’t just remove the library within Plex settings and create a new? https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200289286-Deleting-Libraries

8

So, the issue isn’t with subfolders. In a nutshell, any additions to the library are fine. Anything deleted remains listed in the library, but can’t be played back because it’s deleted. Let’s say I have an album of mp3. I delete them. They still show up in my library on all my devices, but when I go to play them, they don’t play (because they no longer exist). Now, I add those same songs back in FLAC format so they have a different file name due to the extension. My library now shows the same album twice (two separate listings), one for the new FLAC files which plays fine, the other for the deleted mp3 files, which doesn’t play.

Also, this is only happening to music. Movies and TV are fine.

Thank you for the link on uninstalling PLEX media server. I’m on Windows 8. Last night, I uninstalled via control panel, restarted, and re-installed, but I didn’t do anything in the registry or app data folder. I will try that today.

I have tried creating a new premium library so that I have an old music library and new premium music library. The problem exists in both.

9

The problem is still here.

So, I uninstalled the server, deleted the registry key and the local app data, restarted the system, and re-installed the server. As expected, all the library info was wiped out from the old server, and the new server needed to re-catalog the media. Gave it 24 hours to repopulate all my titles. Lots of artwork is still downloading, but everything else looks in place.

To replicate the issue, I moved 3 albums from the folder indexed by the server library to the desktop. I’ve essentially “deleted” the files.

I logged into Plex.TV and manually started a music library update (I had not gone into the settings and selected “update my library automatically”). About an 30 minutes later (I have a large collection), the scan is complete, but the albums I deleted are still showing up in my library?

Again, this only happens with music. I’ve gone through the Plex Server Settings guide here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201154176-Overview

I’ve since checked “Update my library automatically” and “…periodically”, as well as “Empty trash automatically after every scan.” Manually updated several times…still have deleted files showing up in the music library that, of course, error on playback.

This is driving me nuts; can anyone help?

10

So, I don’t know what switch flipped (I didn’t change any setting since last time), but changes are now being reflected after a manual library update. I’m going to make a few more changes and let it sit over the weekend to catch up and see if it will do some automatic changes. For now, I’ll say that, while it’s not perfect, the media server re-install seems to have worked.