# Deleting movies

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597>\
**Category:** Plex Media Server\
**Tags:** server-windows\
**Created:** [March 30, 2026, 10:47pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597 "2026-03-30T22:47:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ginaarnold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@ginaarnold](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ginaarnold)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2026, 10:47pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597/1 "2026-03-30T22:47:26Z")

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I added a movie to one of my external drives. When I scanned my files, instead of adding it it deleted over 1000 movies from my server. All of my drives were plugged in and available. It is a real pain to have to put everything back in. why would it do this

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**Author:** ![dbirch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f19dbf/32.png) [@dbirch](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dbirch)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2026, 10:53pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597/2 "2026-03-30T22:53:30Z")

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Please define `Deleted over 1000 movies` are the movies removed from your hard drive, or were they just removed from Plex?

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**Author:** ![ginaarnold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@ginaarnold](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ginaarnold)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2026, 11:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597/3 "2026-03-30T23:06:51Z")

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they were removed from Plex, still on my hard drive

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**Author:** ![napolij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a4c791/32.png) [@napolij](https://forums.plex.tv/u/napolij)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2026, 11:31pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597/4 "2026-03-30T23:31:07Z")

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Presuming these external drives are attached via USB. Do you see the drive as attached? I’m guessing you do since you say the files are still there. Have you tried pulling the USB cord and re-inserting?  
Is this something like for whatever reason, the drive letter changed?

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**Author:** ![dbirch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f19dbf/32.png) [@dbirch](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dbirch)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2026, 11:43pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597/5 "2026-03-30T23:43:23Z")

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Ok then I am going to make the prediction that the drive letters either changed or the removable drives share the same letter. And you have empty trash enabled when scanning

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**Author:** ![dbirch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f19dbf/32.png) [@dbirch](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dbirch)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2026, 11:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597/6 "2026-03-30T23:44:29Z")

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> [@napolij](#):
>
> Is this something like for whatever reason, the drive letter changed?

That actually wouldn’t cause the movies to be deleted unless the drive swapped letters as plex has a function to check for missing drives and not mark them as deleted.

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**Author:** ![pshanew](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/pshanew/32/160555_2.png) [@pshanew](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pshanew)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2026, 11:48pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597/7 "2026-03-30T23:48:45Z")

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In the Plex web app, navigate to:

> Settings → [Select Server Name] → Library (Show Advanced)

Ensure that “Empty trash automatically after every scan” is disabled (uncheck) and save.

This will (potentially) prevent this from happening in the future.

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**Author:** ![ginaarnold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@ginaarnold](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ginaarnold)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2026, 11:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597/8 "2026-03-30T23:57:56Z")

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The drive letters were not changed

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/deleting-movies/937597/9 "2026-06-28T23:58:41Z")

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