Does Plex clean up the Plex metadata folder? Even orphaned files?

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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I’m talking about the massive Plex “media” folder that contains lots of small metadata files, like previews, posters, intro/outro detection, etc.

So over the years a lot can happen in that folder. Maybe you’ve reinstalled Plex on top of an old install, restored an old database, or whatever it may be (just use your imagination). Does Plex clean up that folder even for files that it doesn’t know about (orphan files)?

Do I need a third-party tool that would go through that folder to check if all files in that folder are actually needed? or Plex does all this for me already?

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Plex does this for you.

  1. After scanning files ( to match media and obtain metadata)

If you remove media

  1. Empty Trash – Removes (marks as deleted) from view.
  2. Clean Bundles – Removes any deleted items / metadata files

During maintenance is when most of this cleanup is performed automatically during Scheduled Tasks.

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