DVR not recording after moving plex media library

[efincoop]

Server Version#: Version 1.18.7.2457
Player Version#:
OS: Mint Linux 19.3

Hello, I recently had an issue with my plex media library filling up my root file system, so I followed the instructions here to move it to my /home directory. Specifically /home/plexdata.

Since then, my HomeRun DVR has failed to record any TV shows. The error message is No write access to destination. I did not change any permissions of the target hard drive and had no issues recording shows prior to moving the Plex Media library.

I searched several variations of this issue, but did not find anything relevant to my situation. Most posts seem to reference NAS setups, which I do not have.

Any hep would be greatly appreciated.

[efincoop]

I just realized that root was the owner of /home/plexdata, so I changed the owner & group to chris (my account) and gave the directory 777 permissions & extended it to all sub-directories. I restarted Plex, but it still did not work. Does the user & group need to be plex?

[ChuckPa]

Recommend using SUID/SGID flags to allow proper ownership.

Automating Linux permissions using inheritance (Helps DVR)

Linux has a very powerful and convenient way of automatically setting the permissions of your media files as you add more to your media directories. Linux allows only one username and one group to own a file which is somewhat of a restriction. This can be easily leveraged to accomplish what is needed for Plex. An excellent application of this is when you wish to record with Plex DVR, allowing it to write directly into your library, while you retain full permission / control of your media. …

[efincoop]

Thank you Chuck. I wound up deleting my DVR & adding it again. That seems to have worked. That said I just followed the steps in the knowledge article you linked to (thank you) I
still have 2 questions:

1. I followed the steps outlined in the KB article for my 2 internal media drives. Do I need to set up the permissions in a similar fashion on the /home/plexmedia directory where the Plex Media Server Library is stored?

2. Perhaps unrelated, perhaps not. I noticed the Saturday Night Live did not record last night. No errors, it just didn’t record, even though I could see it was scheduled when was working through the DVR issue. Upon further investigation, I see new episodes (the preference I selected) have not recorded consistently for season 45. For example I have 1 episode that recorded 1/26/2020 and then the next episode that recorded was 03/01/2020, even though I’m fairly certain they have all been new episodes.

[efincoop]

Well apparently I was mistaken & deleting the DVR & adding it again, did not resolve my issue. I just tried to record a show mid-stream and it gave the error No write access to destination. So I am no further along than before

[ChuckPa]

The How-To is intended to help aid & control the permissions settings for when you have PMS capturing, and ultimately depositing, the recordings in the media directories.

Everything within the metadata directories should always remain owned by user plex and and untouched.

If you have a /home/plexmedia , where you keep all the media itself, then yes you should apply apply the How-To to that directory tree.

To avoid any confusion of names, /home/plexdata (often used in lieu of /var/lib/plexmediaserver for the metadata) should not be touched.

[ChuckPa]

I cannot assist with PMS’ ability to record.
I no longer have cable television and I live in an area too rural for OTA. I have satellite television (which uses a proprietary system coming in from the dish)

[efincoop]

Thank you Chuck. My media files are stored on 2 internal data drives. PlexMediaDrive & 3TBDataDrive. I have applied the How-To to that directory tree to both of those drives. The /home/plexmedia is where I moved the Plex Media Server (metadata?) Library. That is owned my chris (me). I had previously added user plex to my group (chris) as a precaution. Should I change permissions to make it owned by plex explicitly?

[efincoop]

Understood. Thank you.

[ChuckPa]

If you understand where things are and how it works, leave it be.

I have been suggesting the user of:

/home/media or /home/nas or similar directory names for mount points.

/home/plexdata for the metadata

I am doing this because we’re slowly migrating all the NAS platforms to use
a PlexData share for holding the Metadata

This scheme makes it pretty clear: “PlexMedia” = Media, “PlexData” = Metadata.

[hokierulz]

Based on Chuck’s earlier post, everything in the Plex metadata directory (/home/plexdata) should be owned by plex:plex. Would you be able to verify this? I just want to make sure if you have only /home/plexdata owned by chris:chris or if this was recursively applied to subdirectories, and also that you applied the customization override for the plexmediaserver.service.d. (I’m assuming you followed the systemd instructions since you said you are Linux Mint.)

If that isn’t the problem, would you be able to post debug level logs that show a recording failure? My setup is fairly similar to yours, though my plexdata is still at /var/lib/plexmediaserver - maybe I or someone else on the forum can provide insight.

Edit: Is you metadata at /home/plexdata, and your plex media at /home/plexmedia? Reading through everything I’m not clear. In your original post you said you moved your media to /home/plexdata, and later that you moved the Plex metadata to /home/plexmedia. This is backwards from what Chuck was suggesting, so let’s make sure we are straight.

[ChuckPa]

There is a combined application here of:

Moving PMS 'Library'

Moving Plex’s metadata (Library) directory on systemd based systems This information is intended for those systems where cat /proc/1/comm returns systemd. If your system returns init, please see the next post in this thread. While you may change /lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service, it is under the control of the package manager and subject to replacement without warning at any time during an update. To provide stability, systemd allows creation of an override.conf file to customiz…

and

Customizing your Plex configuration

Customizing your Plex configuration on systemd based systems This information is intended for those systems where cat /proc/1/comm returns systemd. On systems which use Systemd (Ubuntu 16+, Fedora, Centos 7, Debian 8,) you create this customization file which SystemD reads prior to launching PMS. This file is independent of the default configuration and service control mechanisms in /lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service. Your customization override is preserved across updates, uninstal…

Both may be merged and operate jointly.

I can have

[Service]

Environment="PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/home/plexdata/Library/Application Support"

User=chuck
Group=chuck

Review the above How-To’s please and re-examine.
Is it more clear now how easily systemd will accommodate ?

[efincoop]

I apologize for the confusion. I am probably using incorrect terminology.

I moved the Plex Media Library from the default location /var/lib/plexmediaserver to /home/plexdata in order to free up space.

The permissions look like this right now:

chris@FractalMediaServer:/home$ ls -l
total 24
drwxr-xr-x 18 chris chris  4096 Mar  7 10:50 chris
drwx------  2 root  root  16384 Jan 28 20:35 lost+found
drwxrwxrwx  3 chris chris  4096 Feb 29 20:03 plexdata
chris@FractalMediaServer:/home/plexdata$ ls -l
total 4
drwxrwxrwx 3 chris chris 4096 Jan 28 20:50 Library
chris@FractalMediaServer:/home/plexdata$ cd Library
chris@FractalMediaServer:/home/plexdata/Library$ ls -l
total 4
drwxrwxrwx 3 chris chris 4096 Jan 28 20:50 'Application Support'
chris@FractalMediaServer:/home/plexdata/Library$ cd Application" "Support
chris@FractalMediaServer:/home/plexdata/Library/Application Support$ ls -l
total 4
drwxrwxrwx 11 chris chris 4096 Mar  8 14:25 'Plex Media Server'
chris@FractalMediaServer:/home/plexdata/Library/Application Support$ cd Plex" "Media" "Server
chris@FractalMediaServer:/home/plexdata/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server$ ls-l
ls-l: command not found
chris@FractalMediaServer:/home/plexdata/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server$ ls -l
total 44
drwxrwxrwx 6 chris chris 4096 Mar  8 15:08  Cache
drwxrwxrwx 4 chris chris 4096 Mar  7 22:16  Codecs
drwxrwxrwx 5 chris chris 4096 Feb 24 17:02 'Crash Reports'
drwxrwxrwx 2 chris chris 4096 Jan 30 02:04  Diagnostics
drwxrwxrwx 3 chris chris 4096 Mar  8 13:25  Logs
drwxrwxrwx 3 chris chris 4096 Jan 28 21:06  Media
drwxrwxrwx 6 chris chris 4096 Jan 30 18:18  Metadata
-rw-r--r-- 1 chris chris    3 Mar  8 13:25  plexmediaserver.pid
drwxrwxrwx 3 chris chris 4096 Jan 28 20:51  Plug-ins
drwxrwxrwx 7 chris chris 4096 Jan 28 20:50 'Plug-in Support'
-rw------- 1 chris chris  910 Mar  8 14:25  Preferences.xml

All of my media data files are stored on 2 internal data drives. Those permissions look like this:

chris@FractalMediaServer:/mnt$ ls -lh
total 16K
drwxr-xr-x  2 chris chris 4.0K Jan 28 20:55 10e32246-6e77-48c8-868e-fd86dd37f8b0
drwxr-xr-x 10 chris chris 4.0K Jan 21 17:03 3TBDataDrive
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root  4.0K Jan 28 20:55 a0100346-47d9-4cce-baf8-28f0deef061d
drwxrwxrwx  4 chris media 4.0K Jan 30 06:31 PlexMediaDrive

Sorry if the post is a bit busy. I don’t know thes best way to post the information. I hope this info helps clarify your question?

[ChuckPa]

Chris,

All is good. This is only a case where too much “Plex-ness” causes confusion:

e.g “Metadata” and “Media” are the best way to keep it clear.

I see you have a media group.
Since PMS (and dvr) run under your username, it will favor your chris username privileges.

That keeps it simple.

[efincoop]

If I recall the steps I followed, I add my username (chris) to the media group, along with user plex, when I created the media group per the instructions. So, that being said, I still can’t figure out what I am back to No write access to destination.

[ChuckPa]

Guess it’s time I see some log files which capture the problem?

It may not be the media storage area at all.

What about Transcoder Temp?

[efincoop]

I left the in its original (default) location. Here is the log information.Plex Media Server Logs_2020-03-08_16-06-23.zip (3.2 MB)

[ChuckPa]

Thanks. Found it immediately.

Mar 08, 2020 13:25:15.569 [0x7fc2327fc700] DEBUG - Grabber: Saving recording to "/mnt/PlexMediaDrive/Plex Media/TV Shows/.grab/85067684c37ef4fc1d2fcd3a9627feff1bbdc1df-73b5286452dcf7bf0f3c290efc0a7b176c065518"
Mar 08, 2020 13:25:15.569 [0x7fc2327fc700] ERROR - Grabber: No write permission.
Mar 08, 2020 13:25:15.569 [0x7fc2327fc700] DEBUG - Grabber: Operation for 'The Office - E17 - The Delivery, Part 1' on channel 14.2 completed with status error (No write access to destination)
Mar 08, 2020 13:25:15.569 [0x7fc2327fc700] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity d261fa41-ea15-4c39-a0f3-ad3a368fa09d.

[efincoop]

So does that mean when I changed the group ownership to media, I voided the permission plex needs to write to that destination?

[ChuckPa]

check the username Plex is running as.
check the owner permissions on the directory.

I suspect you forgot to chown -R