# External drive not visible in Plex **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-linux, library-management, server-linux-arm\ **Created:** [March 21, 2024, 2:16am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-drive-not-visible-in-plex/872790 "2024-03-21T02:16:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Draculya](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/draculya/32/279117_2.png) [@Draculya](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Draculya)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 2:16am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-drive-not-visible-in-plex/872790/1 "2024-03-21T02:16:01Z")
Hi, I have a RPi 5 and added an external drive which has the files that I want to add to Plex, but when I try to create a library, I can’t navigate to it or force plex to see it. I mapped as a drive in Windows without any issue and I’m able to access the drive in Linux, but Plex can’t. Any thoughts? Thx in advance, ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 2:32am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-drive-not-visible-in-plex/872790/2 "2024-03-21T02:32:17Z")
1. Master list > [@Linux Tips](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247): > > Tips & Tricks of the Linux trade. Below, you’ll find a collection of tips, tricks, and how-to’s to help make setting up, administrating, and using Plex Media Server on Linux a little easier. [Reporting problems](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/20)[Using other hard drives (Windows or Linux) with PMS](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/2)[Customizing your Plex configuration on systemd based systems](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/3)[Using other EXT4, NTFS, or other drives (internal or USB)](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/2)[Mounting CIFS + SMB network shares for Plex use](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/4)[Mounting NFS network shares for Plex use](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/5)[Moving…](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/6) 1. External or Internal drives > [@Linux Tips](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/2): > > Using other hard drives (Windows or Linux) with PMS This How-To is written to help with Internal and External drives. It also is written to demonstrate how to cope with NTFS and EXT4 formatted drives. By logical extension, any format supported by Linux can be handled using the technique shown here. In all cases, the goal is to give user plex permission to read your media files which Linux doesn’t allow by default due to its strict security model. We will walk through the steps needed … ---
**Author:** ![Draculya](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/draculya/32/279117_2.png) [@Draculya](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Draculya)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 7:16pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-drive-not-visible-in-plex/872790/3 "2024-03-21T19:16:42Z")
Hi, Thx for the reply but the drive is connected to the Raspberry Pi 5 via usb and mounted under media/user/“drive label” but plex is unable to see the files in it. If I use my Windows machine which also has PMS, it can via the smb share, The drive is fornatted as exFat. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 9:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-drive-not-visible-in-plex/872790/4 "2024-03-21T21:05:39Z")
I understand and that’s all superficial / immaterial. Please now go read > [@Linux Tips](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/2): > > Using other hard drives (Windows or Linux) with PMS This How-To is written to help with Internal and External drives. It also is written to demonstrate how to cope with NTFS and EXT4 formatted drives. By logical extension, any format supported by Linux can be handled using the technique shown here. In all cases, the goal is to give user plex permission to read your media files which Linux doesn’t allow by default due to its strict security model. We will walk through the steps needed … as I posted. For your case, where I show `/run/media`, you have `/media` (this is a Redhat / Debian difference with the automounter) ---
**Author:** ![Draculya](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/draculya/32/279117_2.png) [@Draculya](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Draculya)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 12:51am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-drive-not-visible-in-plex/872790/5 "2024-03-22T00:51:24Z")
H again, Thx for the help 🙂 It worked perfectly 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Draculya](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/draculya/32/279117_2.png) [@Draculya](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Draculya)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 12:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-drive-not-visible-in-plex/872790/6 "2024-03-22T12:05:43Z")
Hi, Sorry to bother again but after PMS been able to access the drive, I can’t make any changes to it remotely or within the Raspberry PI OS/Debian 12. The owner of the folder /mnt/xxxxx is root and even changing chmod to all users, after mounting again the folders of the drive are set to the user root and I can’t change their permissions ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 6:45pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-drive-not-visible-in-plex/872790/7 "2024-03-22T18:45:17Z")
A few things: 1. Always make certain of the permissions of the mount point directory BEFORE the drive is mounted. 2. exFAT and NTFS, being Microsoft filesystems, don’t show up in Linux as you expect. – They have no sense of ownership and always owned by root (the system) – They have no sense of ‘chmod’ permission bits. They use Microsoft ACLs - which Linux doesn’t support Now you need to change how the drive is mounted and emulate what Microsoft is doing. Here’s the How-To. > What’s important to remember, 1. You want your UID to own the media 2. You want Plex’s GID to be the assigned group so it can read the media. ---
**Author:** ![Draculya](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/draculya/32/279117_2.png) [@Draculya](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Draculya)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 9:32pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-drive-not-visible-in-plex/872790/8 "2024-03-22T21:32:17Z")
Hi again, That did it 🙂 Thx for all the help 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2024, 9:33pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-drive-not-visible-in-plex/872790/9 "2024-06-20T21:33:11Z")
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