Extra Movies and Videos Displayed

Server Version#: 1.18.4.2171
Player Version#: 3.104.2

How do you get rid of extra movies and videos that are identified as “unavailable”? I have only six movies in my library, but Plex displays over 1800. Also several played and deleted TV shows that remain in “On Deck,” “Recently Added TV,” and “Continue Watching” categories, but also identified as “unavailable.”

Have you tried emptying your library’s trash?

I think so in each Library by using “Empty Trash.” Also the excess movies were never loaded by me, although the TV shows had been earlier.

Could it be shared libraries or the video-on-demand platform added by Plex in December?
https://support.plex.tv/articles/video-on-demand-overview/
https://www.plex.tv/blog/boom-we-just-dinosized-your-movie-collection-for-free/

No shared libraries. But maybe from the new VOD titles. Now how do I get rid of the display of just those? I was hesitant to start making changes in Library > Edit > Advanced like deleting thumbnail previews since my saved Movie files are interspersed in the library display.

But what about the TV Shows identified as “unavailable”?

Another thought related to your suggestion about emptying trash. Is there a location or cache in the server’s file system that contains trash that might be cleaned out manually? And was not handled by the Plex empty trash commands?

(…and thanks @tom80H for your help following this)

Please take a look at the Plex media info of the affected items.
It should have detail info about where the item originated.
If you can’t interpret the info in there, please post a screenshot here.

Regarding those “unavailable” TV Shows: There are no files or directories on the server that match the locations displayed in Media Info > Files. They may have been deleted manually on the server, but shouldn’t scanning the library have taken care of that?

That depends (as so often).

Edit the library in question
go to the ‘Add Folders’ tab
every folder location listed there must be:

  • still existent
  • accessible to the Plex server
  • not completely empty

Only then will ‘emptying the library trash’ have the desired effect.

The primary folder (/srv/sharestorage2/plextvshows in my case) is there and accessible. It contains valid and accessible TV Shows plus those “unavailable” ones.

Check your main Plex database file for damage:

  1. activate debug logging (not ‘verbose’!)
  2. quit Plex Server
  3. wait 1 minute
  4. start Plex Server
  5. wait 5 minutes
  6. fetch log files and attach them here

Or inspect them yourself. Take a look at the Plex Media Server.log file and seek for messages about database corrupt or malformed.
If you find these, you may have to repair your database.

Thanks @OttoKerner.

I followed your steps to fetch the Plex Media Server.log file. Indeed there were several “corrupt” or “malformed” entries. Next was the Repair a Corrupt Database. The commands in the steps there were worthless for my Ubuntu Server 18.04, so I opted to simply delete the entire SQL database and start over.

cd /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/“Application Support”/“Plex Media Server”/“Plug-in Support”/Databases
rm com.plexapp.plugins.library.db

Startup the server again, setup libraries, live tv tuner and guide, etc. The array of Plex problems I experienced had disappeared. Back to normal.

I suspect these problems started after some resets and turning off of the server due to other reasons, but before first quitting Plex Media Server.

Could you elaborate on that? Are you saying that the ‘Linux’ instructions on that article don’t apply at all to Ubuntu? Could we improve them?

@elderpro

Please do elaborate. I am very interested in learning what you found worthless.

Two factors to keep in mind: 1) My database must have been seriously corrupted and it affected multiple Plex functions, and 2) I’m a Linux noob but can follow directions.

This is how I started after SSH login:

cd /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/"Application Support"/"Plex Media Server"/"Plug-in Support"/Databases
sudo service plexmediaserver stop

Check for Corruption Step 1

cp com.plexapp.plugins.library.db com.plexapp.plugins.library.db.original
[…RETURNS NOTHING except for creating new .original file]

Check for Corruption Step 2

sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db "DROP index 'index_title_sort_naturalsort'"
[…RETURNS]
Error: no such index: index_title_sort_naturalsort

Yikes. Now what?

I ran these next two steps on my current (good) database without any problems. But before, my recollection was all sorts of errors displayed with the corrupted database.

Check for Corruption Step 3

sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db "DELETE from schema_migrations where version='20180501000000'"
[…RETURNS NOTHING]

Check for Corruption Step 4

sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db "PRAGMA integrity_check"
[…RETURNS]
ok

I did not proceed to Run a Repair since the first 3 steps looked the same as the Check and that error would return. Yikes again!

Then there was the initial comment about SQLite3 tools. Are they needed or not to run a check and repair with those commands?

And that final instruction referencing “exist alongside the original database.” What does that mean?

More narrative is needed for the commands listed, like what they will do and what would be the expected to be returned. Plus what to do if there is a discrepancy.

Thank you @OttKerner and @elderpro!

I am running Plex Media Server on my NVIDIA Shield TV (2017). I decided to delete the entire database like elderpro, instead of just the “com.plexapp.plugins.library.db” file, like I had been for the past few months trying to get my Live TV & DVR working again. As soon as I deleted all of it and restarted the Plex Media Server my HDHomerun Quattro was recognized again.

For others that have lost their Live TV & DVR functionality, these are the steps I took for fixing the issue on my NVIDIA Shield TV:

  1. Locate “\PMS INSTALL LOCATION\shield storage\Android\data\com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb\Plex Media Server\Plug-in Support\Databases”
  2. Stop/Quit PMS
  3. Wait 1 minute
  4. Delete ALL items in the Database folder
  5. Restart PMS
  6. Wait a few mintues
  7. Restart Server (ie ShieldTV, PC, Linux, etc)
  8. Open Plex App if not already open (desktop app)

I did all of this from my PC networked to the Shield TV.

It’s kind of pain that Plex now has to rebuild the entire database, but at least my Live TV & DVR is working again after 4 months of failed attempts of fixing the issue!

Good Luck!

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