# Files being deleted **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-linux\ **Created:** [May 29, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066 "2020-05-29T14:06:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![l33tster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@l33tster](https://forums.plex.tv/u/l33tster)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/1 "2020-05-29T14:06:17Z")
Server Version#:1.19.3.2852 Player Version#:1.11.0.1215-1d8c460c Super weird situation.. Only happens when i am sleeping. | Fri May 29 2020 04:33:52 | Bumblebee 2018 1080p BluRay x264-SPARKS-AsRequested | Movies | | --- | --- | --- | | | 5 h | 8.03 GB | Result in Plex ![mj6B4I](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/e/a/ea6716c8d0edcfb2b0fda7822c179cd0ac73a202.png) Other one being deleted Being awake | Fri May 29 2020 08:46:02 | Tokyo Story 1953 720p BluRay x264-Skazhutin | Movies | | --- | --- | --- | | | 3468 d | 8.58 GB | ![JwIPyL](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/e/2/e2d030cc8288d9d5d832ac50839f841abe3f976d.png) Other one not being deleted. Why? and how? This only happens when sleeping and i watch it like a hawk and have backups showing file was there before radarr decided to download another copy Thanks ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 2:22pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/2 "2020-05-29T14:22:47Z")
Are those files on some external or n network drive that might get disconnected during sleep? The good news… it seems you have disabled `Empty trash automatically after every scan` – otherwise that would result in the movie record getting deleted from your Plex library. Or are the files actually gone?! Plex itself does not delete your media. There’s only one exception where you can configure how many unwatched episodes of a show you want to keep (that feature is intended for the Plex DVR but can apparently also be used for “regular” / non-DVR’ed episodes). ---
**Author:** ![l33tster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@l33tster](https://forums.plex.tv/u/l33tster)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 2:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/3 "2020-05-29T14:37:18Z")
not on external network The bumblebee file is def gone otherwise i would have 2 copies But as you can see i tested by downloading a duplicate movie and other didn’t become unavailable ☹ ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/4 "2020-05-29T14:43:40Z")
Any other apps involve in your process of adding files to Plex or managing/editing them? As written above… Plex itself isn’t touching those files ---
**Author:** ![sekthree](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/sekthree/32/20440_2.png) [@sekthree](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sekthree)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/5 "2020-05-29T16:17:35Z")
i’m leaning towards this ^ what @tom80H said… looking at your file names… something is renaming them to `title (year) quality`. depending on how you have your scans and renaming… plex might be scanning files when added, then something is renaming them, then plex sees it as a “new” file, but the OLD name is still being referenced. just my guess. ---
**Author:** ![dzeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dzeff](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dzeff)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 3:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/6 "2020-06-05T15:30:05Z")
Plex bug - I’m noticing that Plex is deleting my media stored in my TV Shows library that are set in the DVR to delete after X days, or X episodes. For example, see the attachment below. I record the Three Stooges and copy the episodes from the DVR to an external drive that I can watch with the kids later. BUT, since I have the DVR set to delete after a few days AND a day after watching it, Plex is deleting the files in my TV Shows library (different from DVR) on an external drive. ![stoog](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/5/e/5e9b8306dc42ad19187b399e6b74ba6eb83a8b55.png) ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/7 "2020-06-05T15:33:15Z")
This preference is working globally, not just restricted to the DVR library. ---
**Author:** ![dzeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dzeff](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dzeff)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/8 "2020-06-05T16:03:02Z")
That’s a poor implementation because the DVR is on 1 server whereas the files are stored on another (The TV show is set to record - that is on a device on an internal drive, the recorded files are moved to another server and another library all together). This was not happening until recently until I had to rebuild the NVidia Shield so this has not been an issue and looks like a recent development. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/9 "2020-06-05T16:08:14Z")
> [@dzeff](#): > > the DVR is on 1 server whereas the files are stored on another That doesn’t sound correct. The setting is global to one Plex server. If you have added the storage location (the one where the files are moved to after the recording) to a library that exists on the server with the DVR, then the deletion policy will also affect these files. You can only separate this fully, by not adding this final storage location to the “DVR” server. ---
**Author:** ![dzeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dzeff](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dzeff)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/10 "2020-06-05T16:25:28Z")
Sorry, I might not have been clear: - Server 1: Nvidia Shield has a server and on this is where I have the DVR Library. - Server 2: Windows machine with the library for recorded TV shows on an external drive. I copy the shows from Server 1 (download file) to Server 2 and into a separate TV Shows library, completely separate from the DVR. If I set a new show to record on the DVR (Server 1) with it to keep ‘at most’ 3 episodes for example, that setting follows through to Server 2 and that TV show will also keep at most, 3 episodes. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 4:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/11 "2020-06-05T16:29:46Z")
> [@dzeff](#): > > that setting follows through to Server 2 That doesn’t sound right. Have you checked the setting on the second server? There is no mechanism to propagate that kind of information across different Plex servers. ---
**Author:** ![dzeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dzeff](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dzeff)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 4:43pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/12 "2020-06-05T16:43:13Z")
Yes, I have never set anything to delete on ‘Server 2’. And, the only shows that delete are the shows that are setup to record with the DVR. All other shows remain in tact. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 5:42am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/13 "2020-06-06T05:42:41Z")
By which means are the recorded shows moved from the first to the second server? ---
**Author:** ![dzeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dzeff](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dzeff)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/14 "2020-08-12T17:09:56Z")
Yes, I download the shows from the DVR server to another machine and the machine where I have the downloaded/encoded and copied will have their directories deleted. ---
**Author:** ![AmazingRando24](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/amazingrando24/32/351517_2.png) [@AmazingRando24](https://forums.plex.tv/u/AmazingRando24)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/15 "2020-08-12T17:54:21Z")
Are you running two separate instances of Plex Media Server? I think that’s were some confusion comes in. If you’re only running one instance of PMS, then you’re out of luck. Those deletion settings that you set on the DVR side will reach across libraries to delete files you’ve watched. Tracking for that “feature” runs by show, not by library or location. I racked my head wondering why my Big Bang Theory episodes (this was a while the show was still running live) would delete every few days in my permanent library, when I had the DVR set to remove them X amount of days after I watched them. It sounds totally counter-intuitive, I know… but this is what Plex deems necessary. EDIT: Even if you are indeed running two PMS instances, if the one with the delete settings can see the other library at all, it will perform its purge on it. ---
**Author:** ![dzeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dzeff](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dzeff)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/16 "2020-09-04T17:44:43Z")
I do have 2 servers, the one with the DVR is on an NVidia Shield Pro and I copy/download to a Windows box where I encode them into a .mkv from the .ts files. It’s a terrible bug because the ‘delete after watching’ should be based on server and at a minimum the library. As the shield has its own ‘DVR’ library it is THAT library where the files should delete from and not the ‘TV’ library on a different server. That’s like setting an alarm in one house to wake a person up at 5 AM’ but it sets the alarm in a 2nd house so you update the alarm to go off at 6 AM in the 2nd house and it updates the 1st house to be 6 AM so the person missed whatever they were waking up at 5 for. Different server == different rules. ---
**Author:** ![AmazingRando24](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/amazingrando24/32/351517_2.png) [@AmazingRando24](https://forums.plex.tv/u/AmazingRando24)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/17 "2020-09-04T19:04:00Z")
If the files (not the library setup) are in the same location across both servers then it would be more accurate to say that those two alarm clocks, although set differently for different people, are actually in the same room. I know it sucks, and it took me a while to wrap my head around. It just is what it is. I made similar arguments when delete settings applied to the same show across two libraries. ---
**Author:** ![Volts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a5b964/32.png) [@Volts](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Volts)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/18 "2020-09-08T21:51:59Z")
> [@l33tster](#): > > radarr decided to download another copy This might not apply to the entire conversation, but at least for the initial posting examples: Radarr only wants you to have one copy of any movie. Have you looked at the history for those movies in Radarr? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 9:52pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/files-being-deleted/597066/19 "2020-12-07T21:52:01Z")
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