Server Version#: 1.3.1.916-1cb2c34d
Player Version#:
Adding movie files (*.m4v) to Plex library from either Win 10 or Apple Monterey (problem occurs with either). Using Drag-and-Drop the copy runs smoothly and the file shows in the list. But within a few minutes the file litterally disappears from the list. similar problem happens if I delete a movie file from Plex, moments later it reappears in the file list. What’s happening? Using a Synology DSM218+ NAS.
After you copy, can you confirm SystemInternalUser PlexMediaServer has permission to read the file?
(This is a common problem over SMB)
Will look but I am not an IT specialist, where do I look for that?
File Station → Open the shared folder and navigate down to the file which suddenly went missing.
Right-click → Properties → Permissions.
Make certain PlexMediaServer is shown (similar to how it’s listed in the above screenshot)
If permission is missing from all the files in the shared folder then
- Control Panel
- Shared Folder
- Highlight and EDIT the shared folder containing the media
- Permissions tab
- Change “Local User” → “System Internal User”
- Now check the permission box for PlexMediaServer
- SAVE
- BEFORE CLICKING OK – Check “Apply to this folder, sub-folders and files”
- Now click OK. (it will apply the permissions to all files in that shared folder)
There was no line item for PlexMediaServer but there was one for MediaServer so I checked it for READ only. There also was no “Apply too this folder etc” but when I checked the individual files, they all now had a MediaServer line item in Permissions. Unfortunately, after running another test of adding a file and deleting a file, the added file disappeared shortly and the deleted file reappeared shortly thereafter. Have you got another suggestion?
When you change “Local User” to “System Internal User”, on DSM 7, You will always see “PlexMediaServer”.
On DSM 6, it’s Local User Plex
I don’t know what “MediaServer”. Maybe another player?
Now it’s time to download the logs ZIP file and see why.
Settings - server - troubleshooting - download logs.
attach the zip file please
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-04-26_18-31-08.zip (5.5 MB)
Here are the logs
I’m betting that they are getting merged together as duplicates in Plex.
Feature Movies/
├─ Musical/
├─ Jersey Boys (2014).mp4
is your current structure. The intermediate directory Musical is probably confusing Plex. You need to either have every movie under Feature Movies or per movie sub directories.
Take a look at your library and see if you have a lot of duplicates.
I’m also going to point out your file naming is sub-standard. you have Alice in Wonderland.m4v which movie is that? Im aware of 4 movies with that title:
Alice in Wonderland (1933) tt0023753
Alice in Wonderland (1951) tt0043274
Alice in Wonderland (1966) tt0060089
Alice in Wonderland (2010) tt1014759
I would also check your media path. I see /volume1/Media Backup/Feature Movies Not sure Media Backup is the correct location.
Great points … I found several duplicates and several which were merged together during different upload attempts. I split them up but Plex won’t let me delete the dupe, I get an error message, “There was a problem deleting this item”. Also, looking at those folders like “Musicals” doesn’t show both the .m4v and .mp4 files even though they both show up in the Library display. My structure is NAS>Media Backup>Feature Movies>(category I.e., Action, Comedy, Musicals, Drama, etc)>“movie name”.m4v. How do I fix this … edit each one in Library by adding (YEAR)?
Volume 1 is my primary NAS drive and it is RAID’ed to Volume 2 on a Synology DSM218+ NAS. My structure is volume 1>Media Backup>Feature Movies>(category I.e., Action, Comedy, Musicals, Drama, etc)>“movie name”.m4v.
Should I have them all in one Library folder and then create Collections from there instead of separate folder for each Collection?
You are on to something. There are merged movies where there was only one and repeated uploads really screwed that up. When I set up Plex a few years ago I had one folder called Media Backup, and then I decided to create Collections (8 of them like Action, Comedy, Drama, etc). I then later separated the individual movies into sub folders with the collection names beneath the root folder Media Backup. I haven’t touched those files for over a year and when I went to add 7 new movies this week I ran into this problem. I’m guessing I need to put ALL the movies into one file called Feature Movies (which would be a peer file to Photos, Music, Family Videos, and TV Shows). I’m guessing that the Collection tags on the individual movies in Feature Movies will continue to be effective. Is this what I should do?
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
