Files going missing- are playlists the cause

General Discussions Plex Features
1

Hi folks,

Long time plex user but never really dive into the inner workings.

I have a question that I’m hoping can be answered.

I share my library with my immediate family and 2 cousins.

Noticed that some times some of the shows I had have dissappeared from PLEX.
I’m trying to figure out how and why.

Are play lists the reason ?
My question is if somebody makes their a playlist
and then delete their playlist does this delete the actually content also.

I have one separate account set up called Family and I’ve just pinned my family to this on the smart TV or roku/Amazon device.

Cheers folks.

2

Nobody has the right to remove media from your server. Only you as the owner are allowed to do it. (Unless you have shared your plex account details with them, instead of sharing your server with their own personal plex account)
And no, removing a playlist won’t remove the actual media items within that playlist.

Sorry, I don’t understand what you did here. You cannot pin an account.

Likely reason for files getting deleted:
You have activated the auto-deletion in a tv show, after a file has been watched

tv_show_auto_delete1
tv_show_auto_delete1731×534 20.5 KB

tv_show_auto_delete2
tv_show_auto_delete2731×534 19.7 KB

Make sure these are not activated in any of your shows.

Common reasons for media items vanishing from the Plex library (but the actual media file on your hard drive is still there):

  • sleeping hard drives, which don’t “wake up” fast enough when Plex server accesses them after longer periods of inactivity
  • switching off WiFi access points over nights, during which Plex server does its maintenance routines
  • switching off network attached storage devices over night
3

Thank you Otto.

You guys are the reason I’m here…your knowledge.

What I mean by pin is in created a family account and shared my media to it.
Then for example my mam has a smart TV.
When she goes to sign in it gives a pin or a code.
I then use this to connect here to the family account…does that make sense

4

If you created “managed users” for your family, you must not stop after typing in the PIN.
Because then, the device is still in your personal account, where they are indeed allowed to delete content.
You must:

  • activate ‘Automatic Logon’ in the preferences of their client device (only possible while still logged in as admin/you)
  • then perform ‘Switch User’ to their respective managed user accounts
  • create a secret PIN on your own user account, to prevent them from easily/accidentally switching back to your user account

You might also consider disabling the “delete” button in clients, by disabling
Settings - Server - Library - ‘Show Advanced’ - “Allow media deletion”

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