Server Version#: 1.41.6.9685
Player Version#: 1.108.1.307-dd5b87aa
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>
I started having issues a few days ago. I added some films and additional Seasons to TV Shows. Scanning the libraries didn’t find all the items entered into the media library folders. I looked in this forum for help. I turned off “Empty trash automatically after every scan” as this was recommended many times. Having turned this off I then tried various things such as removing a film folder from the library, re-scanning, then putting it back and scanning again. No change. I checked naming conventions, file existence, no multiple files in the ‘info’ section. I rebooted the PMS and also my WD PR4100 NAS box. I performed a scan of the WD NAS unit with no faults found. During this I noticed after scanning a re-scanning that almost all my films had a garbage icon appear. Hovering over the garbage icon it changes to a ‘play’ icon and clicking it the film plays okay. So, Plex can see the movie and play it so why does it think the file is not there?
I’ve tried everything I can see on the forum and nothing works.
In desperation I created a new folder for films called ‘Film 1’ and moved all my film folders into it. I re scanned, then created a new library pointing to the new folder. I then rescanned. Almost a day later the scan has completed and almost all the garbage icons are gone. However, there are still some and I have checked these and they are fine. They were there previous to these issues occurring. Also, some films have just not been found. I decided to check the TV Shows. After a scan of the library they now all have a garbage icon to. It’s looking like I’m pretty screwed.
With over 2,700 films and 1,183 TV Shows taking up around 26Tb all this scanning takes forever so I’m keen to find a solution. I have been using plex for five years and other than minor issues it’s been fine - until now. As mentioned, I have stuck rigidly to the documented recommendation for file and folder naming conventions. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in anticipation.
1 Like
Do a get info one of the movies or episodes. Does it have two paths ( possibly the same) with one showing unavailable?
If so then empty trash from server menu and it will get rid of the unavailable ones.
Hi BigWheel,
I have tried that before. There were no duplicate file paths. There was just one and it was valid. If I hovered over the garbage icon it changed to a ‘play’ icon and by clicking on it I could play the film.
I have just done as you requested. Just the one file on each of the films. I ran a scan with the empty trash after scan option r=turned on and the files have disappeared completely. I re scanned but the scan didn’t find them. I moved the film folders from the library, re scanned, then put them back and scanned again, no joy, still no films there.
Are the files on an internal or external drive (either network or USB)
Can you try creating a new library pointing at the same directory with your movies and see what happens. and grab the server logs afterwards
Hi again,
That’s exactly what I have already done. I created a new library, pointed at the films folder and started a scan. It took over 24 hours. It worked fine I guess. All movies were added okay except for three films. These are the ones I just mentioned that have now disappeared.
The files are on a NAS. A Western Dig MyCloud PR4100 4 x 12Tb Drives RAID 5, 36Tb usable, 7.4Tb spare. I have checked firmware is latest level and ran a scan of the volume. It’s clear of any errors. Status is all healthy.
Here are the logs
Plex Media Server Logs_2025-04-22_21-10-12.zip (4.2 MB)
Thanks for helping.
What are the names of those?
The ones that had the garbage icon on and disappeared are:
Heretic
We live in time
John Wick
I don’t know if it helps but I just did a quick check on the TV Shows library and all the garbage icons are gone but that’s because I think they’ve all been deleted from the seasons. In ‘The Curse of Oak Island’ I have lost episodes S12E12 to S12E20. They have disappeared. I think that is possibly due to me turning the delete trash option after scanning back on.
What file system protocol (ex smbv2) are you using to on your nas? Also are the filenames of those movies longer than all the others?
Network transport protocols are SMB 2 & SMB 3.
The filenames are probably among the shortest. I have much longer ones. You can possibly see that in the logs.
I have been using the same hardware, PMS, NAS and network for the last three or more years with no issues.
When you say you restarted pms do you mean the application or the system its running on?
I tried restarting everything. I stopped and restarted PMS, Rebooted the Server hardware, Rebooted the WD NAS. I did it all at the same time so I could start with a ‘clean’ system.
Would it help if I created a new library, moved the three films into the new media folder and see if the PMS scan of the new folder finds them?
Couldn’t hurt to try..
Your server logs have a bunch of file system errors that i have not seen before. It looks like those files are the start of the scan, so maybe because they NAS ives are still spinning up but I’m trying to get more info on.
I can’t see that it was drives spinning up as I had just copied files to the NAS. They don’t spin down for quite a while but I guess you never know.
I’ll run that test now, take the server logs and report back.
Apr 22, 2025 19:45:04.223 [17088] ERROR - Couldn't get size of file "M:\Films 1\Heretic (2024)\Heretic (2024) 1080p H265 AAC51.mp4": boost::filesystem::file_size: The handle is invalid [system:6]: "M:\Films 1\Heretic (2024)\Heretic (2024) 1080p H265 AAC51.mp4"
The last time I saw errors similar to this from Plex was a situation where there were invalid characters in the file name. This was pretty recently and in that case it was a \ character. It was visible on the NAS (Linux-based where it’s valid) and caused issues on Windows (invalid).
It’s possible there are some invalid (potentially not visible) characters in your file names (or the directories hold these files). It might be worth your time to rename all these files and their enclosing directories (on the NAS side to prevent any Windows shenanigans), then Plex Dance them, and then scan them again.
Okay, so,
Folder called ‘Films-Test’ created.
‘Heretic (2024)’, ‘John Wick (2014)’ and ‘We Live In Time (2024)’ moved to ‘Films-Test’ folder.
At this point it looks like the PMS has detected the change(s) and is now scanning the original ‘Films 1’ folder. Will take a while. Okay, scan finished.
I just scanned the ‘Films-Test’ library and it remained empty “Films-Test is empty” was the response.
Here is the latest log file.:
Plex Media Server Logs_2025-04-22_23-41-44.zip (4.5 MB)
I’ve checked and double checked the filenames. One of the films has been on the server for years and never had anything changed. They are simple filenames to Plex spec.
I’m not saying that the visible names are incorrect (though honestly I’d put all the extraneous information in square brackets [format info] to have the scanner ignore it). Rather I’m suggesting that perhaps somehow (maybe during a copy operation) a non-printable, invalid character may have been introduced somewhere.
The ASCII character set contains a lot of characters which can be present but not visible. It’s possible that one of those crept in somehow. If the network share on your NAS is connected via SMB, it can actually normalize the name visually so that it looks correct. So this wouldn’t be something you’d even be able to see on the Windows side. It might be visible on the Linux/NAS side.
Anyway, just an idea. Carry on smartly.
Okay, I understand. How can I look at the filename to check for unprintable characters?
Original file name: John Wick (2014) 1080p H265 AAC5-1.mp4
If I change it to: John Wick (2014)[ 1080p H265 AAC5-1].mp4
i.e. use square brackets? Is that what you suggest?
Looking at the PMS log vis:
Apr 22, 2025 23:37:50.650 [8420] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory M:\Films-Test\John Wick (2014) (parent: yes)
Apr 22, 2025 23:37:50.735 [8420] ERROR - Couldn’t check for the existence of file “M:\Films-Test\John Wick (2014)\John Wick (2014) 1080p H265 AAC5-1.eng.srt”: boost::filesystem::status: The handle is invalid [system:6]: “M:\Films-Test\John Wick (2014)\John Wick (2014) 1080p H265 AAC5-1.eng.srt”
Apr 22, 2025 23:37:50.747 [8420] ERROR - Couldn’t get size of file “M:\Films-Test\John Wick (2014)\John Wick (2014) 1080p H265 AAC5-1.eng.srt”: boost::filesystem::file_size: The handle is invalid [system:6]: “M:\Films-Test\John Wick (2014)\John Wick (2014) 1080p H265 AAC5-1.eng.srt”
Apr 22, 2025 23:37:50.757 [8420] ERROR - Couldn’t check for the existence of file “M:\Films-Test\John Wick (2014)\John Wick (2014) 1080p H265 AAC5-1.mp4”: boost::filesystem::status: The handle is invalid [system:6]: “M:\Films-Test\John Wick (2014)\John Wick (2014) 1080p H265 AAC5-1.mp4”
Apr 22, 2025 23:37:50.770 [8420] ERROR - Couldn’t get size of file “M:\Films-Test\John Wick (2014)\John Wick (2014) 1080p H265 AAC5-1.mp4”: boost::filesystem::file_size: The handle is invalid [system:6]: “M:\Films-Test\John Wick (2014)\John Wick (2014) 1080p H265 AAC5-1.mp4”
Apr 22, 2025 23:37:50.771 [8420] DEBUG - Skipping over directory ‘John Wick (2014)’, as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Forgive me I’m not a programmer but the errors seem to indicate an inability for the scanner to see the files correctly? The error report is ‘The handle is invalid [system:6]’ What does this mean?
