Thanks for your help so far guys but I have to be out my bed in less than six hours so gotta try get some sleep. I’ll get back to any requests tomorrow.
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Last night I added a movie to one of my library files so pressed scan library files and went to bed. there were 2117 movies counted in my Plex library last night now there are 18!!!
I have rescanned now there the same 18 but 5 of them have the garbage can icon on them.
joys of the world of plex
Sounds exactly like my issue. 
Is your server running Windows? If it’s using MacOS instead and your NAS is a Synology, look here instead: Plex Files Unavailable but they’re not missing
To @ChrisG-UK :
What kind of hardware is your plex server running on?
What kind of network connection is there between your server and the NAS device?
Do you allow your server to hibernate?
Do you allow your NAS to spin down the hard drives’ platters when idle?
Is any part of your network infrastructure going down during the night? (e.g. scheduled switching off or power saving of network accesspoints, Ethernet switches, NAS devices, hard drive racks etc.)
Do you have “Update all libraries during maintenance” enabled in the Scheduled Tasks?
Do also take a look in the settings menu of your router (or your ISP). Some have introduced advanced firewalls which will block requests which they deem to be too frequently (updating a library’s metadata during the night in Plex is prone to trigger such a filter, as it repeatedly calls the same servers in rather rapid succession.)
PMS hardware is a Windows 10 PC - Hardware is core i5 LENOVO 32371L0 x64-x64 - build: windows-x86_64 windows, 8Gb RAM
Network connection is 1Gb network via Zyxel switches, main ones managed. NB - I have eliminated the network as a file access issue by creating a test library on the PMS hardware itself.
Not sure if the NAS hibernates, I think it does but disks do spin down. During all testing for this issue the NAS has been fully up and running.
Network is up 24x7
"Update all libraries during maintenance” is enabed in Scheduled Tasks
ISP is Starlink, I don’t know how to check this other than Google??
Plse see next reply I make as I thonk progress has been made.
Ensure that you don’t have “Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE)” activated in their configuration. In my testing this brought nothing but instability and unreliable connections.
Do also never allow any of your network adapters to step down their link speed when idle. The switchover down and up is usually causing longer pauses in connectivity which can be critical in some circumstances.
This kind of setting exists not only in managed switches, but also in PCs and other devices (but depends on the brand and model of the network adapter [chip]).
If your media are not inside of the server and drives are spinning down, you better never enable “Empty trash automatically after every scan”.
Oh dear.
I created a ‘Films-Test-2’ library on the PMS hardware itself. I then copied the John Wick (2014) folder to that folder and I checked the files. I could play the film file manually with VLC but when I tried to open the .srt file Notepad reported ‘Invalid File Handle’. This is, I think, the error that was being reported in the PMS logs previously. I then saw that a Windows update was waiting to install. This jogged my memory. I recall a Windows update taking place a week or so ago. So, I applied the latest update and scanned the new local disk library with John Wick (2014) in it.
The scanner has found the film as I can now see it by searching for it in the Plex App. However, it hasn’t entered it into the library as the log says it can’t find the Plex Agent. Am I correct?
So, could the garbage icon issue be down to a Windows update issue which they have now fixed? After the Windows update, Notepad could open the .srt file with no error message. Looking at the PMS log file, the Invalid Handle Error has disappeared. There is the Error as follows in there though vis:
ERROR - MetadataAgentPostProcessor: failed to find agent for identifier tv.plex.agents.movie
Am I on the right track?
Perform a repair installation of Plex server. The installer should be in the Plex data folder, in the subfolder /Updates.
(DON’T use “uninstaller” or “Registry cleaner” type of tools.)
Ensure that Plex server always has internet connectivity. Particularly when it is started.
Don’t change the network configuration after Plex server is started (i.e. adding or removing network links, activating VPNs etc.).
Verify that on the server machine, the domain plex.tv can be resolved.
This is a frequent issue for the new agents.
Yes, but only do so after you have verified that no items are showing the trash can on their posters. Otherwise they will get removed from your library if you emtpy the trash.
I’d explicitly forbid the anti virus software to interfere in the plex data folder. Particularly if it’s some 3rd-party product.
Hi OttoKerner,
Thanks for that, I’ll check the switches and PC’s etc. to make sure the speed stays static.
Re the “Empty trash automatically after every scan” setting. I’ll turn it off. I can delete trash myself from the app manually. Am I correct?
Hi OttoKerner,
I can’t find the installer. The updates folder only has updates in it?
I can resolve plex.tv in a browser but cannot ping it. Ping has probably been disallowed.
That is the installer.
Sorry to be stupid but I’ve never done this before.
The newest file I have is:
PlexMediaServer-1.41.6.9685-d301f511a-x86_64.exe - dated 21/04/2025
Shall I execute this?
Yes. Stop Plex server beforehand, using its task tray icon.
Das sieht irgendwie danach aus, als wenn du in “M:\Films-Test” einen weiteren Ordner "John Wick (2014)" angelegt hättest. Kann es sein, dass die Datei “John Wick (2014)” versteckte Zeichen enthält? Ändere doch mal diesen Dateinamen auf “JW.mp4” und versuche dann das gleiche noch einmal!
Okay, so done all suggested and no further forward I think. The garbage icons have all gone but that’s because I emptied the trash and now it looks like I have films and TV episodes missing. I’ve spent the last six hours on this and I’m losing the will to live.
I can’t see any way of producing some sort of report that will show those media folder items that the PMS hasn’t loaded into the Plex library after a scan. Some sort of reporting is necessary in Plex.
Ich habe bereits vergeblich versucht, Dateien umzubenennen. Ein anderes Mitglied schlug vor, dass es sich um versteckte Zeichen handeln könnte, und ich habe gefragt, wie ich diese versteckten Zeichen sehen könnte, aber noch keine Antwort erhalten.
Could you show me which folder you have added to your TV shows library?
Edit your library, then go to the “Add Folders” tab.
Perfect! This is just as it’s supposed to be.
Since the folder structure and the file names are very much alright, I wonder if there is something up with the network protocol settings in the NAS device.
I wonder if you have more detailed settings for the SMB network protocol in your NAS.
I’d look out for any feature which aims to save power or speed up / cache things. Disable them one by one and see if the behaviour is different afterwards.
Also, on the Windows machine enter the properties of the network adapter in Hardware Manager.
See if the driver software allows you to disable certain features like Power Saving, Energy Efficient Ethernet, Link speed reduction when idle and similar.
