Have Plex transfer currently watched files to a cache temporarily

Plex Media Server
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Server Version#: 4.147.1
Player Version#: Apple TV - 8.45 (9684)

I am using an Apple Mac Mini M4 as my Plex server, with it being the only real application installed. It sits in a corner connected to a couple of UnRaid Server SMB shares. Everything works very well, although Apple does have issues with UnRaid shares, but that’s a topic for another day.

One of the features my NAS has is the ability to spin down disks that are not in use, saving wear and tear, some electricity, and mainly reducing heat. However, if I am watching a 2-hour film, the disks that supply that film spin up and remain active. On my Mac Mini M4, I have almost 120GB of spare fast disk space.

Is there a way, or if not, does anyone know if it is in the pipeline, and if not, do you agree that it should be, for me to define a “Temp” folder on the Mac? When I request a film to watch, my Mac could grab the whole file across the 10Gb network and then ‘feed it’ to the Plex server from the temp location until the film has finished. To save space, that folder could be cleared out every day, week, or hour.

I know that not everyone has a Mac to host, but plenty of NAS systems have cache drives or ‘fast’ folders, etc. So, my question is, does this option exist, and I just cannot find it, and if it does not exist, should it?

Thanks

1 Like
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From what I’ve learned, a NAS will usually try to avoid spinning drives up/down a lot as that’ll usually mean more wear compared to consistently running them.

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I, too would love that feature. M4 Mac Mini arriving tomorrow. I would love if the files for all active streams / on deck would be cached to my high-speed internal drive so the hdds can spin down again. From there they can be direct streamed / transcoded as necessary.