Help needed: Ghost in the machine (DS218+)

[tom80H]

You can manually collect the logs from the Plex data share on your Synology

Synology FAQ - Questions, Answers, and How-To's

FAQ 13: Manually obtaining log files Log files are maintained in the Plex share. This share is normally hidden by default because, under normal usage, there is no reason to access it. In those cases where PMS won’t start, the share can be made visible to File Station in order to facilitate manual collection and posting in the forums for assistance. Procedure to retrieve log files DSM 6 Prerequisite: (Do this only once) Control Panel - Shared Folders EDIT the Plex share Permissi…

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/

From what you describe, there might be an issue with the database

Synology FAQ - Questions, Answers, and How-To's

FAQ 17: Recover from a corrupt database On Synology NAS machines, we have direct GUI access to the database area. We can use File Station to recover if PMS was previously able to make database backups Open Control Panel - Shared Folders - EDIT the Plex share a. Permissions tab b. Give your username R/W permission to the Plex share [Screenshot from 2020-01-05 13-03-44] Open File Station Navigate to the databases folder DSM 6: Plex / Library / Application Support / Plex Me…

https://support.plex.tv/articles/201100678-repair-a-corrupt-database/