How do I do a rescan of library folders and remove items from the library that have been deleted?

General Discussions
1

I’ve read the article here

But no matter what I do, the delete media aren’t removed from the library

2

If you have items that have been marked for deletion, you need to hit the “Empty trash” option to get rid of them.

3

rescan library in question

empty trash

clean bundles

optimize database (especially if there were lots of changes)

4

@MovieFan.Plex said:
If you have items that have been marked for deletion, you need to hit the “Empty trash” option to get rid of them.

Emptying the trash does nothing all the media is still there in the library.

I’ve rescanned and analyzed the library over and over again. For both movies and tv shows. And the media remains.

I’ve tried shutting down PMS and restarting it, and the media remains. I have verified that the media I’m looking at is the media that was removed.

5

Can you provide the steps you are performing starting with how you are removing the media?

6

@MovieFan.Plex said:
Can you provide the steps you are performing starting with how you are removing the media?

This is on a windows 10 machine.

  • All movies are in their own folder
  • I removed several folders in windows explorer
  • Went to my local plex web application
  • Clicked the 3 dots next to the word “movie” in the left panel
  • Clicked “Scan Library Files”
  • Repeat the process but clicked on “Analyze”
  • Wait for process to complete
  • Click on 3 dots and clicked “Empty Trash”
  • Verify that media is still listed in library
  • Clicked “Get Info” on media and see badge that states “unavailable”

I also tried shutting down and restarting PMS.

7

Can you go through those steps for 1 movie and then get me the entire PMS log package? Let me know what movie you removed so I can look for it.

8

@MovieFan.Plex said:
Can you go through those steps for 1 movie and then get me the entire PMS log package? Let me know what movie you removed so I can look for it.

Sure. I removed a movie called “Drone”

9

I’m not seeing any reference to that movie in your logs. Can you provide me the XML for that movie?

10

I had a similar issue a few weeks back…and it was fixed thanks to a post by ottokerner. Essentially, if one of the library folders you have assigned to the library is inaccessible…the media won’t be deleted immediately.

Did you perhaps delete a ‘root’ folder which is directly referenced in your library configuration?
‘Edit’ your library,
go to the ‘Add Folder’ tab
take a look at the folder list referenced in there.
Do these folders all still exist?
Do also take a look at the paths. On a Windows Plex server they should all use backslashes \ and not a mixture of slashes / and backslashes.

11

@DFury said:
I had a similar issue a few weeks back…and it was fixed thanks to a post by ottokerner. Essentially, if one of the library folders you have assigned to the library is inaccessible…the media won’t be deleted immediately.

Did you perhaps delete a ‘root’ folder which is directly referenced in your library configuration?
‘Edit’ your library,
go to the ‘Add Folder’ tab
take a look at the folder list referenced in there.
Do these folders all still exist?
Do also take a look at the paths. On a Windows Plex server they should all use backslashes \ and not a mixture of slashes / and backslashes.

Bingo. Thanks!