How do I get support?

[steve18758]

So I posted on the thread here Updating Plex changes shares permissions and I got some dodgy advice.

How do I go about getting proper support for software I paid a considerable sum of money for?

[dane22]

@steve18758

How do I go about getting proper support for software I paid a considerable sum of money for?

You had support from both community members, a Ninja and a team member, and this is as far as it goes

Also note, that paying for a PlexPass, does not means support!
Ref: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201751006-plex-pass-feature-overview/

The forums is the support provided for Plex

[steve18758]

I’ll correct you there. Only one poster responded, not two. The other post was in answer to somebody else.

I guess I will have to wait until somebody helpful comes along.

[dane22]

@steve18758

I’ll correct you there

I stand corrected here, since looked at the whole thread, and didn’t pay attention to the fact, that you piggybacked on an old thread from 2016!

When that’s said, you did receive respond from a Plex team member, so if that didn’t work for you, all I can suggest, is that you start a fresh thread, since adding to a thread from 2016 is hopeless, due to both OS and PMS is changing by the day

[ChuckPa]

I am writing the How To now. Please stand by and I will link the post here when complete

[steve18758]

Hurrah!

[ChuckPa]

Plex Media Server security changes for Synology users

This How-To is still in draft form and may need slight corrections but details how to use split-folders when optimizing media Media previously optimized as well as freshly optimized media can be intermixed safely as long as the original library section boundaries are preserved. https://forums.plex.tv/t/using-read-only-and-read-write-shares-for-optimized-media-on-synology/418628

[ChuckPa]

The full forum thread for this is:

Using Read-Only and Read-Write shares for Optimized media on Synology

How to use multiple (split) shares for optimized media This How-To is applicable to any Linux-based system. It is being demonstrated using both Synology and QNAP (does the CPU crunching) for expediency in creating the optimized files necessary. This having been stated, the only difference between performing this task on QNAP versus performing on Synology is the top level folder name. On QNAP, it is /share while on Synology it’s /volume1 for most users. Two parts will be demonstrated her…

[steve18758]

Nope. Still doesn’t work. Plex still doesn’t recognise the files in the Optimized folder as such. They are marked as ‘Original’. This has two catastrophic results:

1. When setting up a new Optimize task Plex wants to re-optimize my entire library.
2. Plex never actually plays the optimized version onto a mobile device. It transcodes the original.

The Plex user has been given read/write access to the optimised folder. Folder structure has been changed to now match your new guide:
/volume1/Media/Movies/movie title/movie title.mkv
/volume1/Optimized/Movies/Plex Versions/Optimized for Mobile/movie title.mp4

I would point out that your new folder structure will not work for TV Shows either. The optimised files are all just named SE01E01.mp4 and so on. So lumping all of those in the same folder without having their own TV Show title folder is never going to work.

[ChuckPa]

I wrote the first phase, on the weekend, on the fly.

I will prepare the document for Television series.

[ChuckPa]

To show how Television works:

[chuck@lizum Season 01.102]$ pwd
/vie/tv3/$#! My Dad Says/Season 01
[chuck@lizum Season 01.103]$ 
[chuck@lizum Season 01.103]$ 
[chuck@lizum Season 01.103]$ 
[chuck@lizum Season 01.103]$ ls -la
total 10299300
drwxr-xr-x 3 root  root       4096 Jun  2 11:52 ./
drwxr-xr-x 3 root  root       4096 May 22  2018 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 586327670 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E01.Pilot.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 586052250 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E02.Wi-Fight.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 585867760 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E03.The Truth About Dads & Moms.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 585545732 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E04.Code Ed.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 585377081 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E05.Not Without My Jacket.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 585564386 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E06.Easy, Writer.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 586207846 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E07.Dog Ed Pursuit.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 586222410 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E08.The Manly Thing to Do.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 585491567 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E09.Make a Wish.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 586144399 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E10.You Can't Handle the Truce.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 586550051 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E11.Family Dinner for Schmucks.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 584937691 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E12.Goodson Goes Deep.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 585121957 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E13.The Better Father.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 586054292 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E14.Corn Star.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 586193761 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E15.Ed Goes to Court.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 586451562 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E16.Well Suitored.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 586225864 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E17.Lock and Load.mkv
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 585933490 May 27  2018 $#! My Dad Says.S01E18.Who's Your Daddy.mkv
drwxrwxrwx 3 root  root       4096 Jun  2 11:52 Plex Versions/
[chuck@lizum Season 01.104]$

You will observe the name of the television series is created.
The subfolder Plex Versions exists.

[steve18758]

I can wait for this. But what about the problem with the Optimised versions not being detected correctly?

[steve18758]

Are you sure about this? Because it says in the help document:

Repairing broken associations between main media files and the optimized versions is very simple.

I would find it astonishing that moving optimised versions like this would even be recommended if the outcome was so hugely detrimental.

[steve18758]

It would appear you have commented without any grasp of the sequence of events. Read the posts that I have made on the thread.

Plex posts espoused the benefits of creating this structure:

Plex Media Server security changes for Synology users

Community Announcement - Synology users - Security update. Server Version#: Plex Media Server 1.15.4.994 and above By popular customer request and to improve the safety of your media, we’ve made a small but visible change to what PMS can do on your NAS by itself. We have removed user plex from the administrators group. This was a holdover from DSM 5.2 when it was required for PMS to run properly on the NAS. Now, with DSM 6 and above, this is no longer required. By doing so we’ve lower…

I did due diligence by asking three different times if moving the files would cause a problem. I said it would be a ‘deal breaker’ if it did. I didn’t get an answer.

I followed the instructions and prescribed folder structure. Then encountered a severe problem. Over many days I did not get any answer to my queries.

And now you’re saying, ‘why haven’t you done it?’. Well… I have. The post five above yours says clearly that I have, with the same outcome. But I guess you didn’t read that either.

[steve18758]

Well it does mean either you or Chuck is wrong. And I’m stuck in the middle.

Either the links are permanently broken (in that case Plex should have the ability to repair the database), or Repairing broken associations between main media files and the optimized versions is very simple. is incorrect.

It will be interesting to see which way this goes.