Issues with Plex Constantly Scanning Movies Folder and TV Shows showing up in Movies

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Server Version#: DS218+
Player Version#: 1.18.3.2156-349e9837e

Hi, I apologize if this question has been asked before, but I am new to setting up Plex on a NAS as I have always used my computer but I decided to buy a stand alone NAS unit.

I have two small issues, any help would be greatly appreciated. When I scan my movie Library off of my Synology NAS, it constantly scans and eats up CPU usage. I thought it was just taking a long time, so I let it run for 24 hours and it was still constantly running. I was thinking, maybe there’s a file that it’s getting hung on? But all my movies show up in in my Movies and it’s not missing anything.

Second issue has been a little more annoying, when I ripped my Curb Your Enthusiasm DVD’s using handbrake, I add them to my TV Shows folder, which is separate from my movies, scan and they add, awesome. But when I scan my movies folder (also see issue above) they add themselves to the Movie folders, improperly named.

Again, I sincerely appreciate all of the help and I apologize again if this is a duplicate topic. Thank you all.

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Double check that you didn’t accidentally set your movies’ library folder one level too high maybe? That may explain the TV media showing up in the movie library improperly, and maybe the constant scanning too if you have the configured to automatically scan when changes are detected.

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This is how I have my structure on my Synology, so I think it should be setup correctly? haha

image

And I thought the same thing as you, so I turned off Automatic Scanning and all of that and just set it to Manual Scans as well

4

I was more curious about where your movies library in Plex had its folder path pointed:

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So, in your example, if it were pointed to Library instead of Movies you would definitely see the issues you describe.

Also, per @ChuckPa 's Synology FAQ, it may not be a good idea to have your media in the Plex share (FAQ 6):

5

Holy cow! That was it!

I had movies pointing to /volume1/Plex/Library instead of /volume1/Plex/Library/Movies

Let me try this out and see if it works

6

May I ask why media is being placed in the Plex share?
As the engineer who maintains the scripting and is responsible for that share, may I ask why my requests (in 6 languages) to not place media in the Plex share, resulted in the Plex share being used anyway?

/volume1/Plex is for my (the app’s) internal use.
The rest of the NAS (e.g. /volume1/Movies) is for your use.

If it was simple confusion about its purpose, I’m ok with that.
I’m trying to make it easier for everyone to understand the intent intuitively

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Update, It worked and now everything is syncing properly and my Movies folder is no longer constantly running and scanning and eating up my CPU.

Regarding your question Chuck, I am not sure I follow, I apologize. I do not have an media in the main Plex directory.

All of my media is in:

/volume1/Plex/Library/Movies
&
/volume1/Plex/Library/TV Shows

8

That counts as being in the Plex directory, Chuck is advising you to move it(to say /volume1/Library/Movies & /volume1/Library/TV Shows) to avoid further conflicts.

9

I did the update on m y windows 10 PC today. I am trying to watch it on my tv through my ROKU stick.
Now when I go to the PLEX app on the TV, it spins and spins. The home screen takes a long time for PLEX to appear. Then the icons on the left task bar on the plex screen on the TV has the spinning orange-yellowish circle. None of the icons for the tv shows or the movies or the music or the pictures will populate. The plex version I am using is: Plex Media Server 1.18.4.2171ac2afe5f8. This morning before I updated PLAX, this all worked great

10

Ohhhhhh, Ok, thanks for clarifying.

Yeah, to answer Chucks question then, it probably should be a little more clearer, as the Synology NAS created those two folders in those directories.

/volume1/Plex/Library

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If you notice, the Plex share is not visible when the installation runs.
I do this deliberately to avoid looking for a place to put the media.

I can easily migrate from using a “Plex” share to a “PlexData” share.

The only reason it’s browseable is:

  1. manual retrieval of logs when PMS won’t start
  2. making backups of the metadata

Previously, the share was not browseable. I can, if needed, go back to this but really resist doing so.

12

That makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for clarifying Chuck, I do appreciate it.

I have one more quick question then, is there an easy way to Migrate my data from:

/volume1/Plex/Library

to

/volume1/Library/

and not lose my metadata and have to update movies posters / naming schemes, etc?

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Yes. It’s very simple.

  1. Settings - Server - Library - Show Advanced.
    a. Turn off Automatic scan
    b. Turn off Periodic scan (if in use)
    c. Turn off Empty Trash

  2. Create new shares. I suggest nice simple shares, e.g. “Movies”, “Television”, etc. Name them to whatever makes sense for you. You can have up to 255 shares so I doubt you’ll run out of possible shares. Be certain to give user Plex permission to read the new shares as you create them.

  3. Using FileStation, move from the current location to the new. This should move quickly unless crossing physical disk boundaries (Linux moves by renaming whenever possible)

  4. With media now in new position
    a. Edit the first share
    b. ADD the new media share path .
    c. DO NOT delete the original path just yet. Plex needs that for now
    d. Save the change
    e. Observe PMS scanning the media.
    f. Observe media now obtaining a duplicate indicator (2) in the upper right corner.
    g. When scanning is complete and all media showing duplicate continue with next step
    h. EDIT the folder list again, removing the original location
    i. Save
    j. Observe the duplicate indicators being removed
    k. When complete, advance to the next share and repeat the process.

When all shares have been completed:

  1. Scan files one final time
  2. Verify everything is as it was
  3. Empty Trash
  4. Clean bundles
  5. Optimize Database
  6. Settings - Server - Library : re-enable the previously disabled options.
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