Library empty when mounting network volumes in Ubuntu

[verrick]

Server Version#: 1.40.3.8555
Server Description: Ubuntu 24.04

Okay, I have a weird one here, that will probably turn out to be a rookie mistake. I have a QNAP NAS setup as a file share. I have several shares that I use as Libraries for my PMS. I am currently in the process of standing up a second server on a ProxMox Linux to take advantage of the additional processor power I can throw at PMS to speed up transcoding.

My current set up runs PMS from a Mac with shares mapped from my QNAP. All works perfect, with a little hiccup in the transcoding department. I stood up a new server, mapped the drives, installed PMS, edited /etc/fstab - everything works great, except that when I add the libraries, and choose the folders where my Libraries are mounted, the Library is empty. I can go in the command line and see all of my files. I have mounted with the plex user and group id, and I’m pulling my hair out here.

Any help here would be awesome. Thanks.

[ChuckPa]

Don’t use SMB mounts, use NFS (enable the NFS service on the QNAP)

Linux Tips

Mounting NFS network shares for Plex use The basic checklist Prepare the NAS: Create a ‘mount point’ directory structure on your Linux machine which will be where all your media shares are grafted and made available for Plex use. Create an entry in /etc/fstab for each share you wish to mount. Mount and debug as needed A. Prepare the NAS. This is unique to each NAS. In general, you only need grant read permission. Should you desire Read/Write for yourself, we will allow for it On Lin…

[verrick]

Much appreciated for the reference guide there. I followed the NFS mount guide and I still wasn’t able to get it working properly. Then I followed the CIFS guide and managed to get it working on one library, and not the other. It seems that for some reason, the chmod 755 command wasn’t as recursive as it should of been (read “I forgot the switch.”). Everything popped up like a charm.

So one follow on question - since it’s working with the cifs/smb directions, is there a compelling reason I should recreate my libraries using NFS shares? I’m not too far into my library creations yet, so now would be a good time for me to do it.

Thanks again.

[ChuckPa]

If you can fix the server-side permissions and make it work with CIFS/SMB, there is no compelling reason to use NFS (other than NFS is native to Linux and performs better from Linux ↔ Linux)

Whatever you decide, do what’s best for you & easiest to maintain / problem solve.

[ChuckPa]

If you would like a reference, this is my NFS mount for all of the media from my server

192.168.0.20:/vol/media     /glock/media       nfs defaults,sec=sys,rw,auto,async,x-systemd.after=network-online.target,nofail,bg 0 0

On the NFS server side, it’s mounted for Everyone + Read-only.

KEY POINT most overlook:

1. sudo mkdir <the mount point>
2. sudo chmod 755 <the mount point>
3. Now mount it
4. Now fix the permissions one more time.

You need the permissions on the host + permissions of the mounted share .
(the mount point on the host is what most forget)

[ChuckPa]

@verrick

Okay, I have a weird one here, that will probably turn out to be a rookie mistake. I have a QNAP NAS setup as a file share.

I was just thinking — Did you create the NFS export rule for the shared folder ?

[chuck@lizum ~.2010]$ sudo mount ts128:/media /mnt
[chuck@lizum ~.2011]$ ls -la /mnt
total 12
drwxrwxrwx  3 root root 4096 Jun 17 01:47 ./
drwxr-xr-x 33 root root 4096 Jul  3 13:37 ../
drwxrwxrwx  2 root root 4096 Jun 17 02:02 tv/
[chuck@lizum ~.2012]$ 

[verrick]

I did have those permissions set. I have a ton of other shares throughout my home network.

I think at the moment, I’m going to leave them mapped via CIFS because everything is working. I’ll revisit at some point if I decide to migrate my server.

Again, thank you so much for the help. I really appreciate it. On to the next weird problem with my network and Plex - broadcast domains and HDHomeRun.