Library keeps re-downloading meta data for entire library

General Discussions
1

Hi,

I’m running Plex on a 2009 Macbook Pro with my media stored on a Synology DiskStation DS215j NAS.

Every once in a while when I “update” the library in order to scan for new content, the server seems to think that all the content is new and re-downloads all meta data and info fresh.

In the process:

  • all the recently added films dates are wrong now
  • all my playlists get wiped

Any idea why that is happening? I was thinking maybe it has to do with the NAS using DHCP to get an IP address, but the library folders don’t use those.

This is really annoying because I’d love to use my playlists and also the recently added films date is quite useful too.

Many thanks for your help!

TT

2

anyone? Any Ninjas out there? I tried resetting the library … the next step is reinstalling the whole thing …

3

There are several measures to take to try and prevent that from happening.

In Plex Web, clear the checkbox
Settings - Server - Library - ‘Empty trash automatically after every scan’

Assign your NAS a fixed local (private) IP address. Either by setting it by hand in the control panel of the NAS or by using ‘DHCP address reservation’ in the preferences of your router.

If you switch off your NAS if not in use, make absolutely sure that it is fully booted up before you fire up Plex Server.
Make also sure, that the NAS has always a correct real time clock. You may want to configure the ‘NTP client’ of your NAS to help with that.
Take into account that fetching the time by means of the NTP service may also take sometimes a few minutes.
Add these ‘few minutes’ to the time you wait between switching on your NAS and firing up Plex Server.

Never, ever rename any of the network shares of your NAS.
Never, ever rename any of the top folders in your media storage.

Don’t let any other software make modifications to your media folders.
Especially bad is software which modifies the ‘changed’ timestamp of your media files routinely.

4

Thanks for that. I’ve assigned the NAS a static IP and I’ve turned off the automatic delete.

Let’s see what that does.

Many thanks for your help!

I’ll keep you posted!