MacOS Sequoia + Plex Media Server Bug

[dylanborgman_gmail_com]

Server Version#:1.40
Player Version#:any

I’m reporting an issue I encountered running Plex Media Server on a Mac Studio M1 Max, 64GB RAM. The Plex Media Server Library folder resided locally on the machine, the media itself resided on a networked SMB share from a Synology NAS.

The issue began after upgrading the server from Sonoma to Sequoia 15.1. After the upgrade, the server incorrectly displayed 1200 movies available in the “Movies” library despite there being over 3700. This was the same on all devices I used to diagnose the problem including iPhones, iPads, Windows Plex Player, and others. The SMB share would also periodically unmount from the server without any warning, once or twice per day.

The first step I took was to roll back the db files to previous backups, which initially restored the correct movie count, however after the server scanned the folder again, it reverted back.

I was also able to get it to “re-discover” the missing content by renaming a missing file, which would temporarily cause the entire folder to reindex and the movies to show up albeit with default assigned artwork, but then several hours later, the media would disappear again.

Other unsuccessful attempts I made to fix the issue included:

• Rolling back the Plex Media Server app to 1.32, no change

• Freeing up space on the local and networked drives, no change

• Changing various file sharing settings on the Synology (including forcing higher and lower versions of SMB, opportunistic locking, and other advanced MacOS features), no change

• Nuking the Plex Media Server folder completely and recreating it from scratch, after indexing it would still show 1200 movies, sometimes fewer

After eliminating all other possible causes, I eventually decided to wipe the computer and reinstall macOS Sonoma 14.7. After restoring the apps from a Time Machine backup, the server is now stable and reports the correct number of movies in the Movies Library without incident.

I’m reporting this in case others encounter the same issue and would like to investigate this further. I would love to someday be able to upgrade the server to the latest OS again, but will be holding off for now.

[pshanew]

This is a known issue:

Plex Files Unavailable but they’re not missing

Server Version#: 1.41.0.8992-8463ad060 Having a very unusual situation that I hope someone can shed light on. Updated to MacOS 15. I know. I know. Wait. But I ran a test on another machine to make sure everything worked. And it did. So I updated my main Plex Mac. For a few hours all was fine. Then… On my TV Shows library (which is on two Synology NAS devices) it sporadically stopped updating new files and said some files were unavailable but I could still play them. And when I clicked to see…

If you haven’t already, disable the following setting on your server:
Settings → [Select Server Name] → Library → Empty trash automatically after every scan.

That will save you some headaches with regard to your media disappearing. It will just go in the trash instead and will still show in your library (and can be recovered via a library scan when the media is available again).