Hi Boys and girls, as the title suggests, i would like an automated way to move my watched tv shows to a different disk, this is because i am running out of space on my tv shows disk, however i have lots of spare ones that i would like to archive watched shows to. I started to write a powershell script to achieve this but my skills very quickly ran out. I have the very latest PHT running on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard box. Any help would be appreciated.
I'm against Plex trying to move files. I'm all for perhaps a shell interface to let you put in your own processing, but that should be the extent of it.
So many don't seem to be able to manage watched status effectively, that this would be a nightmare.
I would like to see this feature also. It doesn’t have to be compulsory, so the argument against it doesn’t stand.
Yea I would love to have a solution for this.
My setup is more, Mac Mini with 2 x 500GB SSD attached with as main media storage (Plex watches those 2 SSDs).
Then, ideally, after I’ve watched a file, Mac Mini or Plex will move the file from SSD to my NAS as archive, this way it frees up my SSD for more content.
Hope there’s a solution out there somewhere 
ditto. My movie to do list is the unwatched flag. Unwatched is automatic after download. Adding movies to “Watch Later” or some other list requires extra effort after downloading.
Have plenty of space on slower drives. But, if I move a movie folder to the other storage then it is again marked as unwatched. Having Plex do it would be great.
Adding my vote for this.
I’ve got all my “to watch” stuff on one disk, and archived content on a backup. Plex knows of both libraries (creatively entitled “New Movies” and “Old Movies”).
Every few months I have to manually go through each library in the filesystem and move content I’ve watched over to the backup to free up space. Plex then rescans the libraries and informs me I have a whole bunch of new content (i.e. the stuff I just moved). Messes up my whole ‘Recently Added’ list and is a PITA to keep having to manually do.
I’d love it if we could set it up so that either a.) Plex would automagically move content if we so selected, &/or b.) Plex allowed us to move content from library to library in the app (this is definitely the MVP as it’d require implementing a bit of (relatively) basic code to move content within a filesystem - it wouldn’t even have to be “library aware” to start, a basic file move window allowing you to select the destination would suffice in the beginning).
I also have an “Old TV” and “New TV” library for the same reason. So if there’s an automagic move/archive function, we’d need to be able to specify archive destinations on a per-library function.
Setting an ‘unwatched’ filter achieves the same - without juggling files from one disk/library into another.
Hey @ottokap, appreciate the suggestion but I don’t think that’ll do it - at least in my situation.
What I’m seeking to achieve - and what I believe the OP wanted as well - is for files to be moved from within Plex. We’re less concerned about only seeing things that are unwatched, and more with where files are physically located.
Every disk, no matter how large, eventually runs out of space. We just want to be able to move files from within Plex, and for Plex to be aware of the move so it doesn’t think we’ve just added a bunch of new content.
@phynixx said:
What I’m seeking to achieve - and what I believe the OP wanted as well - is for files to be moved from within Plex. We’re less concerned about only seeing things that are unwatched, and more with where files are physically located.
Understood - but why?
If the PMS shall be able to move these files, it means all the disks must be ‘online’ and available all the time.
But if all your disks are available all the time, I don’t get the need to move files in the first place. There is no need to collect all tv shows together on one disk and all movies on another disk.
Just add new disks (or subfolders thereof) to your existing libraries as they arrive.
1.) Local disk is faster access than remote (NAS) disk. Keep stuff I want to keep but watch less frequently on remote. “To watch” starts in faster local disk. (Like kuanyu24 and others above)
2.) Disk A getting full, want to free space without Plex rediscovering everything that’s been moved to Disk B. This is my case since I have a Mac Mini & external drive.
3.) Any number of reasons unique to the use cases of other users of Plex.
I suppose I’m trying to say that it’s not possible to really predict the individual setups and needs of all users. Each suggestion for a work around may work for some and not for others.
Ultimately the request is simply to allow for the ability to move files within Plex. Additional extra like “move file after X event” would be a bonus. Alternatively we could have Plex not rediscover files automatically but that would probably cause many more issues then adding what amounts to extremely basic filesystem commands.
Adding the feature should be quite benign too. Anyone that didn’t want to move files within Plex doesn’t have to.
@phynixx said:
2.) Disk A getting full, want to free space without Plex rediscovering everything that’s been moved to Disk B. This is my case since I have a Mac Mini & external drive.
Better to copy the files and let Plex match them to already existing media, before you delete them. then the Watched status should follow the media item.
A lot of this is going to depend on the naming conventions you use. If you use some obfuscated thing from internet downloads, you are going to have issues with it matching up. As I’ve done this copy/delete more times than I care to think of juggling my own disk space, I know it works well. If the files and folders are named correctly. If not, then you run into problems. If you follow Plex’s recommended naming conventions this should just work.
And for the record, I don’t want Plex moving (or deleting for that matter) anything automatically. It’s one of the levels of control I want to maintain myself, rather than having someone thinking they know how to store my media better than I do.
EDIT: It may be a possibility to have PlexPy do some sort of scripting along these lines. It’s going to take a level of work to get the script to do it as requested, though. You may be able to do this with batch files or powershell scripts (on Windows) or shell scripts in Linux.
It’s a workaround, but it’s not elegant or as efficient / effective. It’s a two step process from what I understand and not as straight forward as Plex cleanly (and internally) moving the files itself with all the matching and other stuff that entails.
Watched status is one thing, so is “newness” (or whatever Plex calls it). If Plex adds some other new status/tags to files down the road then they’d be lost as well.
I’m also very ■■■■ (to the point of OCD) about file structure and naming but it’s all besides the point. Internally handled moves would be independent of any naming convention.
Those that want clean, one-step, internally handled moving should be able to have it. Those that want to manage their own files can carry on as they always have.
It’s a simple add-on feature, not a fundamental shift in structure.
PMS does not have to management of the media content, but it must maintain the metadata
This topic needs to be reassessed as no one has an infinite amount of space, and being able to remove media, without losing the associated metada would be a great option. If the media is removed and restored in the original location with the same structure should be a valuable asset to managing your PMS.
Moderator Edit: Combining duplicate suggestion.
Hi,
Like many PMS owners I too have accumulated quite a bit of media content of which maybe 75% after a short period goes untouched. It would be great to accomplish the following like back in the mainframe (not server based mainframe like today, truly ‘Big Iron’ ) days where a specific tape can be requested by the system if it was not online at the time…… so here goes…
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Once content is deemed fit for archiving off, the Plex entry for that content can be marked as “Archived”, with the ability to notify the Plex owner that a request for that specific media has been made. The notification can be email or whatever is easiest.
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After the archive option is engaged, Plex will maintain the metadata, but know that it is not available in realtime until the archive (bit) option is turned off. There will also be no requirement to refresh the metadata for archived content thereby reducing the refresh metadata time required.
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Once the archive option has been enabled, the owner can then remove the content onto whatever storage medium they are happy with (tape/CD-RW/DVD/NAS/etc.). This technical archiving would not be a function of Plex, once the option to ‘Archive’ is enabled, Plex locks down the metadata and it’s job is done. The metadata is there for any user to see that it could be made available, but it is offline at the moment.
This would be great to get TV series that are no longer being watched or infrequently, off the active volume, especially if the owner does not want to get rid of the content.
The role of PMS would simply be to manage the “archived” metadata, and the functionality of the “Archive Option” when turne on/off.
At some future time PMS could probably handle the off-loading of the content once it knows what off-loading options are available to it.
I hope this meets with agreement to most of you…. Thanks.
My NAS is getting full so it would be nice to have a feature to off-load audio/video that is no longer being watched on a regular basis but have PLEX do it and track it in the data base for future reload and viewing.
Create the ability to move and track item(s) from PLEX media server to separate portable storage device. This would allow freeing up disk space but to be informed the item(s) in question is located on the portable storage device. Example; moving little or no longer viewed movies or television shows/series, etc.
