Please for the love of god fix the bug with Plex deleting movies.
This is my first forum post about it. I’ve read post in the past of others saying this does happen.
Today The Iron Giant was missing. last week the movie RV was missing.
Are you saying it’s not in your Plex library or you mean it’s deleted from your file system?
I’ve had a few movies go missing from my collection as well. They were all movies viewed by a particular family member, but when I went to look for them they were gone from the file system. I figured it was probably the user somehow deleting the file ITSELF from the app, having logged in as the admin user (default) instead of her own managed account. They claim innocence, and I doubt that they actually deleted it, but it wasn’t worth worrying much over.
I tried to disable deleting of media, since I usually delete unused media directly myself in the file system, but it broke Plex DVR. Seems the server must have permissions to delete files if you want to restrict a recorded show to “only keep the latest episode”.
Anyway, that last paragraph wasn’t of much relevance, but I did want to chime in with a “Yeah, I have had items vanish under strange circumstances as well.”
Plex will not delete a file from your filesystem unless you’ve:
- Configured it such that it is allowed (Settings → [Server Name] → Library → Allow media deletion; and,
- Manually deleted an item using a client; or,
- Configured a TV series, using the “Keep” or “Delete episodes after playing,” to automatically delete items.
No claim of unauthorized or unintended media deletion by Plex Media Server has ever been substantiated. There have been situations where one of the *arr apps have deleted items, sometimes leading to the conclusion that it must have been Plex. Or for other users logging in as the Plex admin account deleting items. Or for series items which have been (mistakenly) configured to be automatically deleted. Or some other reason related to the host system itself. But Plex Media Server on its own, no.
Having said that, the first thing I’d suggest is for you to ensure that this setting is disabled on your server, particularly if you use external (USB or network) storage:
Settings → [Server Name] → Library → Empty trash automatically after every scan
This will prevent Plex Media Server from removing items from your Plex libraries should they not be available during a scan for some reason. This prevents the case where PMS deletes its cataloging of the item if it is unavailable (but where it is still on the filesystem).
Yes it removes it from the file system.
Since i read the developers says it cant happen. I decided to say quiet about it for a few years while watching it happen over and over again. Im 100 percent sure its doing it.
Yes i have deletion turned on and write access to my drives. This is so i can manually delete a video. Be pretty difficult to delete this many movies by accident.
I could remove deletion from the client’s and write back in a year or two when something else comes up missing. Ive only noticed missing movies.
I have seen plex remove a movie from its list to but can always get it back by rescanning.
Then there are times where its gone from the fille system.
Do you keep your movies in their own separate folder for each one? Plex can delete the file but it doesn’t delete the folder, subtitles, posters ect… If the folder is gone, something else is happening
Does anybody else have access to your files or Plex account?
Use the File Explorer search bar to make sure it didn’t accidently get moved. I’ve done this more times than I can count
If deleted files don’t go into the Recycle Bin, it’s time to change that
What you’re describing is files going missing and sometimes they come back. Plex sees the file that came back and it’s rescanned into the library
This can happen with drives that are failing. It doesn’t always happen in one giant catastrophic loss
Check the health of your drives
If you don’t have at least 1 or 2 backups of your media, a couple movies going missing will be the least of your problems some day
I download movies on my game development pc then transfer them to a file server which is a individual machine. Once there files are never moved. I let plex do my organization.
Most movies are in individual folders. 1 percent are not.
Ya i have 3 families that use the plex server on my property.
Ill shut off file deletion i guess.
Is it possible to give only one profile deletion rights? Right now we all usee the samme profile. I own plex premium. If its possible to control righrs per profile i can force everyone to use thier own profile.
Yes, if you all share the same profile you all have admin rights. You can share libraries to a separate account with their own email or create another profile as part of the Plex home.
Those profiles will not be able to delete anything but you still can
Every profile has a different watch history
Not sure how convenient that is depending on your circumstances
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