Movies Deleted From Hard Drive

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.18.4.2171
Player Version#:

I’m using a 8TB WD external drive. Its always plugged in and always on.

Over the past two years or so, a number of movies would disappear from both Plex, and the external drive. I wouldnt know its gone until I go to watch it. Not understanding the issue, I’d just resync my connected drive with my backup drive to replace whats missing.

Sometimes its a new file that I haven’t backed up and I’m SOL.

I’ve turned off “Allow media deletion” a long time ago.
Movies still disappeared.
I followed up with turning off pretty much any automatic scan or update of the libraries.
Though I haven’t unchecked anything under scheduled tasks.

Just yesterday, I went to watch John Wick 1 and only could find John Wick 3. No Wick 1 or Wick 2. I’m 100% sure I had all 3, so it led me back to the internet to find answers. I’ve scoured the forums and google trying to find the problem or a fix, and I’m coming up blank. I went from 700 films down to 588.

I’m not sure when anything happens because I’m not checking Plex everyday. I open up the oldest log I can find and I search through it for “DELETE” “DELETED” and “DELETING” and I see a number of entries for “Deleting media item #####”
I dont know what media item it refers to.

I never delete anything from Plex. If I delete a movie, I delete it from the hard drive itself and update my Plex library after. And I rarely delete a movie unless I’m replacing it with another version.

I follow the naming guidelines. I have a root movie folder, and a subfolder for each film.
I havent had any issued with TV shows disappearing, only movies.

Could there be anything in the settings that I’m missing, that could allow a deletion of files from the drive and PMS? Could I possibly give Plex read only access to my hard drive and stop any of it?

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There is only 2 times plex can delete files

  • as you said above, which only delete when specifically triggered by you or another person using your account
  • in the dvr scheduling and advanced media properties you can set plex to delete after certain days or after watching etc (deletions are by default)
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The problem is, I don’t trigger any deletions via Plex. I certainly didn’t delete any of my films.

I dont use DVR. And TV Shows are not disappearing. Only movies.
No other users have accessed my server. No one else uses my account.
I haven’t moved any folders, renamed any films or rescanned my library.

For the most part I watch Plex either on my Xbox One, or through Amazon Fire TV.
My PC running the Plex Server goes untouched for weeks, unless I’m uploading new media.

I’m still at a lost.

I can’t provide a log because I dont know when any of the media went missing. I just noticed it yesterday. I guess for the time being I’ll keep daily track of my media count so I can possibly see if the log points to the culprit. I just know it aint me.

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This log line appears when Plex has determined that the media file of an item in its library is missing.
You can prevent it by disabling
Settings - Server - Library - ‘Empty trash automatically after every scan’

That way, the posters of missing files are remaining in Plex, but are marked with a ‘trash can’ icon. You can then inspect the Plex media info of the item and look up at which location Plex is expecting to find the file.
This may then provide more clues as to what happened.

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Thanks.

I’d much rather the poster remain so I can figure out what happened to the actual media file.

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