# Movies disappearing randomly **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-windows\ **Created:** [November 26, 2020, 4:26pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942 "2020-11-26T16:26:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Squirreljester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Squirreljester](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Squirreljester)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2020, 4:26pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/1 "2020-11-26T16:26:59Z")
Server Version#: Version 4.43.4 Player Version#: Roku I’m having a strange issue of movies disappearing. I thought I was going crazy at first, but recently I’ve started to notice movies that I know I have in my library just not there anymore. My wife had mentioned it to me recently as well, movies that we both remember watching on our Plex are just not there anymore and I have to re-add. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there something I can do to get a report of files that vanish off of my system? Maybe some kind of daily scan with a compare of the last scan? ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/2 "2020-11-26T16:54:28Z")
Settings - Server - Library - ‘Show Advanced’ - “Allow media deletion” Disable it and see if you continue to have movies vanishing from your server afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Squirreljester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Squirreljester](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Squirreljester)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 2:01am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/3 "2020-11-27T02:01:49Z")
So does that mean Plex is deleting the movies and not the file system? ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Bev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dan_bev/32/226338_2.png) [@Dan\_Bev](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Dan_Bev)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 2:42am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/4 "2020-11-27T02:42:37Z")
No, not Plex on it’s own anyway. Are the files actually gone from the drive or just missing from the Plex library? ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 7:26am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/5 "2020-11-27T07:26:02Z")
The setting is preventing any user to delete the file directly from the Plex client. ---
**Author:** ![Squirreljester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Squirreljester](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Squirreljester)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/6 "2020-11-28T15:04:36Z")
I am the sole person that does anything on my Plex server. There’s no way I’m sleep deleting my movies. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Bev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dan_bev/32/226338_2.png) [@Dan\_Bev](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Dan_Bev)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/7 "2020-11-28T15:06:08Z")
The setting prevents deleting though the clients not the server. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/8 "2020-11-28T15:12:19Z")
Didn’t you mention of your wife in the first post? So there is at least two persons. Depending on the language setting, there might be a misunderstanding what the “Delete” menu item actually does. (It deletes the actual video file, instead of just removing the item from the Plex database.) Another idea: are you strictly talking about _movies_ or do you rather mean tv show episodes? Because there is a setting which is able to delete “watched” episodes automatically. ![tv_show_auto_delete2](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/b/6/b670bf5c623299bf4f8cfdb1f628f2d7cf03eabc.png) ![tv_show_auto_delete1](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2ac128d5f181a851146d260725e2b2a0bf450d50.png) ---
**Author:** ![Squirreljester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Squirreljester](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Squirreljester)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/9 "2020-11-29T15:56:08Z")
Otto, I mentioned my wife telling me that she told me movies she knows she’s seen have also disappeared, so it’s not just me saying it. I don’t have that setting selected, I try and save everything. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Bev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dan_bev/32/226338_2.png) [@Dan\_Bev](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Dan_Bev)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/10 "2020-11-29T16:40:21Z")
You haven’t said, are the movie files actually gone from the hard drive or just missing from the Plex library? ---
**Author:** ![CostaHT](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/costaht/32/193414_2.png) [@CostaHT](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CostaHT)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/11 "2020-12-03T21:15:57Z")
It just started happening to me too. My last three added movies suddenly are hidden from the library (no file deletion) and if I scan the disk, it shows up again. That’s the second time today. If it keeps happening I’ll post some logs here. ---
**Author:** ![gdub25](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@gdub25](https://forums.plex.tv/u/gdub25)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 2:02am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/12 "2020-12-31T02:02:42Z")
I’ve had the same problem myself. I’ve been using Plex for nearly a decade and am the only one with access to my server. The files are deleted from the library and from the server. It’s random and has been reported by others. @mike5906 is a user who has a backup server and has noted the files being deleted from the main server and still existing on the backup. It’s getting frustrating to track down this issue. ---
**Author:** ![rwfrederick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@rwfrederick](https://forums.plex.tv/u/rwfrederick)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 2:07am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/13 "2021-03-02T02:07:23Z")
Definitely an issue, because I’ve been dealing with it for years and shouldn’t have to. I’m a collector of movies and don’t have the time to go through thousands and thousands of movies to see which ones are being removed randomly. It’s a bunch of bull that people keep blowing it off saying to look at the stupid delete media option… give us a little credit. Maybe there really is a bug and we’re not too dense to ignore it. Admit it’s a problem and fix it already… please. I have rare movies and TV episodes that can’t be replaced. I’ve been lucky so far and have avoided any irreplaceable ones from being removed… eventually, I’ll be screaming at someone and don’t want to get to that. ---
**Author:** ![gdub25](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@gdub25](https://forums.plex.tv/u/gdub25)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 2:37am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/14 "2021-03-02T02:37:21Z")
Must be a hard problem to pin down I guess. At this point I’ve decided to build a backup server like Mike5906 did. It will cost me a few hundred dollars but will keep my movies safe. The money spent will be a lot easier to swallow than losing movies and wishing I had taken measures to prevent that. ---
**Author:** ![mbeacom21\_gmail\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@mbeacom21\_gmail\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mbeacom21_gmail_com)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 1:45pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/15 "2021-04-11T13:45:04Z")
I’ve started to notice this happening too. I was certain that I had already ripped my Peppermint BluRay but when I went to watch it, it was missing. I thought that was odd and must have been mistaken. I have hundreds of blu-rays and so figured I just forgot so I ripped it again. But then I had a rip of Top Gun that I had personally edited to take out the sex scene and some of the language so my kids could watch it. And THAT movie was missing. Not just from Plex, but completely gone of the drive, no where to be found. It’s a major bummer because I probably spent 2 hours editing that movie and now I"ll have to do that again. Anyone have any idea why this is happening? Could it be windows doing it? ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Bev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dan_bev/32/226338_2.png) [@Dan\_Bev](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Dan_Bev)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 2:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/16 "2021-04-11T14:03:45Z")
It’s not Plex unless you have deleted it through a client. If you aren’t doing baxkups you will lose your movies at some point. All hard drives die. If you’re lucky you’ll get a warning. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mbeacom21\_gmail\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@mbeacom21\_gmail\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mbeacom21_gmail_com)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 12:58am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/17 "2021-04-12T00:58:56Z")
I have 3 hard drives on the plex server. I’ve now lost movies from all 3. The drivess pass all diagnostics. I’ve not lost any other files for any other systems on that machine. I’ve never deleted a movie through the plex client. I delete them in windows only. And never delete anything that isnt a duplicate. Plex is doing something funny. No question about it. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Bev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dan_bev/32/226338_2.png) [@Dan\_Bev](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Dan_Bev)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 1:55pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/18 "2021-04-12T13:55:06Z")
Are you using anything to manage movies? ie: Radarr? ---
**Author:** ![mbeacom21\_gmail\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@mbeacom21\_gmail\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mbeacom21_gmail_com)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 7:32pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/19 "2021-04-12T19:32:00Z")
No, should I? I’m not even sure what you mean by “manage” movies, lol. I just rip them and add them to a drive connected to the server, then watch as I feel like it. What kind of “management” is available? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 7:32pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-disappearing-randomly/657942/20 "2021-07-11T19:32:44Z")
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