Server Version#: 4.66.1
Player Version#: ? what is this?
NB I only want to use Plex to stream my audio MP3 files to various outside devices (via Wifi). I’m a VERY basic user of Plex and most of it is a mystery to me.
I have a dual-boot desktop machine. I’m running Plex on the Windows side without any problems, with my music library on an external HD connected by a USB connection to the machine.
I have now installed Plex in Linux (Linux Mint 20). Linux can certainly see the external HD fine, and files can be modified, created, etc. there. Formatting wise, fdisk -l says this is “Microsoft basic data”. I have every reason to believe it is formatted ntfs.
The problem: I simply can’t get Plex to analyse the contents of the directory at /media/mike/Elements/Audio/Music library. (“Elements” is the HD). It just says “Music is empty”. When I click “Scan library files”, the “Activity” button/icon at the top sort of flickers for a split second… nothing else happens.
Before anyone says “it’s because this external HD is ntfs”, actually I did manage to get this working with Plex maybe 2 years ago (for 2 years I haven’t been using Linux as much as I’d like). Plex may have changed since then. Or maybe I just need to tweak something.
Apart from specific suggestions for solutions, does Plex generate logs at all that I might be able to examine?
Plex is a server-client application, meaning there is a server component, which has no UI, and a client component. The web page that you use to manage the server is the web client (“Player”). This shows where you can find the version:
I had already thought about permissions, ownership… and in fact had checked and found that permissions for all the directories and files on the Elements HD were said to be 777 (you never quite know whether that’s true with an ntfs-formatted drive).
But your answer and the linked page made me wonder whether I’d better go up the path… so I set all the directories up to “media” to 777… clicked “Scan library…” … and as I speak there is an “activity spinner” spinning round that icon, strongly suggesting that scanning is in progress! So thanks!
Incidentally, I get a bit of an error when I try the following:
root@M17A:/# find /media -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ;;
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `;;'
root@M17A:/# find /media -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ;
find: missing argument to `-exec'
… is there something wrong with those bash commands? Not my strong point either…
Thanks for the other info too.
Are you certain you want EVERYTHING in /media modified ?
As caution – If anything is auto-mounted, it’s placed in /media. Disks which are automounted won’t be accessible even with permissions set. Linux sets exclusive ownership mounts to your username . This mount prohibits plex from seeing it. The solution is to mount such disks elsewhere and/or use /etc/fstab (to avoid the automounter)
“Disks which are automounted won’t be accessible even with permissions set. … This mount prohibits plex from seeing it.”
But this one appears to be… now I’ve changed the permissions: it has successfully scanned the Music Library directory… which is all I wanted.
“The solution is to mount such disks elsewhere and/or use /etc/fstab (to avoid the automounter)”
This no doubt sounds like a simple thing to you… but I don’t have a clue how to go about it. Does it involve ascertaining the UUID of the external HD? I’m a not-quite-beginner when it comes to Linux. If you have time, maybe you could give some slightly more explicit info about what I should do … and why, possibly.
