Music Library disappeared, can still access but not index

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Plex Server Version#: 1.14.1.5488
OS: Windows 10
Music Library location: Synology DS411slim on DSM 6.2.1-23824 Update 4

Today I was listening to music in Plex and the music abruptly stopped, with a generic playback error on the screen. I went into PMS and gave my music library a scan and then my entire library disappeared. On a second scan, it did not add anything, though my computer maintained its connection to the corresponding network share and PMS could still browse the share.

Troubleshooting steps:

  • Removed the Music library in PMS and re-added it
  • Disconnected the Music network share from Windows and re-mapped it, then re-added library to PMS
  • Logged out/in of Plex account
  • Verified all permissions on the share in Synology DSM and via manual browsing of the share in Windows
  • Verified shared folder settings (SMB2-3 allowed only, no AFP, no NFS)
  • Cleared SMB cache on shared folder
  • Updated DSM to the latest version, rebooted
  • Rebooted Windows PC
  • Checked PMS Scanner logs and it showed this on each folder: “Error scanning directory, we’ll skip and continue.” Again, the directory can be browsed by both PMS and Windows
  • Restored an older database from before this problem - now when I scan the music library for changes, it displays a red trash bin icon on top of every item in the library (FYI, in my library settings “empty recycle bin after scan” is unchecked, “allow owner to delete files” is checked)
  • Rebuilt my database with sqlite3 as described here: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201100678-repair-a-corrupt-database/

Essentially it appears that for some reason Plex has decided to delete all indexed content in this library but the logs are not telling me why and there was no strange behavior i.e. unexpected power loss, sudden reboot or PMS or Synology changes that would have affected this.

PS, I have no issues with my other Plex-connected Synology NAS, which provide two separate libraries (TV and Movies) on the same Windows PC. These continue to update normally so clearly the issue is isolated to how Plex is interfacing with the first NAS.

Any ideas? I’m at a loss…

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Ok, I solved the problem and hopefully this helps other fellow Synology users. After doing all the steps above, I then did this:

  • Stopped PMS
  • Created a new local DSM user called “media” which is the username of my Windows PC account that runs PMS
  • Enabled Advanced Sharing Permissions on the share, and gave R/W access to my new media account (as well as my standard admin account, which is what I was using to map the share to Windows)
  • Cleared SMB cache on the shared folder again (I think I did this 20 times prior, to no avail)
  • Started PMS
  • Removed the music library and re-added it
  • Boom, everything is indexing finally

I’m not sure exactly what step was the actual fix, but I’m guessing it was enabling Advanced Sharing Permissions on the share - this combines Windows ACL permissions with Synology explicit folder permissions. I never had to do this before and I still haven’t had to do it on my other Synology NAS, but hey, it’s working on this one so that’s cool.

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