Needs to be a STOP ALL SCANS BUTTON because its been DAYS and it WONT STOP or go to the NEXT section to scan. It says it is DONE my Music BUT it will not get off it whether I hit Scan, Cancel Scan, Change the name of the Section. NOTHING WORKS for DAYS and my new Content Can’t get Scanned so I cant USE them! There needs to be a STOP ALL SCANS BUTTON because this is CRAZY! I hate coming here foir dumb stuff and the fact that I have tried for 3 days to fix this with no success is maddening and I have No clue what to do to fix it! Do I have to Delete the Entire Section? I’m sorry if I sound pissed but I am because this is such a stupid issue and one that should be able tobe stopped with a STOP Button for ALL SCANS. Thanks
I agree, and I brought up this issue during beta testing as soon as TechJunky or FordGuy mentioned that their large music libraries were being scanned and blocking usage.
I said that when designing a GUI, there should be a way to cancel any process that’s blocking.
I asked if there was some process we could send a SIGHUP, which is a gentle way of asking it to stop what it’s doing. I got no reply.
After being released to the public, and after responses like yours, a team member replied that a fix is coming shortly which will put the scan at a low priority, as I understood it.
I’m really sorry it’s stopping any usage. I could describe a way to make your music unavailable.
It’s so frustrating. I am a patient person and pretty good at troubleshooting and the only thing I can think to do is what I don’t want to do and that is deleting the Section. I’ve changed the name to no avail, it only starts to scan the new named section but stops almost as soon as that starts while the old named one is still scanning away even though there technically isn’t a Music anymore, it’s now Musi and figured when it stopped I could rename it back. I don’t want to do all that but I may have to and I am still not sure it’ll work. The maddening part isn’t the music so much because I only added 3 new albums that I will eventually hear BUT it won’t scan the new Movies or TV that I planned on watching. It won’t scan anything else except the Music folder which technically no longer exists and mind you, I changed the name 2 days into this, scanning the same section until who knows when so I have no clue how to get my new Video Content scanned into the server so it can be available. I am at a loss. I guess I am going to delete the Section and hope it can add it back later but for some reason, I still don’t think the scan is going to stop. Maybe I will try a the New Firmware. I skipped this one for the first time ever because its asking to update twice a week now and it just seems with it being that often, skipping a few times wouldn’t hurt as it would update to the newest one in a week or two. Anyway, I will try that and report back but the Servers still need a Stop All Scans button for manual use because I would have fixed this 3 days ago if it had…
PS> I don’t know if I mentioned this but the craziest thing is the circle is completed meaning the section is supposed to be 100% scanned.
I think if you shut down PMS and move your Music directory to a different location where Plex can’t find it, then start Plex again, it won’t have anything to scan. It would be important to disable automatic empty trash, automatic clean bundles, automatic library scan. If you had those disabled first, then your metadata from the music would be preserved. I’d manually backup my database while PMS is off. Let me know how it works.
Hi and yes, I canceled scan numerous times but it says it does but then it just keeps spinning away at the top where the “Activity” symbol is and when I click on it, it says it is still scanning which is why I can’t scan my actual new files and why a Stop All Scans button would possibly be helpful if it worked, Cancel was not. BUT…
I Did fix it just now. I went and updated the FW and it stopped it. I never thought it could fix it
until this morning and even then I thought it was a longshot since I still don’t think not updating the FW was the cause, I never skipped a FW in my life for Plex intentionally. If I missed one it would be because I was away for a week or so but then updated with whatever was there when I got home. This is the first time I “Skipped” one and the skip wouldn’t be available if it wasn’t to be used. I just figured I’d update it every 2 weeks or so with the latest version instead of twice a week as currently has been the case…Why it fixed it, I don’t know. I don’t know if I didn’t skip it I would have this problem, I am just glad it is gone and updating properly now. Thanks for everyone’s input and thanks to all the people who make Plex possible. I don’t want anyone to think I am bitching about FW released twice a week neither. I just figured I could skip it a few times is all and I’d rather have it this way then no one paying attention and updating/Upgrading FW for this. I still hope a Stop All Scans button could be placed in the “Advanced” section of the settings. Consider that are quest. Thanks to all who tried to help, take care. See ya’s around
that cancel scan does stop all scans, unless the scanner is crashed or hung up on something.
that does not mean that a new scan won’t start (you can control automatic scans @ Plex Web > settings > library (uncheck anything that says ‘scan’)
you should also check @ settings > scheduled tasks, and uncheck anything you don’t want to run during maintenance period.
the 1.18 series introduced a new music library/scanner/content provider, so a lot of the music related scanning etc is still being optimized.
depending the size of a music library, it can take a while to finish scanning/matching/fetching new metadata.
I am not saying the process couldn’t be improved, but sooner or later the work (that the server will need to do) will have to be done, so cancelling a working scan is just delaying and making it take even longer.
You can monitor if scanner/matching is still working (or stuck) via the settings > event’s, or settings > console (real time logs).
Oh I’m glad to hear that. Sounds like gray hair averted. Just to be clear though, by updated the FW you mean you updated Plex Media Server to a different version, yes?
hi again and yes, that is what I meant but apparently it was only temporary cause its back doin it again. I deleted the Section MUSIC and made a new one called My Music and it wont stop scanning a section which no longer exists and wont scan my new section at all. I try to and it starts but 5 secs later it stops and nothing is added to my new music section. I have company and I can’t get to the actual server til tomorrow and I guess I’m gonna restart the server and see if that works. It’s hung on something but that something isnt even there anymore where it’s searching. from my HTPC, I cant get it to do any of the above I mentioned. I never had an issue before TIDAL and I recently disabled it so maybe this is TIDAL’s way of getting even. Seriously, this is nuts because it shouldn’t be this hard.
hi, yea cancel scan on my server now acts as tho its canceled but the “activity” symbol where dashboard etc is, shows it scanning constant on one track even though the entire section is gone and when i add any media now, it wont see it bc it wont get off the scan of a folder/section which no longer exists because I deleted it tonight and made a new similar titled section and was gonna start my music fresh but it does nada. says its scanning and stop 5 secs later while still spinning/scanning a phantom section. in fact, this is copied from the activity section and pasted > Scanning MUSIC: (2003) Killing All That Holds You
Hi and thanks for the link. I pretty much did all that and generally do all that except for the moving part because the libraries are too large to move like that, it’d be like making backups bc I cant use the same drive to move directory then move back later bc they are too large and me deleting and creating an entirely new section is the same idea but maybe it don’t work, idk. But yes I do most of these steps during maintenance too without the deleting etc. Thanks for the info
I don’t know how windows works these days, but moving a folder to a different location on the same drive letter didn’t require copying when I used it.
Do a test. Take a folder with a single film it maybe a few GB in size. Find a way to move the folder (to a different location on the same drive letter) that doesn’t copy it during the move. Maybe it works in terminal.
The key part of the plex dance is moving the files out of the way first. Then when you Scan Libraries next, it fails to find the items you moved and marks their posters in PMS with a trash can symbol. When you next Empty trash you remove those. And when you next Clean Bundles you delete all the residual metadata.
Not sure about Windows, but I had to prevent my Mac from scanning my media files (it was indexing files for its Spotlight search) which was fooling Plex into thinking something had changed triggering Plex’s own scan.
Does windows have a regular background file indexing process?
