Permanent “There was an unexpected error loading this library” for server content

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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1

Server Version#: 1.15.6.1079 (on Drobo platform)
Player Version#: 1.5.0.951-eb39ca04 (desktop macOS)

Hi All,

I experience permanent “There was an unexpected error loading this library” for server content.
No matter which player I run (Desktop, macOS or iOS), when I’m trying to list content of any library, I get the same issue. The internet sources (like podcasts, tidal, etc) work fine.

I tried the following without any improvement:

  • re-scanning library files - no warnings or errors on console,
  • Plex server application restart,
  • Plex server platform (Drobo) restart,
  • Plex server database optimisation,
  • “Clean bundles”.
    I also upgraded the server to version 1.17, but this one didn’t even start.
    Finally, I downloaded logs and database from version 1.15 (which is the newest Plex for Drobo officially downloadable from Drobo app upgrade servers).

No idea, what to try next… :worried:
Support strongly welcome!

Attaching logs:
Plex Media Server Logs_2020-01-28_08-46-02.zip (4.0 MB) Plex Media Server Databases_2018-07-11_15-15-16.zip (22 Bytes)

Regards,
Blapo.

2

I’m not familiar with Drobo as a platform for running a Plex Media Server, but if you’re in a position to update PMS you may want to consider it; 1.15.6.x is fairly old at this point and is missing some quality of life updates. Also, come February 1st, it’s going to have issues with TV show metadata for at least one provider:
https://forums.plex.tv/t/important-information-regarding-tv-artwork-in-plex/527994/2

Having said that, regarding the specific issue you’re experiencing, you may want to check for (and correct) a corrupt database:

It could cause issues with loading libraries (and in some cases prevent PMS from even starting).

3

Thanks for database reparation procedures, however they don’t cover linux-arm architecture (since on Drobo). Therefore, I was only able to delete the database and recreate it. Obviously this helps, but for big databases is not a practical solution…

Any recipes for correcting databases for linux-arm by Drobo?

4

Are you able to copy the database to another system (Linux, macOS, Windows)? If so, you can perform the repair there and copy it back.

5

Yep, I copied the database file onto my mac and failed to execute the first command. Here is the command and the error:

$ sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db "DROP index 'index_title_sort_naturalsort'"
Error: unable to open database file
6

That may be a permissions issue. Once you’ve copied the DB to your Mac, note the current owner, group, and permissions via ls -l. Then temporarily give the world rwx permissions for the file:
sudo chmod 777 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db

After running the repair procedure, set the permissions back as they were:
sudo chmod <original perms> com.plexapp.plugins.library.db

Note: The repair procedure creates a completely new DB. So, you may need to also make note of the original owner/group of the file and set them back as well via chown after the procedure.

[Edit]
Definitely try what @ChuckPa suggests below before trying my around-your-elbow method. Though you still may need to correct the ownership/permissions of the newly-created file. So still make note of those.

7

If I may?

Prefix the sqlite3 command with sudo or

sudo sh

# Now run your commands here
sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db "DROP index 'index_title_sort_naturalsort'"
1 Like
8

Doh! I’m not sure how I missed that.

9

The same way I missed the brick wall I just ran into too? :slight_smile:

10

I was able to finally run “sqlite3 …” without changing any permissions of the database file (which actually didn’t work for some reason). I didn’t test the new database, since I have already rebuilt my multimedia library from scratch.

Next time the issue reappears, I’ll try repairing the database instead of re-creating…

See you soon. :wink:

11

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