# PhotoTranscoder directory \>100GB. Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [November 8, 2017, 7:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430 "2017-11-08T19:05:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kenelbow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/kenelbow/32/20558_2.png) [@kenelbow](https://forums.plex.tv/u/kenelbow)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 7:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/1 "2017-11-08T19:05:19Z")
I am running PMS 1.9.6.4429 on an Ubuntu 14.04 VM. I have changed Transcoding path in my server settings to help save space, but I have another problem. My PhotoTranscoder folder is currently 114 GB in size. I understand that this is where library artwork of various sizes is kept, but it seems to be growing too large and too fast for my library. I have 1602 movies, 9537 music tracks, and 2167 TV episodes. For clients I have a couple of Amazon FireTV’s, an Nvidia Shield, and 3 instances of Kodi running PlexKodiConnect. Does 114GB of data in the PhotoTranscoder directory sound realistic or do I have something else going on? ---
**Author:** ![NewPlaza](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/newplaza/32/128634_2.png) [@NewPlaza](https://forums.plex.tv/u/NewPlaza)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/2 "2017-11-08T19:48:54Z")
Realistic? Absolutely. Take a look at these on the reason why it grows. > **[What does deleting cache\\phototranscoder do?](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/46544/what-does-deleting-cache-phototranscoder-do)** > > Is it safe?My Cache\\Phototranscoder directory is over 15GBs in size... which seems a little large. Is deleting this directory safe? This wouldn't require art to be redownloaded would it? > **[Cache clean up](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/107678/cache-clean-up)** > > When I look at what's in my Plex folder, I have 3.2BG split over 138,991 files - this an amazingly high number of files.   In particular, the folder  \\Plex\\Library\\Application Support\\Plex Media Server\\Cache\\PhotoTranscoder alone is as large as... In a nutshell, it’s the clients fault. ---
**Author:** ![kenelbow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/kenelbow/32/20558_2.png) [@kenelbow](https://forums.plex.tv/u/kenelbow)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 8:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/3 "2017-11-08T20:02:46Z")
OK, so is there anything I can do to keep it from growing so large? I know I can just delete the contents, but if there are settings I can change either on my server or clients to help mitigate the issue, that would be nice. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/4 "2017-11-09T03:32:12Z")
Are you taking about just the photo transcoder folder? That’s the thumbnails of all the images that get sent to your clients. No need to send full sized images so pms creates these smaller ones. What you have done am like a lot. Do you have the butler set to clean this up? Remove old cache files every week If not, they just keep growing even if never used. ---
**Author:** ![kenelbow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/kenelbow/32/20558_2.png) [@kenelbow](https://forums.plex.tv/u/kenelbow)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 11:33am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/5 "2017-11-09T11:33:19Z")
> @MovieFan.Plex said: > Are you taking about just the photo transcoder folder? That’s the thumbnails of all the images that get sent to your clients. No need to send full sized images so pms creates these smaller ones. What you have done am like a lot. Do you have the butler set to clean this up? > > Remove old cache files every week > > If not, they just keep growing even if never used. What is the butler? Can you elaborate? Since I don’t know what it is, I’m guessing I don’t have it setup to automatically remove old cache files on a regular basis. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 6:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/6 "2017-11-09T18:04:58Z")
It’s what we call the process that runs in the background at night. The settings are under “Scheduled Tasks” on your server. ---
**Author:** ![kenelbow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/kenelbow/32/20558_2.png) [@kenelbow](https://forums.plex.tv/u/kenelbow)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/7 "2017-11-09T18:27:23Z")
Oh, well in that case I do have it set to remove old cache files every week. In fact, I have all options checked on that page except “Update all libraries during maintenance” Can I run the task manually or somehow determine which day of the week it will run? ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/8 "2017-11-09T19:38:03Z")
There’s no way to manually run those or to set which day they run. I actually don’t know what day of the week that part runs. As long as your server has been on and running, it should have been maintaining that folder all this time. If you have lots of clients or share with lots of people, then it’s possible that the size is correct. ---
**Author:** ![dapthechap](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dapthechap/32/167481_2.png) [@dapthechap](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dapthechap)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 8:10am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/9 "2018-03-23T08:10:59Z")
110GB? That’s nothing mine has starting filling up the macs system drive (500GB) weekly. I think it’s something to do with Kodi being left on, I only have three clients. Two of which are Plex Media Player. I’ve set a cronjob to delete the folder because the maintenance tasks are obviously not maintaining. ---
**Author:** ![kenelbow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/kenelbow/32/20558_2.png) [@kenelbow](https://forums.plex.tv/u/kenelbow)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 10:57am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/10 "2018-03-23T10:57:56Z")
Yep, definitely Kodi. I stopped using Kodi for a while and started again this week. I’ve had to clear out the directory twice already. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 12:07am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/phototranscoder-directory-100gb-why/213430/11 "2020-01-08T00:07:00Z")