# Plex Appliance on Raspberry Pi - Extenal drive **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** other-third-party\ **Created:** [June 20, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643 "2020-06-20T19:45:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjblume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f1d935/32.png) [@jjblume](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jjblume)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/1 "2020-06-20T19:45:12Z")
Server Version#: 4.30.2 I have installed the Plex appliance ([https://ubuntu.com/appliance/plex](https://ubuntu.com/appliance/plex)) on a Raspberry Pi and am having trouble getting it to find an external drive that’s plugged into the unit. Does anyone have tips for getting it to see the drive? ---
**Author:** ![pshanew](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/pshanew/32/160555_2.png) [@pshanew](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pshanew)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/2 "2020-06-20T20:38:36Z")
I’ve not used that particular appliance but when Plex isn’t able to “see” media on a drive it’s usually due to permissions issues. Unless you’ve set up a manual mount, Ubuntu will mount your external drive under /media/your-user-name/drive-label/. By default, no user but you can access items on the drive when mounted this way. Plex runs as user “plex” so this is problematic. The recommended way to resolve this is to configured a permanent, manual mount for the drive. This how-to describes the process: > [@Using EXT, NTFS, or other format drives (internal or external) on Linux](https://forums.plex.tv/t/using-ext-ntfs-or-other-format-drives-internal-or-external-on-linux/198544): > > This document is of primary interest to anyone who has connected USB drives or has media on other internal drives but user plex can’t access it due to Linux’s default security mechanisms. WARNING: This procedure will not work for SNAP, Docker or other container mechanisms unless expressly handled within the confines of the container. This procedure is intended for use with the dpkg package. We will walk through the steps needed to add these external USB hard drives and internal hard drives… There is another, simpler method which involves granting user “plex” access to the drive’s mount by changing the ACLs associated with your user’s mount directory. Try: `sudo setfacl -m u:plex:rx /media/your-user-name` Replace “your-user-name” with the the user by whom the drive is mounted. Do not run this command on any directories beneath it, just the base directory above. This works on Ubuntu using the native Plex package; I’ve never tested it with Plex’s Snap packaging, which is what your appliance uses. ---
**Author:** ![jjblume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f1d935/32.png) [@jjblume](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jjblume)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/3 "2020-06-22T20:40:03Z")
I don’t see anything in the /media directory when browsing via the Plex interface. As I understand it this appliance is built on Ubuntu Core 18, but installed as one thing, as if Plex were it’s own OS. So I’m not sure if the underlying Ubuntu layer can see the drive either. I would think, given the tight integration between Plex and Ubuntu in this appliance, that permissions issues like the one you described wouldn’t be a problem, but I’m pretty out of my depth here and don’t know a whole lot about Linux. ---
**Author:** ![pshanew](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/pshanew/32/160555_2.png) [@pshanew](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pshanew)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/4 "2020-06-22T21:29:30Z")
Have a look at the link I included (if you haven’t already). It contains information about how to find out where the drive is currently mounted and how to create a manual mount for it. I’ve never used the setfacl method on anything other than Ubuntu (and derivatives) with native Plex packaging. ---
**Author:** ![jjblume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f1d935/32.png) [@jjblume](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jjblume)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/5 "2020-06-22T22:05:02Z")
The df command shows me this. I’m not seeing it listed here. It should be showing up as a 640G drive. Could this mean it’s not mounting _at all_? ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/6/8/689d0d9edb8f5c851e8b43898172bfeaa14f4253.png) ---
**Author:** ![pshanew](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/pshanew/32/160555_2.png) [@pshanew](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pshanew)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2020, 10:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/6 "2020-06-22T22:49:05Z")
That does appear to be the case. Disconnect the drive and then reconnect it. Then run `dmesg | grep sd[a-d]` to see what the last few lines of output are, if any. Hopefully you’ll get something like this: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/d/d/dd02c31738c13f79f0309b7b7a58f070edcfffaa.png) In this case, `sdb` is my drive, and `sdb1` is the single partition on it. If you do see something similar, you can use that information to create the manual mount configuration. If you don’t, then the system isn’t seeing the drive at all for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![jjblume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f1d935/32.png) [@jjblume](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jjblume)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2020, 12:08am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/7 "2020-06-23T00:08:09Z")
I do see something similar. Can I use this with the process in the link you’ve already shared, or is the manual mounting process something else entirely? ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/a/a/aa8d356f9c55410fa0f90ddc1dc2f91e01520e3f.png) ---
**Author:** ![pshanew](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/pshanew/32/160555_2.png) [@pshanew](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pshanew)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/8 "2020-06-23T00:49:30Z")
Yes, this tells you what you need to know to get through the process. For example, you can run `blkid /dev/sda1` (described in section B) to find the UUID of the partition for use in configure your /etc/fstab file. ---
**Author:** ![jjblume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f1d935/32.png) [@jjblume](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jjblume)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/9 "2020-06-23T22:58:42Z")
Thank you for your help so far. I’ve gotten farther with this than I thought I would. I’ve gotten to step D and am getting hung up there. When I open /etc/fstab I see this near the top. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do this step. ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/6/0/60ded222a1427466002fb837324bf8ab7fc9e9cd.png) ---
**Author:** ![jjblume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f1d935/32.png) [@jjblume](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jjblume)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/10 "2020-06-25T20:36:05Z")
It seems I should be editing the /etc/system-image/writable-paths to add the path to the fstab file, but I can’t seem to get around the writable-paths file being read-only. Maybe there is a different way to go about this. It would seem that adding an external drive to a Pi unit would be an essential task for a Plex server. Any help appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-appliance-on-raspberry-pi-extenal-drive/605643/11 "2020-09-23T20:36:17Z")
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