Plex can see internal ntfs HD's but can't see files. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Hi all, I know this question has been asked a million times. I went through all the info I could find on this page: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/112804/plex-wont-read-folders-files-on-mounted-drive-in-linux-mint.

Tried everything I could get my head around, all for nothing. This is a fresh install of 16.04 Ubuntu. After doing everthing I could in the link above, I somehow messed it up to the point of having to purge and reinstall plex. So its now a fresh install and I have not done anything else. If anyone could help me here, it would be greatly appreciated. I just built this PC for this sole purpose, I have a 1 TB HD and a 500 GB. Plex can see they HD’s themselves. Just no folders inside. I know its permission issue, I just can’t for the life of me figure out what to do to change it. I plug one of them up to my laptop running 16.04 and plex can see it from there no problem. And its just a standard install, I did no tweaking there.

2

you need this. Where I helped another user get away from the Ubuntu automounter. It is what’s granting exclusive access to your username and excluding plex.

The thread handles external or internal NTFS and ext4 drives.

3

Here is the link to the document I wrote in more instructional sequence. Hope this helps as well. It will give you an idea of the skills to sharpen.

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/262405/adding-external-usb-or-internal-ntfs-disks-to-linux-for-pms

4

Thank you so much. Oh man has this been a challenge. Using your guide I have finally gotten plex to recognize my HD’s and I can see my folders/files within. Now however I can’t see the HD under my file browser, or on the desktop. I am so close! I feel its just a few more tweaks away from success.

This is how my fstab looks now.

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda4 during installation
UUID=7fdbd297-e89c-4c9e-a6f2-cb0e3a6b772b /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=C838-4D9F  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=5cf797ff-b7a5-4573-a250-228d05d8f7fc none            swap    sw              0       0
# Mount Storage (ntfs) at /disks/Storage
UUID=1460086E39172969 /disks/Storage ntfs
defaults,auto,rw,nofail 0 1

The last one (Storage) is the one. Thanks again, I have been reading your helpful replies for days now on all the other peoples questions. I appreciate your time.

Moderator edit: “Code” paragraph formatting for readability.

5

Get the file permissions part?

cd /disks/Storage
sudo find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
sudo chown -R  _put_your_linux_username_here .

Don’t forget that trailing dot in chown :smiley:

6

I think I got it. The HD doesn’t come up on my desktop, but I think that is because now its mounted to /disks. I can just navigate to it with the file browser and its all good.

Thanks again!!!

7

It should. I expressly had you use ,auto,rw, (Automount, Read-Write)

In the browser, once you navigate… Set a bookmark!

I use them a lot in Gnome

8

Hey there,
I’m gonna have to bump this post. I am facing the same kind of issue here with ubuntu 18.04

  1. Drive has been mounted with the user:user credentials
  2. rw options is set
  3. Even plex is in the user group

Still, the drive/folders is grayed out in plex and I can’t add my media library.

Any advice ?

Runing Ubuntu 18.04 with plex Web Version 3.67.1, Server Version 1.13.8.5395

9

mounting with user:user credentials is the problem.

Please follow the NTFS permissions as shown.
add the ntfs-3g package on Ubuntu.

10

hello, im new to Linux, i’ve always been a windows person, but decide to switch to linux as i wanted something with more stability and performance, so i went with ubuntu, i installed it on an asus rampage gene iv, cpu i7-3800, 32gig ram, 1x500gig-nvme for the os and 16x8tb of storage, everything went fine, up to the point when i got plex running, plex could see my drives, but couldnt see my files, i thought i was doing fine, but i failed some where, and now i am stuck, for the last 4 days i’ve gone back and forth and i can’t see what i have done wrong, but i believe it is a permission problem, i feel like i am about to give up, i have taken a photo and writing down the things i have done to my ubuntu so you can tell me if i need changing, or restarting, if i need to do it all again, please let me know, i have all of drives none of them are in raid, and don’t plan of it, only select drives i want for plex, anyways,

when i installed ubuntu I installed an app called ntfs-config for easy configing, which set my drives up, in the fstab, here in the file opened configed…

/etc/fstab: static file system information.

#Entry for /dev/nvme0n1p2 :
UUID=1982dde2-1710-4a2d-ab49-72ef8a5d47ed / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
#Entry for /dev/nvme0n1p1 :
UUID=72E9-0650 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
#Entry for /dev/sde2 :
UUID=8C86F8EC86F8D822 /media/kumo/Anime ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdk2 :
UUID=FC60B42760B3E714 /media/kumo/Local\040Disk ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdd2 :
UUID=70BC0629BC05EB04 /media/kumo/Movies\040HDD1 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdg2 :
UUID=F27C68367C67F3AF /media/kumo/Movies\040HDD2 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdj2 :
UUID=9E74E05A74E036A5 /media/kumo/Movies\040HDD3 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdp2 :
UUID=6ECCA1E8CCA1AAB3 /media/kumo/Nintendo\040HDD1 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=C2587E11587E0487 /media/kumo/Nintendo\040HDD2 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdm2 :
UUID=D858A2F958A2D612 /media/kumo/PC\040Games\040HDD1 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdl2 :
UUID=9A1EB0B71EB08DAF /media/kumo/PC\040Games\040HDD2 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdf2 :
UUID=D094834A94833250 /media/kumo/PlayStation\0402 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdn2 :
UUID=C698A2F998A2E761 /media/kumo/PlayStation\0403 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdh2 :
UUID=1C9CD8F69CD8CB80 /media/kumo/ROMs ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdc2 :
UUID=3A0CB3D80CB38CFF /media/kumo/TV\040Shows\040HDD1 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdb2 :
UUID=F43E74703E742DAC /media/kumo/TV\040Shows\040HDD2 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdi2 :
UUID=0AA250AEA2509FCD /media/kumo/TV\040Shows\040HDD3 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdo2 :
UUID=AE689DD7689D9F21 /media/kumo/TV\040Shows\040HDD4 ntfs-3g defaults,nodev,nosuid,locale=en_AU.UTF-8 0 0
/swapfile none swap sw 0 0

but i noticed it did not match your guide and i don’t know enough to change things, so I didn’t do too much to change anything, i followed enough but my drives and are all internal, i didn’t install the ntfs-3g either, when i tried though it said it was already installed, i guess ubuntu comes preinstalled now?,

here is the print out of the df
kumo@Stellvia:~$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 16413644 0 16413644 0% /dev
tmpfs 3287572 2372 3285200 1% /run
/dev/nvme0n1p2 479152840 9610252 445133196 3% /
tmpfs 16437852 129224 16308628 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 16437852 0 16437852 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/loop0 91392 91392 0 100% /snap/core/6673
/dev/loop1 154752 154752 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/31
/dev/loop2 36224 36224 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1198
/dev/loop3 4224 4224 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/406
/dev/loop5 1024 1024 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/61
/dev/loop4 3840 3840 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/77
/dev/loop6 55040 55040 0 100% /snap/core18/941
/dev/loop7 15104 15104 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/254
/dev/nvme0n1p1 523248 7716 515532 2% /boot/efi
/dev/sdj2 7813894140 1586547028 6227347112 21% /media/kumo/Movies HDD3
/dev/sdm2 7813894140 3631124800 4182769340 47% /media/kumo/PC Games HDD2
/dev/sdi2 7813894140 3831868368 3982025772 50% /media/kumo/TV Shows HDD3
/dev/sdo2 7813894140 1253401252 6560492888 17% /media/kumo/TV Shows HDD4
/dev/sdn2 7813894140 3284014872 4529879268 43% /media/kumo/PlayStation 3
/dev/sdd2 7813894140 6665644392 1148249748 86% /media/kumo/Movies HDD1
/dev/sdb2 7813894140 6648528920 1165365220 86% /media/kumo/TV Shows HDD2
/dev/sde2 7813894140 4712435792 3101458348 61% /media/kumo/Anime
/dev/sdf2 7813894140 7620433256 193460884 98% /media/kumo/PlayStation 2
/dev/sdh2 7813894140 4674023724 3139870416 60% /media/kumo/ROMs
/dev/sda2 7813894140 2487080488 5326813652 32% /media/kumo/Nintendo HDD2
/dev/sdg2 7813894140 6683747088 1130147052 86% /media/kumo/Movies HDD2
/dev/sdc2 7813894140 6322837868 1491056272 81% /media/kumo/TV Shows HDD1
/dev/sdp2 7813894140 5300904512 2512989628 68% /media/kumo/Nintendo HDD1
/dev/sdl2 7813894140 7047979436 765914704 91% /media/kumo/PC Games HDD1
/dev/sdk2 7813894140 3443230508 4370663632 45% /media/kumo/Local Disk
tmpfs 3287568 16 3287552 1% /run/user/123
/dev/loop8 55040 55040 0 100% /snap/core18/970
/dev/loop9 90624 90624 0 100% /snap/core/6964
tmpfs 3287568 64 3287504 1% /run/user/1000
/dev/loop10 15104 15104 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/284
/dev/loop11 3840 3840 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/87
/dev/loop12 154880 154880 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/55

and the blkid if that helps

blkid /dev/sda2

/dev/sda2: LABEL=“Nintendo HDD2” UUID=“C2587E11587E0487” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“185e04b6-7248-4531-ae3e-03fc04d1c84b”

blkid /dev/sdb2

/dev/sdb2: LABEL=“TV Shows HDD2” UUID=“F43E74703E742DAC” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“16620626-44a5-4914-b74f-2b99f19ca1ce”

blkid /dev/sdc2

/dev/sdc2: LABEL=“TV Shows HDD1” UUID=“3A0CB3D80CB38CFF” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“065f078b-b2a0-497d-9273-ac493d88fbf4”

blkid /dev/sdd2

/dev/sdd2: LABEL=“Movies HDD1” UUID=“70BC0629BC05EB04” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“803151fe-b2cf-42f5-bed2-df7283b0deaa”

blkid /dev/sde2

/dev/sde2: LABEL=“Anime” UUID=“8C86F8EC86F8D822” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“f203c528-6857-4283-95ee-4ff9c0f2562c”

blkid /dev/sdf2

/dev/sdf2: LABEL=“PlayStation 2” UUID=“D094834A94833250” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“a6c8cdeb-0258-4418-b83d-65a0c63822a7”

blkid /dev/sdg2

/dev/sdg2: LABEL=“Movies HDD2” UUID=“F27C68367C67F3AF” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“4ab55312-3140-47ec-99f5-e553bd5b545a”

blkid /dev/sdh2

/dev/sdh2: LABEL=“ROMs” UUID=“1C9CD8F69CD8CB80” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“ec1129fa-7757-4c30-9bcb-3a2f6531e5e2”

blkid /dev/sdf2

/dev/sdf2: LABEL=“PlayStation 2” UUID=“D094834A94833250” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“a6c8cdeb-0258-4418-b83d-65a0c63822a7”

blkid /dev/sdi2

/dev/sdi2: LABEL=“TV Shows HDD3” UUID=“0AA250AEA2509FCD” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“e0996233-58a6-4390-afaf-205f7d14639e”

blkid /dev/sdj2

/dev/sdj2: LABEL=“Movies HDD3” UUID=“9E74E05A74E036A5” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“37785910-beaa-4120-9613-9971411d4d60”

blkid /dev/sdk2

/dev/sdk2: LABEL=“Local Disk” UUID=“FC60B42760B3E714” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“e250a3ee-a246-406a-9d5f-5c55b22e8995”

blkid /dev/sdl2

/dev/sdl2: LABEL=“PC Games HDD1” UUID=“D858A2F958A2D612” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“091f30e3-47c0-4ba1-a723-48f3dc4a69bd”

blkid /dev/sdm2

/dev/sdm2: LABEL=“PC Games HDD2” UUID=“9A1EB0B71EB08DAF” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“0d87971f-76d6-4f5d-8a48-1630e3fb1309”

blkid /dev/sdn2

/dev/sdn2: LABEL=“PlayStation 3” UUID=“C698A2F998A2E761” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“89d3992c-5f87-416d-85a6-fb28376ebb53”

blkid /dev/sdo2

/dev/sdo2: LABEL=“TV Shows HDD4” UUID=“AE689DD7689D9F21” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“e7395d8b-c184-44f0-a1bf-b0feac12496e”

blkid /dev/sdp2

/dev/sdp2: LABEL=“Nintendo HDD1” UUID=“6ECCA1E8CCA1AAB3” TYPE=“ntfs” PARTLABEL=“Basic data partition” PARTUUID=“e5dbda4a-0351-4695-a73b-5c742a20684f”

i can access all my files fine in linux, all my drives are automatically mounted on boot, but plex can only see my drives, it can’t see whats on them, i only want plex to read Anime, Movies HDD1,2,3, TV Shows HDD1,2,3,4 and Local Disk hard drives, if by any chance these drives have to be renamed, then because they are too long or have too many spaces, or something we can work with that, i don’t really want this computer to go back to windows, not happy with it. any help would be much appreciated

11

Plex can’t see the media because you’ve mounted it under /media/kumo.

Gnome’s Nautilus (the file manager) takes exclusive ownership for your username when you log in. At that instant, Plex get’s locked out.

From what you posted, you’ve done a great job of laying out /etc/fstab

All you need to do for this to work is Change to a different directory other than /media/kumo

If you did the following:

  1. Create a place to mount the media away from /media/kumo
sudo mkdir /kumo
sudo chown kumo:kumo /kumo
chmod 755 /kumo
  1. Created new mount points under /kumo
  2. Edited /etc/fstab to mount there instead
  3. Unmount and remount each (do it by hand the first time so you can fix any typing errors)
  4. Change Plex to point to them in that location.

You’ll be all set.

It will probably make sense to make a Bookmark in the File Manager (Nautilus) for easy access.
Navigate there manually once, then, in the upper right corner, “Bookmark this location”.

Here’s the full tutorial/How-To for USB and internal, EXT and NTFS

1 Like
12

hi ChuckPA, thank you so much for replying so quickly, i followed what you said, i sudo gedit the fstab as i find it much easier to edit files like that, i just changed the media to disks, only the ones i wanted plex to use though,

I followed the rest of the guide for
sudo mkdir /kumo
sudo chown kumo:kumo /kumo
chmod 755 /kumo

everything went great, i got confused about how to access my HDD when you said about Bookmarking in the File Manager (Nautilus), i didnt understand that part, you said top right, for me its top left, but i didnt know how to get to them at first, but i figured away through the disk manger, everything is working now, plex see all my files, its now populating, though, i did want it to just read my database from windows but i couldnt get to copy across because plex is copy protected, i still got the database, anyways, thanks again, now to setup, file sharing, so i can move files back and forth between folders, not really a learning curve for me, but have to start some where i guess, really thank you so much for this, i was gonna give up and turn this back to stupid windows again.!
Screenshot%20from%202019-06-15%2018-45-06|690x388

edit,
i used this command to change chown -R plex:plex plexmediaserver/ ownership of plex folders so i could copy my meta database back in, and gave back plex its permission again

13

User plex:plex is a service. It runs independent of you. When you mention plexmediaserver/, you make me very worried.

You should never put media in /var/lib/plexmediaserver
Please don’t play in the database. It doesn’t like it. It will crash the databases.
When your skill advances, then maybe… Otherwise I tend to get grumpy :wink: LOL

Plex only needs permission to READ your media and the directories. Nothing more.
I can’t help with Windows reading. I know there are tutorials for that which look simple.

14

oh i didn’t mean to mess with the files, i only mean’t to put my front cover art that i spent months setting up back on windows back in, i didnt want to manauly upload them again, it all worked out find, only the pictures i put in, nothing else, all loaded fine, sorry to worry, thanks again,

15

You can move your entire Windows “Metadata” info, as a block, to Linux.

It’s a lot of work (typing) but can be done.

16

oh its too late for that now, all done, plex is finished, for Linux, all that is left for Linux now for me now is to work out how to get file sharing working, i having up, but do not understand how to password protect it, ever-time i do, my password doesn’t work, but i guess that should be asked else where from here…