Plex can't see public external drive that movie files are on - Windows 7

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
21

No but I’ll give it a try.

22

Philanthro, I double-checked, and I was wrong. The drive is accessed through my network router.

23

Then try using a UNC path instead of a drive letter.
\\router-ip-address\sharename\foldername

24

I deleted the existing Library and I put in the following
\192.168.0.1\X\Movies
Then I tried \192.168.0.1\X:\Movies
The dashboard on Plex is now empty.

25

That would be wrong. Network paths will not include the colon “:”.
An example would be \\192.168.0.1\Volume_1\Movies_02

26

I did start with \
I only put the “:” in after the shared drive name, but I also tried it without it. Neither worked.

27

Yes… I had the same issue. I edited my post because of this…

28

@banner731 said:
I deleted the existing Library and I put in the following
\192.168.0.1\X\Movies
Then I tried \192.168.0.1\X:\Movies

I am pretty sure that the name of the share is not X.
put the address \\192.168.0.1 into the address bar of your windows file explorer and press Return
This should show you the share names.

29

If I’m doing this right, there are 3 things under Share users on my PC: Default, Public, and my name. I tried all three as the sharename (example “\192.168.0.1\Public\Movies”). All three didn’t work.

30

I went into my Network on Windows Explorer, went to the USB Drive and Movie folder through there, copied the address as text, and pasted it into Plex. It appears to be reloading the Movies Library, but I’ll let you know if this works.

31

…and, as far as I can tell, it worked. Thanks, everyone, for the assistance.

32

I know this is an old thread, but your original solution helped me so much, thanks Otto! After I unplugged my external HDD and replugged it in later, all of my movies wouldn’t play. Windows changed the drive letters on me! I just changed the letter in the Plex library settings rather than change the drive itself, any my issue is fixed. Whoo hoo!

33

FYI: If you change the drive letter in disk management(or diskpart), windows will remember the letter you used on that device and will try to “reserve” it for that device…

1 Like
34

Thanks for the tip. Didn’t realize that. Surprised they don’t keep their own automatic letter assignments consistent, but I digress.