Welp, I found a huge bug. 11 seasons of a TV show were deleted, and I don’t even have any scheduled recordings going into this folder. How in the world does this happen? I can repeat the bug too. What’s stupid is the DVR doesn’t actually record this show. It just deletes the files I put in there. It’s set on new and repeat airings and keep all episodes.
Please post server logs indicating files being deleted by Plex. If true, would help to lead to reason why.
Not saying it can’t happen, or that it’s not a bug, but the few times I’ve ever seen any weirdness like this happen have been;
- Aggressive DLNA clients (not plex) scanning/‘clicking’ every button/link hosted on Plex DLNA server that has ‘allow admin to delete’ enabled.
- Browsers with addons that try to precache every link to make browsing seem faster, and Plex ‘allow admin to delete’ enabled while admin surfing using Plex Web.
- People storing media in Plex’s optimization folder.
- People optimizing media, then deleting the original, thinking the optimized will remain.
Here are the logs. I’m still searching for what may be a delete entry. It deleted only the MKV files and left everything else. It also left 2 episodes strangely enough that my DVR schedule thinks that it already recorded. Strange but clearly correlated to Plex DVR.
Folders look like
The Big Bang Theory S01 - COMPLETE Season 1 720p BRRip x264 [MKV,AC3,5 1] Ehhhh
Obviously I don’t care about this folder, but I have legit series I’d rather it not delete in the future.
Quick review of logs indicates to me just how much I barely understand.
I found ‘purging’ several times, but that might just be the guide data that’s past.
Keyword that raises my interest is ‘destroying’ - metadata (title or season)
Season 02-22 seems to appear too many times. Rest is really difficult to tell what shows they are unless you happen to know the episodes names, and I have no idea how to tell why, it’s simply listed ‘destroying’ as far as I can tell. Usually near a purge of EPG data and after an async job.
Sorry, a true experienced log viewer will have to help.
Good luck.
This is repeatable. It happened again. All I have to do is schedule to record Big Bang Theory and when I check Plex in the morning all 200+ physical files are deleted out of my library. No TV episodes are recorded, because Plex DVR is broken as well. It’s strange there are so many log entries going on constantly. 100’s per minute. I uploaded another set of logs in case the deletes weren’t in the last one. The file names are not in these new logs either.
I did turn off ‘allow media deletion’ and made sure none of the schedules delete episodes. I made new schedules to ensure they weren’t created on some older buggy code. I really can’t trust Plex if it has functionality to to delete my files. I wonder how to report this to the devs. I am on the beta channel.
Example file names of deleted files:
S01E01 - Pilot - Ehhhh.mkv
S01E02 - The Big Bran Hypothesis - Ehhhh.mkv
S01E08 - The Grasshopper Experiment - Ehhhh.mkv
Please make a screenshot when you go to ‘edit’ your library and go to the ‘Add Folders’ tab.
From these logs it appears as if you add each show’s season folder individually to the library. (which would be very wrong.)
Also, it appears that either you are hitting ‘Scan Library Files’ repeatedly in fast succession or you have ‘automatic library updates’ activated, which for some reason fires in rapid succession.
Do you have a 3rd party app setup to call Plex’s library scan?
My libraries only have one folder added to them. I do have ‘update my library automatically’ checked. I never click on scan library files. I don’t use any 3rd party software with Plex. It’s possible my CrashPlan back-up could be playing havoc with the library scanner, but that doesn’t explain deleted files.
Although it seems I have found an uncommon bug here that could be valuable to a dev, I’m about to uninstall Plex and start over. Since I have no customizations it should only take me a few minutes to do that.
You’re not the only one…
Unfortunately, during the critical time frame there was also a massive metadata refresh taking place for your music library, which flushed earlier events from the log files.
So there is nothing in there anymore where one could see what happened.
Are you sure you did not limit the episode retention for this show?
It doesn’t matter in which library you are doing it. If you edit the show in your DVR library, those options are also effective in your regular tv library.
OttoKerner - that was it, you found the secret setting! Thanks!
I would still classify this as a bug.
This type of series container is apparently automatically created after a new DVR Schedule saves the first recording. Unlike with other containers that are created with ‘Keep All Episodes,’ these DVR containers are created potentially with the ‘Keep episodes from past X days’ stuck ON!!
The problem are:
- You cannot separate your DVR recordings with TV series you’ve collected yourself without the risk of losing your entire collection!
- It’s hidden and not clear what’s going on
- Changing or deleting the DVR schedule does not change this setting
- You’re never notified when deletes happen
- Any new media files you copy there will probably be deleted
Am I the only one slightly horrified that Plex Server lumps a locally curated collection into the same retention policy they handle DVR recordings? That’s a disaster waiting to happen. There’s no reason these options couldn’t be made clearer at the point of selection (at the minimum) or else completely separated for DVR recordings vs. local content (the most reasonable answer).
I haven’t made this mistake, but I could see myself absent-mindedly doing so while trying to set up a recurring recording.
(Cue someone understandably stating that this is the reason Plex Server should only have read-only access to your curated collection)
@OttoKerner said:
Are you sure you did not limit the episode retention for this show?
It doesn’t matter in which library you are doing it. If you edit the show in your DVR library, those options are also effective in your regular tv library.
WAIT… WHAT???
WHY?? WHY would Plex be allowed to do that?
That’s terrifying. That should be ended immediately.
I keep a separate ‘trash/temporary’ DVR folder for specific reasons.
Our retention settings for one library should NOT affect my other libraries, same show or not.
Oh wow, I’m going to have to check 2-3 of my shows now. I had an entire first 10 seasons of a show in one ‘permanent’ library. For grins, I was DVR’ing reruns of a series, 10 seasons later, mix and match, into another library.
Scary scary stuff.
@OttoKerner - How do we/Plex go about
- Getting this known more. Just from the 2-3 people in this thread posting, we had no clue watching our DVR’ed content with the delete after watch or keep until flag set would also delete our other shows in a totally separate library. It’s unexpected, and honestly, doesn’t seem logical.
- Getting this changed. It makes no logical sense to us that this occurs.
I own a Tivo. I perfectly understand that as a limitation, Tivo doesn’t (easily without hacks) store MY content, only content it has recorded. Tivo doesn’t have ‘libraries’ or sections separate of each other, so setting time/deletion settings in it is for the entire Tivo.
Plex is not Tivo. Plex, if and when several key things still missing (Grid view/more client support/other miscellaneous tweaks) are added, should be better than Tivo.
Having Plex delete content among more libraries than where the show recorded for this setting will never make Plex better than Tivo.
This is a common sense issue. Once you start recording a show on a library where that show already exists you are giving dvr management over that show in that library. If you set episode retention rules of course that affects the episodes you already have.
EDIT: This is literally the advantage of plex dvr. Unifying all of the parts of the experience in one place of course has dangers, but the point is that properly configured it is the best thing running.
@mcrommert - It makes sense that Plex manages the library we use to record shows in.
It does not make sense that Plex also manages shows from a totally separate library for shows the DVR did not create.
I have a DVD collection of 10 seasons of a show. I converted those myself and put them in a totally separate library. I use a ‘volatile’ library for my DVR content as it’s content/commercial editing/etc usually don’t match the quality of my retail content.
I don’t want Plex managing other libraries, unless I decide to place the recorded content in the same library as my previously existing content.
I’m sure many others would agree.
I learned the hard way several times that DVR retention settings tie to the show… regardless of library. I have a much better experience now that I understand the rules… I still think they’re wonky though.
@JamminR said:
@mcrommert - It makes sense that Plex manages the library we use to record shows in.
It does not make sense that Plex also manages shows from a totally separate library for shows the DVR did not create.I have a DVD collection of 10 seasons of a show. I converted those myself and put them in a totally separate library. I use a ‘volatile’ library for my DVR content as it’s content/commercial editing/etc usually don’t match the quality of my retail content.
I don’t want Plex managing other libraries, unless I decide to place the recorded content in the same library as my previously existing content.
I’m sure many others would agree.
I agree on the other library …did not realize it did affect that
Because of networking concerns/cpu power i use a small nuc for recording separate from my main library
My personal favorite… Setting a show to record which has ended its run years ago. You set the retention settings to only “Keep episodes for X days.” It deletes everything immediately after recording because it ties to the original broadcast date, and not the date recorded. You end up with 0 recordings.
Another favorite… Setting a show to record with “Keep X Episodes” which, again ties to the original broadcast date for reasons unknown, and will only keep the most recently originally aired X episodes… often recording others and immediately deleting them because they’re not as new as the ones currently kept.
One would think it would work as it reads. Things would expire or fall off the list in order by recording date.
@AmazingRando24 - Yet more information I was not aware of, and am in agreement to your previous post.
Wonky.
Even my Tivo pays attention to ‘when I recorded’ not ‘when the show was originally broadcast’.
My ~10 year old Tivo Premier is showing it’s age. (Got it in 2012, but it was already a refurb I got for $50)
I recently had to replace it’s hard drive. It’s fan, though I’ve injected silicon spray into it’s bearings as a stop gap, is also starting to fail. It’s processor performance is useless for any streaming content (Netflix/amazon/plex)
I’d hoped it would last until Plex DVR is ready to replace it.
Unfortunately, now knowing the items learned in this discussion, Plex DVR is farther back from replacing my Tivo than I originally thought.
Don’t get me wrong. It works. You just have to be a little more attentive to it than other options. I use it every day.
