Server Version#: 1.26.0.5715
During schedule maintenance last night, Plex deleted every episode of any TV show that was marked as “delete after X days”, even though the files were not old enough to be deleted.
I can reproduce the issue.
My latest test should be captured in the logs (although, I’m not sure where to look).
It’s not about the file date.
It is about when this episode was added first to your server. Which means if you had it added more than 30 days before, then removed it and now added it again – it will be removed immediately.
Do also keep in mind that the above can also happen if you previously had a mismatched show.
In my experience, re-adding the show resets the clock. Also, the ones that happened last night were first added very recently (well within the 30 day window… I can get an exact date/time, if necessary).
EDIT: Also, the one I tested with was first added in the past 24 hours.
When is your server maintenance period scheduled to start?
Did you schdedule it to a time period where the server is usually not used?
Midnight to 7 AM. It’s usually unused at that time. And looking at Tautulli logs from last night, I can confirm that it was unused at that time.
My current theory is that it’s a problem with the latest update, since Plex did update last night, too. But that may just be a coincidence.
I am trying to find the actual show, but it seems the logs are kinda flushed by other activity.
I used Jeopardy as a test. The timestamp is Apr 13, 2022 10:02:30.327 (or somewhere around there).
Looks like the logs say it was older than 30 days, but that’s simply not true. The episode in question didn’t even air until 4/11/22. And I know that it was added within the past 24 hours.
To which specific setting are you referring? There are two which can cause episodes to be automatically deleted:
The “Keep” setting only affects episodes which are unplayed (or marked as such). The “Delete episodes after playing” setting only affects episodes which are played (or marked as such.
What do you have configured for each of these settings, and what is the played status of the affected episodes?
I had a similar thing happen with my DVR shows (just 3 late-night talk shows). The entire show’s folder was deleted. It recorded them on schedule last night and created new shows as if they were brand new series.
PS. I removed the “delete after 30 days” on the new series entries. It’s clearly buggy.
Keep - 30 days
Delete after playing - Never
These are episodes that other people in my family watch, so I want to keep them available for 30 days, but I never watch them myself.
I don’t believe there’s a way to cause Plex to completely “forget” an episode and certain details about it, even if it is removed from a library. For example, here’s an episode of Stargate SG-1 which I recorded using the Plex DVR. Note the file creation/modified dates:
And here’s my view history for that episode in Plex:
Plex knows that I played this episode in December of 2019, even though this particular file was added in April of 2020. This is because I deleted the entire series from my library and re-recorded it (I originally recorded it with the option to deleted commercials configured and recorded again with skip enabled).
So removing an item from your library doesn’t (completely) wipe Plex’s memory of it. This could explain the behavior you’re seeing. It likely keeps information about when the episode was first added to the server as well. N.B. I’m not referring to the file added date.
@pshanew this is irrelevant since I said the episode was first available less than 24 hours before it was deleted. The original air date was 4/11/22, and it was first added around 8 PM on 4/12/22 and deleted around 12:06 AM 4/13/22.
EDIT: Also, this is a widespread issue affecting all items in my library that had “keep for 30 days” set.
After adding a file to my test system named identically (file and path) to the one shown in your logs, I can confirm this behavior. It was matched properly as Season 2022 Episode 71 and, as soon as I configured the series to delete unwatched episodes older than 30 days, it was deleted.
Very weird.
Are you running the same version (latest beta)? Mine updated last night, so I suspect that’s where the problem lies.
Yes, I’m on 1.26.0.5715. My test server runs in a Docker container which was just updated prior to this test. With a little forethought I’d have tested on the previous version. Oh well.
At the very least this doesn’t seem to be a platform-specific problem.
This has been driving me nuts for days. My DVR started apparently missing recordings a few days ago. I deleted the DVR and re-added it, manually deleted recordings and re-added. Then I noticed that settings for each recording survived both of the prior attempts. Then I tried manually deleting cache and data files from the app data folder. Apparently, I did not manage to find the right things to delete because It all came back again (except guide data) after another delete re-add.
Then, I just noticed that the recordings were actually happening and going into the “.grab” folder. But for some reason they then immediately moved to the recycle bin upon completion. Then I noticed a pattern. One show was not auto deleting and the only difference was that it did not have the “delete after” setting applied. All the failed recordings had this (after 5 days, keep for 30 days, etc)
Other notes:
Now I am changing the setting to keep all on existing series recordings to see if that helps
when the next one comes up. I will update. It probably would have helped if I was able to figure out how to get rid of the parameters from the existing schedule as I was trying. Anyone know how to completely obliterate traces of the DVR to start from scratch? Obviously I don’t want to affect everything, just the DVR otherwise I would just delete the whole App data folder and start over.
I’ve had the same issue ever since upgrading to 1.26.0.5715 so that seems to be the common thread here. I’ve changed to Keep All Episodes and Never Delete for the time being (which has worked) but as I’m recording a handful of daily shows it’ll add up quickly.
I also turned it off for now. I’ve managed to use a combination of labels, collections, and some complex logic to make a (mostly) better solution, anyway. Since I can use logic, it’s very customizable. It even warns other users when something is going to be deleted soon.
I’m on 1.26.0.5715 and seeing the same behavior. It was driving me crazy. I have a couple of shows recording daily, like The Daily Show and a soap opera for my wife and she was complaining that they stopped recording. I checked the logs and saw that Plex said they recorded successfully, but are not in the library. I thought maybe I had a permission issue preventing them from moving to the final folder after recording. I even watched as one of the shows was recording live and I saw it just got deleted at the end of the recording. I thought it was something with comskip since I had these shows tagged to have commercials removed… but it looks like it’s because I have Plex set to automatically delete them after 30 days (and after 7 days for some). I guess this broke with the latest update.
