Server Version#: Version 1.16.3.1402
Player Version#: Safari browser 12.1.2 (13607.3.10) on the Mac server
My Plex server has deleted approx 1Tb of files – which are still indexed and now show as “unavailable.” The files have been deleted – I’ve looked for them manually and note there is now about 1Tb of additional space since I last checked. I have not used a remote player in months, just occasionally played through the Safari browser running on the Mac server itself. Nor have I requested files be deleted. In some cases it deleted whole folders of TV shows at the top level and in others just a sub-folder and/or individual files.
From other forums questions I can tell that Plex and other users believe this doesn’t happen accidentally – yet it does, so let’s not get into the blame game. Waste of time, Plex isn’t owning up to this and I haven’t read a coherent reason here why this should be happening – and, of course, it shouldn’t be happening without major warnings going up requiring user confirmation!
My questions is: What methods/tools do I use to compare what’s indexed against what’s left on the drive to figure what files are lost?
While not an answer to your specific question, I can offer a suggestion to help ensure this doesn’t happen to you again. Take away PMS’ permission to delete files entirely. Make certain both of these settings are deselected under Settings -> Library on your server:
Allow media deletion
Empty trash automatically after every scan
These settings can be problematic if you’re using either network storage or external drives. The first allows PMS to delete files and the second causes it to happen if the media disappears for some reason and a library scan occurs. Other than that I’m not aware of any circumstances by which PMS could delete any media from your system.
I do believe I may have triggered a scan before the external disk on which my files are stored on was mounted. Media deletion from player was enabled (now off) but empty trash after scan was not. Thanks for chiming in. Not sure I will trust Plex again after sorting out this mess – after scanning all my DVDs I have already given away and trashed many of them. I do take a quarterly backup, but it looks like the missing files are those that were added most recently and, of course, not yet backed up!
I doubt this is accidental by the plex server. I would change your password to your server plex admin account. you or someone that has that password has deleted your content.
That’s what I thought, and it’s why I’m speechless.
The user hit scan library and the result was the deletion of nested directories.
Did I misunderstand the issue?
I would appreciate that folks didn’t pollute my thread with unhelpful go-nowhere denials. It happened. It shouldn’t. How can I compare what’s indexed and what’s actually left? If you can answer that question I’d appreciate an answer.
If my deleted files were parked somewhere, where would that be since I now have 1Tb of additional storage on my external drive that I did not previous have on that drive? The files have been deleted and the disk space recovered according to my MacOS.
Again, I’m not trying to recover what’s deleted, however helpful you’re trying to be — which I appreciate, but trust me, I’ve trawled the forums for solutions — I’m down to finding a tool that will compare what’s indexed but unavailable in Plex and what files actually remains on my HD.
