Plex deletes newly added TV Episodes

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.15.6.1079
Player Version#: n/a for this potential bug

This is an odd issue. Back forever ago in September 2017 (Apparent Plex Tuner crash on Linux with Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD) I was recording Night Court on my Plex server. Or at least attempting to - it kept failing due to my USB Tuner. I had set up the DVR recording to delete 48 hours after it was watched.

After several more botched attempts - I deleted the Tuner and (I assume) the scheduled recordings. The version was 1.8.2.4209

Fast forward several years and versions. I am now running 1.15.6.1079.

I have acquired the first season of Night Court on DVD and created MKVs and loaded them into my TV Shows library. Watched them all very quickly.

48 hours after they were marked play - they disappeared.

I dumped the next disc worth of episodes and marked all but 1 episode as played. 48 hours all the played Night Court episodes are gone. No one had used Plex during that time - it was simply humming in a corner.

I can replicate this issue (still have a copy or could rip from my original discs) - but it’s dammed odd.

I am making the assumption that it’s the old DVR rule. I have no current DVR recordings scheduled for Night Court - I’ve looked all over. If it is the old rule, it’s likely some data stuck somewhere inadvertently. I’m unsure where under the covers to look for such data or which logs would be useful.

Any help would be appreciated! Any data which would be helpful - please ask and I will produce. Many thanks!!

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The deletion rules are not restricted to the DVR. They are active globally.
So, add some episodes, then edit the show in question and remove the deletion policies in the ‘Advanced’ tab.

Best way to prevent this kind of thing is to mount the media folders read-only for user plex and only have some dedicated folders as read/write reserved for Plex’s DVR feature (and the media optimizer, if you are using it).

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  1. @OttoKerner - you are correct. I was unaware that the deletion rule was global for the show, and not simply for the DVR Record rule …

  2. … but I deleted Night Court years ago. I did not have the show on my Plex server. Would not the deletion rule have been … well deleted … when the TV Show was removed from Plex. Even had I know that that deletion rules were global, I would have assumed that if I had deleted the show - the deletion rule would have deleted too.

While you have proven this is not a bug - would this be a good use case to consider as an RFE?

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Imagine a tv show that’s airing weekly.
And you are watching each new episode within 24 hours.
And you have a deletion policy to erase the eps 3 days after they’ve been watched.

What would happen when the new episode has been recorded?
It would have forgotten about your deletion policy.

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