Need some help. Perhaps there are simple concepts my brain does not understand.
I have 3 Western Digital (WD) My Cloud Home NAS-like devices connected to my home network; each running Plex. And running Plex very well.
However, I just noticed a very perplexing problem, which I think may be a bug in the web based and Win 10 apps.
When I first initialized Plex on each of the WD devices, I was able to add libraries and folders to each of the devices using the “Browse Media Library” option. Also, the “Server” option was visible in Plex. Now, both of these options have mysteriously vanished from the sidebar or Settings.
Why is this happening? I queried the Forums for similar posts and suggested fixes; tried pretty much all of them, and still can’t get those functions back. The only way I can add folders and files to my WD NAS devices, is to use the WD apps to add/upload the new content directly into the appropriate Shared folders on the Plex drive on those devices. Only then, when Plex does and auto scan, do the new folders and files appear.
Did I find a true bug? Is there WD My Cloud Home device restrictions preventing additional uploads of media files “after” initial activation of Plex on the NAS devices? Or, is there something conceptually, or in what I am doing, that I don’t fully understand about Plex?
Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I’m not exactly sure I get the issue.
It’s a known/hard-coded restriction that you cannot manually add/change folders assigned to a library of the PMS installed on a WD My Cloud NAS. Is that what you’re noticing? If you have been adding folders to a library before, you probably had a separate install of PMS on a different device – is this a possibility?
This will however not limit you in adding content to the official shared media folders and make that available to your libraries.
Given WD is quite slow distributing the latest versions of PMS it might be helpful if you can share what version of PMS you have installed on the affected WD My Clouds (same for the Plex for Windows app you’re using to access your servers).
Hi Tom, thanks for the response; which confirmed my suspicions. Meaning, I probably had a separate install of PMS on my Surface Pro X where I saw the Browse Media Library and Server functions. I would have to disable and re-enable all instances to test this. Not worth the effort. The known hard-coded restriction you mention is what I couldn’t recall. No need to share the versions in this case. Thanks for the guidance.
To prove your point, I ran a test. On my WD My Cloud Home NAS #3, I had one folder showing (Shared Music). I deleted the others some time ago (Long story. Not important). I was able to use PMS Web to add a Shared Movies folder again to that NAS. Once added successfully, PMS immediately scanned the WD NAS #3 and found some movies; and correctly loaded the files, artwork, etc.; which is essentially how it supposed to work, to your point.
However, I thought I could add my local content from my laptop? Meaning, I thought I could setup Plex to recognize (add) my laptop (obviously also connected to my network), as an additional server; and add local media content (i.e., movies, TV shows, music, etc.) from the Shared folders on my laptop? Because in this case, I can’t. Again, Plex is not showing the “Server” feature in Settings. I only see the “Authorized Devices” feature. In addition to my WD My Cloud NAS devices, PMS is showing my laptop as an authorized device as well. But following the documented guidelines and instructions don’t work in this case. Clearly, as with my first question, I must be either misunderstanding the features, or doing something wrong.
Re/ Local content from your Laptop
This might work on other devices… you can mount a network share and add one or more folders from that shared drive/folder to your libraries. This is e.g. how I’ve linked the shares from my Synology NAS to my Plex Media Server running on a Linux box.
On a WD My Cloud you’d have to SSH into the machine to mount a drive into the shared media folders – not sure that’s a good solution.
Thanks, I’m an above average Plex and WD user, but a bit of a rookie when it comes to networks.
To try and expand a bit on what you are saying, can I proceed to may a network share on my laptop I’m currently typing on? Load folders/media files to that Share? If so, then what do I need to do on the WD My Cloud Home device? It’s super proprietary, as we know. It’s not as open as the older WD My Cloud and My Cloud Mirror devices (which are true NAS devices).
Tom, sorry. Just realized I hit the"Reply" button too soon on my previous note back to you.
If in SSH, you mean the Win 10 Secure Shell function in Optional Features, then thanks. Yes, thought about this, and will consider if I absolutely need my laptop to act as an additional Plex server. Turning this on, and configuring Power Shell, is an involved process.
For now, I can live with the WD My Cloud Home restrictions regarding Plex. If I need to add content to the 3 WD servers I have, I’ll just continue toq either use WD Discovery on my Core i7 machines, and the WD My Cloud Home web app on my Surface Pro X. My system and configuration is working well. So why mess with it. Was just curious, as I thought I found a bug.
