Beta 3 does not resolve this issue.
Beta 2 and 3 do seem to introduce issues with Finder staying open (previously introduced by other users, where it reverts to root resulting in Plex no longer able to find the files) this does happen about once every 2 days now. (previously I was able to keep finder open for weeks at a time)
giving up and setting up NFS for now. (since the M4 is refusing to install 14 right now)
Hi All - i have loaded the NFS share on my Syology and i can connect to it no issue but it seems to be connecting my SMB folders at the same time and the NFS share is not persistent - it goes away after a while and Plex keeps saying films not available and I have to head back to the Mac to reconnect.
I am assuming i still need the SMB shares for Time Machine if not anything else?
I am tempted to just add Plex Media Server directly to the Synology server and forgo the Mini all together and get it over with! That way it wont dismount!!
With both SMB and NFS protocols enabled on your NAS, you’ll need to specify the NFS protocol to be used when mounting your network share on your Mac by going to Finder > Connect to Server > and entering “nfs://[hostname or IP address of NAS]/[sharename]”.
Hi Jason - yep done that and it connects just fine but not sure why, periodically it disconnects. The Server is ON on a fixed IP and so is the Mac so not sure what is going on! I have a roon server as well running but that connects directly to the NAS rather than navigating to a folder, simialr to how Emby does it.
Weird!
NFS didn’t work for me either. I thought it did, but everything was back to broken after a couple days. I gave up, installed Plex on my Synology, and everything works just as well, and tasks actually go faster since 1gbit ethernet is taken out of the equation. I was only using the Mac Mini for transcoding, but to my surprise, my Synology can transcode a 4K Remux >1080p just fine (1821+ with Ryzen 1500B). It can’t do more than 1, but I’m only transcoding while watching on my iPad/phone, or my guest room TV that is a 1080p screen.
Sadly, my Synology server is not as powerful as yours. It is a DS920+. It can do the transcodes ok I reckon but increasingly I load it with original UHD files with surround sound etc. Somehow I don’t think it will survive all that well. Maybe I should set it up as a test with a different name and see how it goes.
Thanks
Have you confirmed that your SMB share login details have been removed from Keychain Access? If your Mac retains these details, it will automatically attempt to connect via SMB.
If you’re using Synology for Time Machine backups, you can mount the shared drive using SMB and configure your NFS mount specifically for your Plex movie library.
That is exactly what i did and it works when first connected but come back a couple of days later with nothing restarted or changed IP (both reserved IPs on the network) and the movies are there but ‘files not available’. This is on the NFS share as even if i mount the SMB at that point the movies are still not there. Mountign the NFS server again and hitting Play button, all works without a fresh scan.
The Connected User widget in Synology DSM shows if a connection is NFS, SMB, etc. Click on + to add/remove widgets.
Have you tried modifying the files for auto mount, here is a .md file i had gpt put together out of my notes. you can use the top section to use find/replace with your information to make it so you can copy and paste
# NFS Automount Setup for `sharenamefromNAS`
use find&replace for all instances on these items to match your setup to make reading easier:
IPAddress = your NAS ip
sharenamefromNAS = the share name from synology NFS settings (ie /volume1/Media)
volumes_NAME = the share name ie volumes_Media
volumes.NAME = the share name ie volumes_Media
This guide walks through the steps to configure an NFS mount on a Mac, ensuring it automounts on reboot.
## Prerequisites
- A Synology NAS with NFS enabled and the share `IPAddress:sharenamefromNAS`.
- A Mac with the correct permissions to access the NFS share.
## Steps
### 1. **Enable NFS on Synology NAS**
Ensure that NFS is enabled on the Synology and the correct permissions are set:
- Log into your Synology NAS and enable NFS under `Control Panel` > `File Services` > `NFS`.
- Configure the shared folder with the correct NFS permissions (e.g., `map all users to admin` for easy access).
### 2. **Modify `/etc/auto_master`**
This file controls the automounter master map.
1. Edit the `/etc/auto_master` file:
```bash
sudo nano /etc/auto_master
```
2. Add the following line at the end of the file to reference the `auto_nfs` file:
```bash
/- auto_nfs
```
3. Save and exit (`Ctrl + O`, `Enter`, `Ctrl + X`).
### 3. **Create `/etc/auto_nfs`**
This file maps the NFS share to a local mount point.
1. Create or modify `/etc/auto_nfs`:
```bash
sudo nano /etc/auto_nfs
```
2. Add the following line to map the share:
```bash
sharenamefromNAS -fstype=nfs,ro IPAddress:sharenamefromNAS
```
3. Save and exit (`Ctrl + O`, `Enter`, `Ctrl + X`).
### 4. **Ensure `sharenamefromNAS` Exists**
Automount relies on the directory being present before it can mount the NFS share. To ensure the directory exists at startup, we created a launch agent that runs at boot.
### 5. **Create Launch Agent to Create `sharenamefromNAS` Directory on Boot**
1. Create a new plist file for the launch agent:
```bash
sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.create.volumes.NAME.plist
```
2. Add the following content to the file:
```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.create.volumes.NAME</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/bin/mkdir</string>
<string>-p</string>
<string>sharenamefromNAS</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<false/>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/tmp/create_volumes_NAME.err</string>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/tmp/create_volumes_NAME.out</string>
</dict>
</plist>
```
3. Save and exit (`Ctrl + O`, `Enter`, `Ctrl + X`).
4. Load the launch agent:
```bash
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.create.volumes.NAME.plist
```
### 6. **Test the Setup**
1. To test the mount manually (before reboot):
```bash
sudo automount -vc
```
2. Manually mount the NFS share if necessary:
```bash
sudo mkdir -p sharenamefromNAS
sudo mount -t nfs IPAddress:sharenamefromNAS sharenamefromNAS
```
3. Verify the files are accessible:
```bash
ls sharenamefromNAS
```
### 7. **Reboot and Verify Automount**
After reboot, ensure the directory is created and the share is mounted automatically:
1. Reboot the system:
```bash
sudo reboot
```
2. After reboot, verify the mount:
```bash
ls sharenamefromNAS
```
3. Verify automount is working:
```bash
mount | grep sharenamefromNAS
```
### Troubleshooting
- If the NFS mount is not showing after reboot, ensure that `sharenamefromNAS` exists by running `ls sharenamefromNAS`.
- If the directory is missing, check the launch agent logs located at `/tmp/create_volumes_NAME.out` for any errors.
---
This setup ensures that your NFS share from the Synology NAS is automatically mounted on `sharenamefromNAS` on the Mac after reboot, and the directory is created at boot if it does not exist.
Let me know if you need further modifications!
Thank you @Anqui3tas as this is a brilliant guide and the notes are excellent - however the Mac Mini never reboots so in theory once the connection is made it should stay.
It just drops. Not sure if there is a timeout somewhere on the synology side.
Adding the server item on the Login items seems to work after a reboot. No persistent connection however
Did the Plex update fix anything for anyone?
Not for me, so went back to AFP after a quick check with SMB.
Are the people from Plex even looking at this issue or are they just waiting for one of us to find a solution for them?
So far all I read from them is that they didn’t find anything (don’t know if they are even working on it), nothing to report etc etc.
All of the interim solutions on this thread are from users and not Plex themselves. Such a shame.
Yeah they pop in very once in a while and ask questions, but it doesn’t sound like they’ve gotten far. Not even sure if they’ve talked to Apple yet, which would probably be helpful if they did. However, I personally think the solution at this point is NFS. I switched to it and everything has been great.
Nothing in the updates has addressed this bug.
We also might just need to come to terms at some point that this is not a Plex issue and it’s an Apple issue we have to wait for them to fix. People are still having fairly major issues with SMB, SSH, etc., and they aren’t mentioning Plex. So these issues are just not unique to Plex. I did read one post that stated the SMB issues might only be related to SMB3 (maybe 2 as well). That user dropped back everything to SMB1 and all their disconnecting, slowness, and freezing stopped.
However, what Plex devs could do, could be actually building in direct network connections into Plex, to stop relying on macOS mounts. I know this is no easy task, and it would not be for the majority of their users, but it could eliminate a lot of headaches for NAS users across all platforms.
I also agree that progress is disappointing. I’ve offered to help debug this issue if someone from Plex can share either the techniques and APIs they’re using or ideally, take an hour to create a test app that crawls a folder and returns a value that we can check. I’d happily spend time running such a test app, and I’m sure others would too.
I’m avoiding the NFS solution, if only because of the reduced security of that kind of connection. I don’t just have media files on my Synology.
Yeah I agree if your NAS is accessible externally and has more important data on it. I probably would not have done NFS either if that was my configuration. Mine are not accessible externally, and my entire Plex setup is in a DMZ, so NFS was the acceptable answer for me.
NFS for me is working fine, and it is faster than SMB. I want to share my config, I am using the AutoMounter app.
My /etc/nfs.conf config file:
#
# nfs.conf: the NFS configuration file
#
nfs.client.allow_async = 1
nfs.client.mount.options = nolockd,async,bg,noowners,noatime,soft,intr,rwsize=32768,timeo=900,retrans=3,proto=tcp,nfc
In my case, I do not mount the NFS shares on /Volumes, I mount then on /Users/myHomeDir/NAS directory. I am using the AutoMounter app.
On the Synology, I have the following configuration under file services:
With this configuration it works great, without any issues.
It’s a Plex issue, otherwise Infuse wouldn’t work either, but it does.
Apple certainly created the problem somewhere in Sequoia related to SMB, but it’s on the Plex devs to figure out what needs to be changed in Plex to adapt to Apple’s changes.
So far, they haven’t even replicated the issue, AFAIK. Which was the original cause of my frustration before I even started this thread two months ago.
All they were doing was looking for an external problem, making me, and now us, chase our own tails. Which is what they always do until they’ve exhausted every avenue and they finally decide to look inward. It’s why I reverted back to Sonoma. My guess is that the hope is the next MacOS coming next year will somehow miraculous fix things. Who knows…
I do know their MO. It’s why I finally gave up on this thread a while ago, but still check-in on it occasionally. I remain eternally optimistic, but I’m not holding my breath.
