I create an artist collection in Plexamp. A few days later the contents is zero in all my versions of Plexamp (Mac & Android). See screenshot. This has been happening for months and I have tested it at least two or three times with the same results.
I’m not sure if it’s possible to create Artist Collections in the Plex web interface so I’m labelling this a Plexamp issue but I appreciate that it might not be. But I use Plexamp to listen to music so it’s affecting my enjoyment of Plexamp.
Server: QNAP TS251+
Plex Server: Version 1.32.5.7349
When I check the web interface and filter by Artist Collection there are no suggested artist collections.
As for the issue at hand… I’m a bit confused.
If you’re experiencing items getting dropped from collections, this is usually due to situations where your server is configured to automatically scan your libraries, emptying its trash after every scan and e.g. drives connected to your server taking long to spin up. If Plex scans your library and cannot find previously cataloged files, it’ll then immediately remove the library items. In consequence they’re ll be gone from any manually created playlists or collections. This doesn’t happen if the drive is entirely off… just in cases where Plex finds some of the content from a library folder.
During a subsequent scan, Plex will probably find the “missing” files again and re-create the library items – however any of your manual edits (incl. playlist/collections assignments will no longer be there).
If that happens to you, I strongly recommend to disable Settings > [Server Name] > Library > Empty trash automatically after every scan.
That’s the part I’m confused about… according to your screenshot, the collections as such are still there but empty.
If Plex scans your library and cannot find previously cataloged files, it’ll then immediately remove the library items.
Can you explain that to me like I’m five. If Plex is scanning and can’t find files due to slow spinning drives then wouldn’t it just remove my entire library database from Plex? Why is it removing just these items from inside my Aritst Collections?
If that happens to you, I strongly recommend to disable Settings > [Server Name] > Library > Empty trash automatically after every scan .
Thanks. I’ll try this but it seems a shame to disable something that the devs put in there for a reason just because of what seems like a shortcoming with how the scan-the-trash thing works.
What are the repercussions of me disabling that setting? Will it affect performance or server space usage?
Don’t get me wrong I love plex and use it every day (especially Plexamp which is amazing!). I’ve just had a string of various tech-related issues recently and my tolerance is low.
That’s the part I’m confused about… according to your screenshot, the collections as such are still there but empty.
I was just using that as an illustration to show that it’s not just a Plexamp issue, but that it seems a database issue as the web UI can’t find those artist collections as well as Plexamp showing zero items within them. sorry for the confusion.
During scanning, Plex creates a list of newly found files, not currently cataloged in your library, and one with files cataloged for which it cannot find the files.
There’s some more stuff going on where Plex attempts to avoid confusion if you e.g. renamed a file.
When the scan is done it’ll flag all library items no longer found as “unavailable” (or “trash”).
If you’ve enabled the option to automatically empty trash, it’ll do just that.
It didn’t… most likely the files as such had been removed from your library at some point due.
They were simply added back when Plex found them again during a later scan – except by then all your manual changes (like adding them to a collection) were gone.
The reason this option exists is exactly for setups like this where external or network drives might be asleep or temporarily not available during a scan.
No. It’s just dropping last extra step from the scan task list.
Keep in mind: „Library“ doesn’t mean „your file system“.
Plex is cataloging your files in its database where they’re associated to „library items“ (e.g. a movie). There can be multiple files associated to a single library item (e.g. different-quality versions of the same movie, local extras…).
Scanning your folders isn’t do much about what’s theoretically stored on a drive but what’s accessible to Plex. If a file exists but Plex doesn’t have permission to see it, it’ll not be able to catalog it (e.g. on a Linux or NAS based server).
The same is true if your drive isn’t connected (the files still exist but Plex has no way to find them.
Plex has a „failsafe“ to avoid accidentally deleting library items. If it recognizes that an entire drive isn’t available, it’ll ignore that drive when updating your library.
This isn’t working if the drive is just slow to spin up / react. In that case the drive will be available at some point during the scan and Plex can no longer distinguish if the file’s are gone for good.
There’s no harm in disabling automatically emptying Plex‘s trash. The only impact you’ll have is that after actually deleting files you’ll have to manually empty the trash. Compared to constantly losing your manual changes that’s harmless…
OK, thanks @tom80H - I do appreciate the time you’ve taken to explain things to me. I’ve disabled that setting and will see how I get on. Thanks again.
