Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639
Player Version#: 4.116.1
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>
Hi everyone,
Its been some time since I was last one here - mainly because I have not had any issues whatsoever and everything has been running ok, until lately.
Some background info - I have Plex Media Server running on Mac mini (M2) with 16GB Ram and everything was running ok until about a week or so ago. Now what happens is that Plex is running 24/7 (as in the Mac is always on) and lately I might watch something or my daughter or family member would say that an episode is not playing - saying unavailable. Immediately I check to see if the connection has dropped but no. What I do see is that my library for series has been split - the original is TV Shows and suddenly Plex is saying that there is a TV Shows-1 also. If I restart everything and go back to look at the libraries TV Shows-1 is gone and there is just the TV Shows. I then go to the TV Shows library and I only see that Plex is showing that there are for example 250 when it should say 1337. So, I carry out a scan and when the scan finished this would then show for example 750 and I would have to scan again and then it would be correct at 1337.
It only seems to happen with my TV Shows and not Movies or Music etc. This would happen everyday and I would have to re-scan and sometimes it might happen more than once a day. Now I am at the point that it is the Plex Server but I am not ruling out anything else as a possibility.
Just also to clarify my data files (all the movies and tv shows etc) are not on the Mac mini but are on READYNAS servers - Movies and music on 1 server and tv shows on another. I used to run Plex on those servers but the servers are too old now to run Plex on them and the Mac mini is more than capable - well should be.
Also I haven’t upgraded to version 1.4 yet due to this issue in case more problems may arise. I was actually going to upgrade this morning (my time) as the number of shows was at 1337 but this morning it was showing 207 and iI started a scan and went as far as 286 and just started the scan again and started this message. Currently it is showing 469. It is weird as this has never happened before even with the Plex server on the Mac before. I am not sure if the update to 1.4 would have any impact of what amount of data is available as that data is on another device. The data itself is not damaged or lost and the HDD’s the data resides is healthy.
I am attaching my Plex Media Server Logs for support.
I cannot currently check the logs. Not sure how you ended up with the second tv show library.
The „unavailable“ error messages and your library not showing all items implied there might be an issue with the connection of your ReadyNAS and Mac. With such a setup it’s good practice to disable the server setting to automatically empty the server‘s trash after every scan (Settings > [Server Name] > Library).
Can you confirm the NAS is mounted as the volume which you had originally linked to your library (I remember my old Mac occasionally mounting shares with a -1 suffix in which case Plex could no longer find the files with their original path).
Hi, many thanks for the response. The paths never change and mounted drives are also never changed. It has happened again as I type this where TV Shows-1 is listed in the Plex directory. Attached a screenshot. I also have the empty trash after every scan is also ticked. Funny you ask me this as it reminds me also that Plex cannot run a partial scan when changes are made to library folders because the data is not on the same device. Thought that would have been remedied in a future update. You can see this in the 2 screenshots I have attached.
So there’s no separate library magically appearing but Plex finding a separate directory/volume that’s not supposed to be there.
This is what I meant earlier.
There can be situations when macOS tries to mount a drive while it considers the same drive (or „a same-named drive“ for what it’s worth) to be already mounted. Hence it’ll create the new mount with the-1 suffix.
It appears macOS is occasionally triggered to refresh/repair/re-do the mount… and in that situation Plex cannot find the files it’s catalogued, considering them unavailable.
Ok, so the question is as this has never happened before - what are the possible causes for these triggers and how do I stop it as it creating problems where we can not see the shows that are there unless I constantly carry out a scan of the library - it doesn’t happen with my movies etc
Sorry, no idea. I had this issue in the past but could mostly only find single-post unanswered questions on Apple’s support forums. It’s been 3-5 years and I don’t remember if I finally found a fix or if this was solved with a specific macOS update.
I did update to 1.402 and this afternoon upon checking - all series are still showing BUT in the Plex directory listing TV Shows and TV Shows-1 are there.
I currently have TV Shows and TV Shows-1
All 1337 shows are there since last night - this is the longest they have maintained a correct quantity.
I logged into the NAS itself as root in terminal and did a ls command and TV Shows-1 does not show up - so this tells me that it is Plex only it shows.
Also for example I have Tautulli (don;t know if you have ever heard or tried it) and when I look at theLibraries in that I do see TV Shows and another TV Shows and the latter one has an exclamation mark meaning that it can no longer see it. So, I wonder if what you were saying earlier about it disconnecting and trying to mount the drive via the path but cannot find it and creates a TV Shows-1 instead.
I am going to reboot the NAS and see if everything stays and TV Shows-1 disappears. Will update in a few mins.
I re-started the NAS and when I checked in Plex as per the 2 screenshots above there is now only TV Shows and there is no TV Shows-1. So I will wait to see how long it is before this reverts back to two tv Shows.
Just another note, today, I just checked Plex and TV Shows showing a total of 428 shows - so went again to check the directories and there is only TV Shows - NO TV Shows-1 - so why does it loose nearly 900 shows ?
I have to scan the library again to start getting them back.
Disabling automatically emptying the trash will not solve your drive connection hiccups but should avoid Plex repeatedly rebuilding your library (losing manual edits, ratings, playlist assignments…).
