Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639
Player Version#: 4.122.0
I recently changed my home server from an ITX desktop running Windows 10, to a mini-PC running Windows 11. The hard drive containing my media library was moved into an Icy Box external hard drive enclosure and is connected via USB. It shows up as a local drive in Windows Explorer.
However I run into the issue that my Plex library show up as empty in both the Android app, as well as checking on Plex Web from my laptop. Manually triggering a library refresh does not work. The only way I can proceed is to log onto the server machine via remote desktop. Once I log on, the library almost instantly refreshes and shows the contents in my client apps. Once I start playing media I can keep playing it without issue even after logging out of remote desktop.
I believe this has to do with how fast the Icy Box puts the hard drives to sleep or other power management shenanigans in Windows, but I have a hard time finding a solution as to how to fix this. Ideally I want Plex not to touch the library drive until I actually have my client app open and refresh the library. Any suggestions as to what settings to look at?
Normally, Plex server won’t start at all on Windows until someone is logging in. Did you do something to solve this problem?
My recommendation would be to run the Plex server as a Windows service.
But network file shares won’t be connected to drive letters if you use this, so you will need to use UNC paths: How to add files on a NAS to a Plex library on Windows
(if your media drive is attached per USB, this doesn’t apply to you)
This won’t work. Plex is a server. Which means it is 24/7 ready to serve.
It will also perform maintenance jobs during a selected time period during which it also needs access to the media drive.
Ah, that’s the difference with my old setup. I forgot to install the separate application to run Plex as a service. With this my issue seems to be fixed and it’s behaving as it did on my old setup.
