Plex Marks Media as Unavailable After Library Scans

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Hi Plex Community,

I’m running into an odd issue with my Plex setup and hoping someone can help. Here’s the situation:

####Setup Details

  • Plex Server: Running on an intel Mac Mini, macOS Sequoia (13.x).
  • Media Storage: Synology NAS, shared via SMB. The share is mounted on the Mac as /Volumes/media.
  • Library Path: /Volumes/media/movies is added to the Movies library.
  • Access: The NAS share is mounted using an account with read/write permissions on the NAS. Files are accessible via Finder and even in Plex (even when marked unavailable).
  • Server Version#: 1.41.3.9314
    Player Version#: 1.41.3.9314 (plex web)

The Issue

  • Everything had been working fine (for years) until this past week, when about half of the movies suddenly were marked “unavailable”.

  • If I remove and re-add the media folder in the “edit library” dialog, Plex initially scans the files correctly, and all titles are available.

  • On subsequent library scans, Plex marks about half of the movies (1,045 out of 1,980) as unavailable. These same files:

    • Still play fine if selected directly in Plex.
    • Remain accessible through Finder and the mounted volume.

  • Re-adding the library temporarily fixes the issue, but it repeats after scanning again.

Troubleshooting Done So Far

  1. Permissions:
  • Verified that the account used to mount the share has full access to the NAS share and files.
  • The Plex process can read /Volumes/media since files play manually.
  1. Plex Database:
  • Backed up and rebuilt the library by deleting and re-adding it.
  • Forced metadata refresh and cleared old cached metadata for the library.

What I Think Might Be Happening

It feels like Plex might be:

  • Misinterpreting unchanged folders/files as removed during scans.
  • Failing to retain the correct paths or metadata in its database.

Has anyone else experienced media being incorrectly marked as unavailable on a macOS server setup? Any suggestions on how to debug further or resolve the issue?

Thanks in advance for your help! Happy to provide logs or more details if needed.

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Known issue:

Good Luck,

Chris

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Wow! thanks for pointing me to the thread - I had not found it on my own. Appreciate the direction. sounds like smart folks are working on this, i’m reading up on the workarounds. thank you.

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