Plex Media Server can't find files on USB drive connected to Raspberry Pi 3

[spartanhooah]

I recently got a Pi 3 and decided to start moving my PMS setup from my desktop to the Pi. Installation following this guide worked fine up until it came to adding media. I threw a couple shows on a small thumb drive just to test this out. Initially they were just on the root of the drive. I can see the files fine on the Pi’s terminal, but Plex doesn’t see them when it scans the library. I then followed the organizational guide and put them in /TV Shows/showname/season 01, but no difference in Plex’s ability to find the media. What could I be doing wrong?

[frederick.grayson]

This is almost always a matter of not having the correct permissions on the files you want plex to see.

What are the permissions on those files?

[ChuckPa]

USB drives need extra handling. They need to be at a ‘fixed location’ (logical device ID) for Linux. Once that’s done, the rest is easy.

Here is where I walked another user through this process, explaining both NTFS and EXT4 formatted drives. You will see the dialog and how to work through them should it happen to you differently in your application.

EDIT: 27-Nov-2018
The previously linked article from July 2014 has been archived and superseded.
Please refer to:

Topics tagged server-linux-tips

Specifically:

Using EXT, NTFS, or other format drives (internal or external) on Linux

This document is of primary interest to anyone who has connected USB drives or has media on other internal drives but user plex can’t access it due to Linux’s default security mechanisms. WARNING: This procedure will not work for SNAP, Docker or other container mechanisms unless expressly handled within the confines of the container. This procedure is intended for use with the dpkg package. We will walk through the steps needed to add these external USB hard drives and internal hard drives…

[spartanhooah]

Thanks, ChuckPa, that’s the information I needed (and perhaps a vfat-formatted drive vs ntfs). When I move to proper hard disks, is there any particular file system that works best between raspbian and Windows 10?

[ChuckPa]

My knowledge of Win 10 is NTFS limited. VFAT drives suffer from maximum file size limits IIRC. NTFS does not.

If Rasplex is using Ubuntu, I’d stick with NTFS. I’ve only used VFAT on thumb drives for short intervals (as long as the thumb is being loaded) and have no long-term usage data.

[henk.visser_yahoo.co.uk]

I followed all the instructions. Updating the permissions using chmod and fstab adding the UUID. Yet no media in Plex. It sees the mount point “/media/pi/FREE_AGENT” no shows it as empty. Any further advice

[drmagoo]

@“henk.visser@yahoo.co.uk” said:
It sees the mount point “/media/pi/FREE_AGENT” no shows it as empty

You missed the one and only important document. The following guide will help you to fix your problems.

http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/279063/using-ext-or-ntfs-drives-internal-or-external-on-linux

[pfftdives]

I just ran into this problem on rpi plex. Running the latest raspbian as of 8/23, and my drive mounted under /media/pi/B860-477D. permissions on B860-477D were fine, but the pi directory had these permissions:
drwxr-x—+ 3 root root 4096 Aug 24 09:21 pi
This has to be a raspbian default, I didn’t do anything to the install but add plex and wifi pw
This fixed it:

chmod 755 /media/pi

boom! working.

[krpurcel]

This may be what I need. Which file did you add chmod 755 /media/pi to? And where is it located?

Thanks!
Kevin

[Rev-Jeremy-Kush]

Just type sudo chmod 755 /media/pi into the terminal and you’re all good.

[gschwechten01_gmail_com]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!! I was stumbling around for over an hour trying to get this to work.

[WillStewart]

chmod -R 755 /media/pi allowed me to pull in my media files into my library, though I don’t believe that will allow me to delete them from Plex (e.g., old tv shows). So my next change will be chmod -R 764 after I add plex in with a setacl.

[shagupta_gmail_com]

Thank you. your suggestion to “chmod -R 755 /media/pi” was perfect and worked like a charm.

[brandhill_gmail_com]

You guys rock.

First I fixed my >2TB hard drive issue with sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

And then sudo chmod 755 /media/pi fixed the permissions issues for me. Thanks!

[qbranchltd_gmail_com]

I am, having the same problem. I followed what is said in this post - chmod 755/media/pi AND I get back an error - chmod imssing an operand after ‘755/media/pi’

I then tried chmod -R 755/media/pi and got the same error -missing operand after , same as above. What am I missing? What am I doing wrong?

Tried installing ntfs-g and it says it is already there and the current version.

Running Raspbian Buster

USB is ntfs formatted.

OK I figured out what is wrong and it just worked…

Now - please let me know what I need to do to next do this as suggested with this "So my next change will be chmod -R 764 after I add plex in with a setacl… How do I add plex in with setacl before I run chmod -R 764?

Thanks!

[maiconskin]

im search two days for this Solution, my plex won’t recognize the hard drive, you solve this thanks so much

[Slimlad]

Worked perfectly thank you so much.