ATFN is very likely an Amazon FireTV.
Thanks Otto, makes sense!
although granted in this sudo passive aggressive response. I have been with plex from almost the beginning, This is hard to diagnose and without logs and actual dates of when it happens you and I will be sifting through logs from days and days and days. If the only program that has access to my media drive is PLEX what other program would be deleting files contained in it? although granted just saying that isnt helping decipher whats going on. Saying “choosing to blame us if you want…” isnt helping either. I will see what I can provide
Plex Media Server.1.log (5.0 MB)
Search “Deleting” in this log and tell me what that means. I did not delete any files on my server today through plex. I removed 1 file from the Drive locally on the drive. but not through plex. This is an example of the only logs I can see, november. So if the deletion happened before november I wont be able to share the log for it. sometimes media files are not played for months, if not years after the last time I viewed it. So I dont always know exactly when the deletion occurred or why. so this is the only thing I can submit currently that has my head scratching over 100 deletion events for multiple items. when I only deleted ( locally not through plex ) 1 movie file.
just gona bump this, even after the snarky response ( bigwheel ) and submitting a log.
so two more movie files have gone missing off my drive, I just looked for them last week and they were there, tonight… POOF GONE. not on my drive, not in the trash can…no where.
The log you provided has no deletion lines in it. It’s not the log from your screenshot.
If it just happened again can you provide that log? if there is long list like your screenshot would need to see the start of that to see what initiated it.
I apologize for being snarky.
Thank you, this was happening to me and I just found this setting which was set to keep only last 3 episodes and delete after 1 week after watching. I thought this was only a DVR setting and would apply only to the folder connected to the DVR but apparently it affects all show files regardless of which library they’re in, if it’s a TV Show library then it will have the same settings that were set in the DVR.
I started using Plex about a year ago and everything was working fine at first. About 2 months in all of my photos and videos were somehow removed from my computer. I can still see thumbnails when on the Plex server but they won’t load if I click on them. All movies and tv shows are intact and work perfectly. Plex only deleted my photos and videos. Is there any way to recover them?
If files were removed from your computer and you don’t have backups, those files aren’t recoverable.
I have also recently experienced Plex Server deleting my files.
My setup is plex server running on windows 10 and my library is accessed from an external USB 3.0 hard disk (WD Elements). I do not leave the W10 running all the time. Only switch it on a few hours before watching a movie.
A few weeks ago, I connected the ext drive to my laptop so i could transfer 12 movies to it. My folder structure is simple ie. /Movies/A, /Movies/B etc. 26 folder for A to Z and “#” folder for movies that start with a number in the title.
I transferred the 12 movies and reconnected the ext drive back to the PC. Switched on PC and chose “update library”. In the “Alerts” screen, I noticed several entries saying “deleted item”. Clicking on the alert does not show me what is deleted. Get an error message which advises me to use plex forums for more info, I checked for the 12 movies that have neen recently transferred and the were not there. The .mkv files and been deleted from the ext drive. My ext drive does not have a problem as other files outside of the /Movies parent folder are untouched and remain in place. I noticed in the recently added screen in the plex webapp that old movies from my collection suddenly appeared as if they were newly added. Very weird.
I put this down to a glitch and thought nothing of it until yesterday (4th Jan) when the same thing happened again.
This time I only copied across 7 files into their releavant subfolders on the ext drive. Reconnected ext drive back to the PC. Switched on and did the “update library” option. Only 5 of the 7 movies appeared with all their metadata. 2 files deleted from ext drive by the plex server. I even made the files read only and plex server still deleted them!
The alerts screen again showed around 26 entries reading “Deleted an item” and nothing is shown when the word “item” is clicked on. The word is shown as a clickable hyperlink.
If plex server is simply able to delete files that have not yet been added to the database, this is a major flaw in the software. The 1st time this happened to me I did not have backup copies of the 12 movies and the 2nd time, I have kept copies.
If I manually add a file to the PC while it is running with the plex server running as well, and choose “update library” that file is successfully added to the database.
Also it was able to find 5 of the 7 movies successfully that I had transferred from the laptop to the ext drive, so this action cannot be the cause of the problems.
Not a happy chappy. 
Yep, same thing happened to me. I had noticed some movies I thought I had weren’t appearing. I thought maybe I was mistaken. However I decided to start putting my movies into collections and then noticed all but three of the Mission Impossible films had gone missing. I checked my drives and they are gone. I have since noticed loads more files that have vanished. I’m the only person who has access to my library, the computer that has the Plex Media server running and the drives. I for sure haven’t deleted these files…so what’s going on?
Do you remember where that sett is located?
I have looked for it but cannot locate it.
Thank you!!
A bit of history: In a process of evaluating Plex as potential replacement of Kodi. I started liking it since it integrates nicely with my new smart TV. I’ve enabled the option to periodically scan my library and I’ve disabled ‘Allow media deletion’.
The problem: Yesterday, after an initial library scan out of nowhere it started removing files from my library, some of the files were personal. I am trying now to recover some of the files from old backups and assess the damage.
This is insane! How the hell it can happen?!
I mean at the end, how does Plex expect a user to go premium with these “hidden” activities?!
The version I run is 1.14.1.5488
These are the logs, grep-ed for delete.
Apr 12, 2019 21:00:50.138 [0x7f38e77ff700] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:42732 (Loopback)] GET /:/metadata/notify/destroy?librarySectionID=2&ids=67927,67928,67936,67937,67966,67972,67974&types=1,1,1,1,1,1,1&parentIDs=-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1&rootIDs=-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1 (8 live) GZIP Signed-in Token
Apr 12, 2019 21:00:50.138 [0x7f39013fe700] DEBUG - Completed: [127.0.0.1:42732] 200 GET /:/metadata/notify/destroy?librarySectionID=2&ids=67927,67928,67936,67937,67966,67972,67974&types=1,1,1,1,1,1,1&parentIDs=-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1&rootIDs=-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1 (8 live) GZIP 1ms 166 bytes
....
Plex Media Server.3.log:7554:Apr 12, 2019 21:00:49.312 [0x7f38e17ff700] DEBUG - [LibraryTimeline] Scanner activity on section 2: 0 added, 13 deleted
Plex Media Server.3.log:7555:Apr 12, 2019 21:00:49.313 [0x7f38e17ff700] DEBUG - [LibraryTimeline] Scanner activity on section 2: 0 added, 14 deleted
Plex Media Server.3.log:7556:Apr 12, 2019 21:00:49.314 [0x7f38e17ff700] DEBUG - [LibraryTimeline] Scanner activity on section 2: 0 added, 15 deleted
Plex Media Server.3.log:7581:Apr 12, 2019 21:00:50.139 [0x7f38e17ff700] DEBUG - [LibraryTimeline] Scanner activity on section 2: 0 added, 16 deleted
Plex Media Server.3.log:7582:Apr 12, 2019 21:00:50.140 [0x7f38e17ff700] DEBUG - [LibraryTimeline] Scanner activity on section 2: 0 added, 17 deleted
Plex Media Server.3.log:7583:Apr 12, 2019 21:00:50.141 [0x7f38e17ff700] DEBUG - [LibraryTimeline] Scanner activity on section 2: 0 added, 18 deleted
Plex Media Server.3.log:7584:Apr 12, 2019 21:00:50.141 [0x7f38e17ff700] DEBUG - [LibraryTimeline] Scanner activity on section 2: 0 added, 19 deleted
Plex Media Server.3.log:7585:Apr 12, 2019 21:00:50.142 [0x7f38e17ff700] DEBUG - [LibraryTimeline] Scanner activity on section 2: 0 added, 20 deleted
Plex Media Server.3.log:7586:Apr 12, 2019 21:00:50.143 [0x7f38e17ff700] DEBUG - [LibraryTimeline] Scanner activity on section 2: 0 added, 21 deleted
Plex Media Server.3.log:7587:Apr 12, 2019 21:00:50.143 [0x7f38e17ff700] DEBUG - [LibraryTimeline] Scanner activity on section 2: 0 added, 22 deleted
These messages usually only mean that the server couldn’t find media files which were previously there. A new library scan should re-add them (if they haven’t been deleted.)
Settings - Server - Library - ‘Empty trash automatically after every scan’
^^^ must be always OFF if your media storage is outside of your plex server device
Otherwise, even a temporary connection issue or the power saving mode of your hard disks could wreak havoc with your media collection.
Those two options were set to off from the beginning when I installed Plex.
The media storage is the same device where Plex is running (in a docker container).
Basically, I traced the deleted files to be the ones I’ve reorganised a bit i.e I’ve put them in different or new folders.
So, why only those files were removed but not something else I don’t get.
It is my belief that “best practices” is to have that setting off no matter where your media is stored. To keep a “clean” library all you need to do empty the trash every week or two or after you move a lot of files around.
By not automagically emptying trash you avoid problems that result from files temporarily being undetected, which can happen in a local system as well as other setups.
I do think that for some setups there might be an advantage to allowing the “empty trash” setting to be by library rather than globally or at least have a setting in each library that allows the global choice to be overridden for a given library.
Well, then there is no wonder Plex removed them from the library. They were not at their original locations anymore, becaused you renamed or moved them.
I just came here with the same problem–Plex is deleting my files from my NAS. And I find your reply here appalling. You are correct, the files you deleted were ones I was moving and renaming (to conform with your required format for TV shows, incidentally).
Why in the world would you delete my files without asking me? If I rename a file what makes you think I want you to delete it?
And no, you leave nothing in the logs about this. The only log entries for these I can find look like:
Plex Media Scanner.5.log:May 09, 2019 09:50:32.479 [0x7f672c633800] DEBUG - Adding file for scanner: "/volume1/Media/Videos/TV/Beavis and Butthead/Season 04/Beavis and Butthead - s04e26 - Teen Talk.mkv"
There are absolutely no other log entries, but you deleted this file.
This is absolutely unacceptable.
Actually, I take that back. You deleted every single one of my video files, whether they had been moved or not. And no, there are no log entries beyond the “adding file for scanner” entries.
I am at a loss at what to say. Well, beyond “I demand a refund.”
Hello and welcome to the Plex forums. I believe there has been a misunderstanding of the issues here. Plex does not delete files without asking you first. There is 1 exception which has to do with the DVR feature. There is an option to only keep a certain number of files. These files that fall outside of this limit will get deleted automatically. Otherwise, Plex does not delete files.
The comment Otto Kerner mentioned above is related to deleting / removing the entry for that item from Plex Media Server’s internal database. This database tracks the location of your files. If the files are moved and cannot be found by Plex Media Server, that entry in the database is removed, not the file itself.
If the files on your NAS are being deleted, that is totally unexpected and should not happen. Plex Media Server will log when a file is deleted. If you can provide me the logs from your PMS and an example of a file that was deleted, I can look to see if Plex did delete it or not, assuming the event occurred within the timeframe of your logs.
