"Plex Media Server Got nothing for:" repeatedly in syslog instead of default Plex log directory

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#:1.28.2.6151-914ddd2b3

Plex Media Server is repeatedly writing to syslog with messages like this:

Plex Media Server[2421]: Got nothing for: Surviving Lost at Sea Survivorman Directors Commentary Les Stroud

This is obviously a result of it being unable to get metadata for a file, but it’s happening every 15 minutes since I have my library set to rescan files in that interval.

I’d really like a way to disable these messages from showing up in syslog all together, and rather have them show up in the default Plex log directory. Curiously enough, they’re absent all together from that folder.

I did find an option in /etc/default/plexmediaserver that references logging to syslog, but it does not seem to affects this.

# Uncomment this to use syslog for logging instead of
# sending logs to Plex Media Server.log
export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=false

As you can I see I tried to explicitly set it to false, but neither that nor commenting it out prevents these messages.

2

@sirous_smith

Which OS distro and version are you using?

/etc/default/plexmediaserver is only used with SYSV-init systems. (older)
Most systems are now systemd which makes /etc/default/plexmediaserver obsolete

You can create an “override” if you need to

The defaults on systemd systems is:

StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
3

Xubuntu 18.04 LTS, but I think that must have just been a remnant of an older installation or something since I do start/stop it with the systemd service.

This is the content of my plexmediaserver.service file

[Unit]
Description=Plex Media Server
After=network.target network-online.target

[Service]
Environment="PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support"
Environment=PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_HOME=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver
Environment=PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_MAX_PLUGIN_PROCS=6
ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/test -d "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" || /bin/mkdir -p "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}"'
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c '\
export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_VENDOR="$(grep ^NAME= /etc/os-release | awk -F= "{print \\$2}" | tr -d \\" )"; \
export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_DEVICE="PC"; \
export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_MODEL="$(uname -m)"; \
export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_PLATFORM_VERSION="$(grep ^VERSION= /etc/os-release | awk -F= "{print \\$2}" | tr -d \\" )"; \
exec "/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server"'
Type=simple
User=plex
Group=plex
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
StartLimitInterval=60s
StartLimitBurst=3
SyslogIdentifier=Plex Media Server
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I see the options you mentioned near the end there, but not sure what you mean by creating an override. I’m not that accustomed to using systemd.

4

Since you have 18.04,

Should you opt to silence all of Plex’s output .

  1. Create file /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf
  2. In that file, place,
# Keep Plex 100% silent
[Service]
StandardOutput=null
StandardError=null
  1. Save the file
  2. systemctl daemon-reload (pick up the new override)
  3. systemctl restart plexmediaserver (make it effective)

From this point forward, nothing will show in your journal.

You might want to play with silencing StandardOutput first

5

Tangentially related,

Is that Video you’re trying to link from Youtube ?

If so, why not add it as an extra in “Specials” or “Season 00” ?

6

Excellent, thank you! I will give that a try.

7

Yes it’s from Les Stroud’s YT channel where he releases directors commentaries, so there isn’t any metadata information for it on TVDB.

Does putting it in a Specials/Season 00 stop it from trying to get metadata for it?

8

YEP. they are “extras” , named just as you name them.

You can given them Artificial Numbers…

For Star Trek Voyager, I use:

Star Trek Voyager - S00E101 -  Name of Extra.mkv     <-  Season 1, 1st extra
Star Trek Voyager - S00E405 -  Name of Extra.mkv     <- Season 4,  5th extra

The S00 makes them specials… PMS deals with that already and takes them as “Videos”

9

Ah okay that’s good to know. I think between that and the systemd override that will take care of things.

10

You might find, having moved the media into “Specials” , that you don’t need the override at all. (most don’t)

11

Yeah ideally I could just arrange all of the files that way, but there are some restrictions that prevent me from doing that, so the systemd override is the more optimal solution in this instance.

Thanks a lot!

12

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