Plex Media Server is Removing Media on its own

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: 1.32.5.7349
Player Version#: N/A
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

Not sure if this is happening to anyone else, but recently, plex started removing media from my server. I noticed this at first with my music. Plex Media Server was removing portions of a library, not all of it. I rolled back the database, worked fine until the daily maintenance. It was removed again. Then I decided I would try leaving it deleted, then scan the library. This would bring it back. Obviously not in the same order, and this would not restore my playlists. Then during the next daily maintenance, I noticed another library had media removed. These were workout videos, all gone. Additionally, 1/3 of my movies were wiped too. Here is a portion of the logs. Any ideas, thoughts, help would be appreciated.

Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.105 [8744] DEBUG - Performing a scan with ‘Plex Video Files Scanner’ (language: xn virtual: 0).
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.106 [8744] DEBUG - * Scanning Z:\Workout Videos
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.111 [8744] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory Z:\Workout Videos (parent: no)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.429 [8744] DEBUG - Skipping over directory ‘’, as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.429 [8744] DEBUG - [HCl#3] HTTP requesting PUT http://127.0.0.1:32400/activities/49c53a25-fa98-4eaa-b48e-41198d6f5f1a?percentComplete=%2B99
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.429 [7380] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#3] HTTP/1.1 (0.0s) 200 response from PUT http://127.0.0.1:32400/activities/49c53a25-fa98-4eaa-b48e-41198d6f5f1a?percentComplete=%2B99 (reused)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.430 [8744] DEBUG - [HCl#4] HTTP requesting PUT http://127.0.0.1:32400/activities/49c53a25-fa98-4eaa-b48e-41198d6f5f1a?percentComplete=99.000000
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.430 [7380] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#4] HTTP/1.1 (0.0s) 200 response from PUT http://127.0.0.1:32400/activities/49c53a25-fa98-4eaa-b48e-41198d6f5f1a?percentComplete=99.000000 (reused)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.430 [8744] DEBUG - Removing 30 media items that were left.
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.431 [8744] DEBUG - Deleting media item 177602.
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.433 [8744] DEBUG - Downloading document http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.433 [8744] DEBUG - [HCl#5] HTTP requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.476 [7380] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#5] HTTP/1.1 (0.0s) 200 response from GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp (reused)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.477 [8744] DEBUG - Was connected to metadata item 103741, count is now 0.
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.478 [8744] DEBUG - Destroying metadata item 103741 (Align - The Fundamentals)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.480 [8744] DEBUG - Downloading document http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.480 [8744] DEBUG - [HCl#6] HTTP requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.481 [7380] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#6] HTTP/1.1 (0.0s) 200 response from GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp (reused)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.481 [13192] DEBUG - [HCl#7] HTTP requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/:/metadata/flushMetadataCounterCache?metadataItemID=-1
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.482 [7380] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#7] HTTP/1.1 (0.0s) 200 response from GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/:/metadata/flushMetadataCounterCache?metadataItemID=-1 (reused)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.484 [8744] DEBUG - Deleting media item 177603.
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.484 [8744] DEBUG - Downloading document http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.484 [8744] DEBUG - [HCl#8] HTTP requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.485 [7380] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#8] HTTP/1.1 (0.0s) 200 response from GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp (reused)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.485 [8744] DEBUG - Was connected to metadata item 103742, count is now 0.
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.486 [8744] DEBUG - Destroying metadata item 103742 (Buns)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.486 [8744] DEBUG - Downloading document http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.487 [8744] DEBUG - [HCl#9] HTTP requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.487 [7380] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#9] HTTP/1.1 (0.0s) 200 response from GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/changestamp (reused)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.487 [13192] DEBUG - [HCl#a] HTTP requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/:/metadata/flushMetadataCounterCache?metadataItemID=-1
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.488 [7380] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#a] HTTP/1.1 (0.0s) 200 response from GET http://127.0.0.1:32400/:/metadata/flushMetadataCounterCache?metadataItemID=-1 (reused)
Aug 15, 2023 03:08:14.489 [8744] DEBUG - Deleting media item 177604.

2

Are your media files on an external drive or NAS? The most common cause of issues like this is that the external device doesn’t wake up quickly enough when Plex begins its routine scheduled scans. Since the drive isn’t awake, Plex sees the media files as gone, and removes those items from the libraries.

The fix for this is to turn off the “Empty trash automatically after every scan” option in the Library settings:

image
image820×380 81.2 KB

3

I will give that a try. To answer your question, yes it is on a nas. I’m confused as the discs are always spinning and I have not made any changes to settings and have run without issues for years.

4

Are you on Windows? And do you have the NAS mapped in Plex using letter drive mappings?

Sometimes Windows loses its mapping. I would suggest changing to using the \Server\Share-style mapping instead. This will negate this problem.

5

Delete
Delete798×267 177 KB

So by unselecting empty trash every scan, this is now what I am left with.

6

Not familiar with this. If you could please elaborate.

7

The basic point is that while your NAS might be always on, your Windows machine seems to fail to see/find some of the previously cataloged files when re-scanning the NAS folder. Based on that, it’ll flag those files as unavailable (trash can) or actually removed the related items from your library (before disabling that).
Usually this means Plex will start being able to find some of the files… otherwise it’ll consider the drive to be offline and not updating your library. This is sometimes happening if the NAS is allowing its drives to sleep and the drives taking quite a long time to spin up (as per @beckfield‘s initial feedback)

Before completely reworking your folder mapping… can you verify that you can still see/access the files in your Windows Explorer when you experience this?

Also… will Plex pick the files up as available if you rescan the library files after ensuring the drives are accessible (and spinning)?

8

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.