12 May 2019
The feedback received thus far about this change indicates the reasons for it remain unclear.
Some problems faced by customers and reported to Plex were:
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Clicking delete from a Plex application (on the TV for example) would result in accidentally deleting the master version of the media instead of the optimized one because both master and optimized were co-located.
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Security & privacy minded customers were uncomfortable with Plex ‘having free reign’ to all files on their NAS. While this privilege did exist, Plex didn’t know what to go look for unless the shared folder was listed.
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DVR-recorded content being written adjacent to the original/master files for that content resulting in mixed resolutions, quality levels, and sometimes languages.
Analysis of the reports above, followed up by discussions with those impacted customers, concluded:
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Customers needed a way to help them protect their media from those they shared with as well as their own ‘fat fingers’ in those moments media was deleted. This provided by “Read Only” permission for the particular media shared folder.
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Addressed and accommodated the security concerns by removing the final piece of DSM 5.2 backward compatibility from the package installer.
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Supporting the curation of media could be made easier and cleaner by supporting and enforcing a “master copy goes here and optimized version goes there” structure for those who wished it without impacting those who have no need or desire to manage their media in this manner. This is now possible by having ‘split’ shared folders; one with R/W and one with R/O permission and listing both the R/O and R/W folders in the list of folders used for the library section in PMS.
Lastly, input from our customer support team showed where some customers were uncertain how to best use the NAS for their media. While everyone can use it however they deem appropriate, some common elements were observed:
- Is it ok to put files in the Plex share? (a common mistake)
- Should I put all my media in the same folder?
- How do keep my stuff from being deleted but still be able to delete the DVR recordings ?
This brings us to the last visible change in PMS 1.15.4.994 on Synology (aside from Plex features themselves):
Everyone will find six (6) zero-length files in the Plex share. These files are a reminder to not place media in that share.
The share is intended for Plex use only to store your media metadata. By making this share visible in File Station,
- Provide easy access to create a ZIP of the Logs directory for diagnosing those extreme cases where PMS won’t start.
- Making a backup of your Plex metadata is easily accomplished by making a ZIP file of the Library directory at the top level when PMS isn’t running.
- Diagnosing difficult problems is easily handled by saving the current configuration (Library), renaming it (Library.keep), and creating a new temporary test server instance. When all has been resolved, the original can be safely restored without ill effects.
