Did some tries how about upgrade from “The Movie DB” up to the “Plex Movie” Agent.
After everything was done and working on my second NAS, i found out that the Folder “/Plex Media Server/Metadata/Movies” increased his size about 3.2 GB.
Why and how can he get cleaned?
Did some tries but the Final one was based on a 1:1 Backup.
Upgrade
Agent Settings
Rescan all Metadata
Optimized DB
Cleaned Packages
Explained by @drzoidberg33 @ Post #15 – See for Solution @ Posts #13 and #14
Generate video preview thumbnails were always set to never. Generate chapter thumbnails were set up as a task.
If i do that, there won’t be deleted anything, exactly the same Folder Size of crazy 7.14 GB.
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Even don’t know why the Task to generate “chapter thumbnails” not was running.
Also i think it, can’t prove this or is it something which will just run every x days?
Tried this also at the old NAS with the “Movie DB” Agent, there i got just 77 MB more Space after set Generate chapter thumbnails to never.
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What i found out, when i compare the Folder Structure from an clean install with just a few Movies added, it will looks like. /Plex Media Server/Metadata/Movies/0/....bundle/Contents
On my Upgraded NAS, it will always be a additional Folder named “Uploads” /Plex Media Server/Metadata/Movies/0/....bundle/Uploads
What about this “Uploads” Folders?
They contains exactely the same Covers and de size is usually just a few less than the Files in the “Contents” Folder, also they are named “themoviedb” which isn’t used anymore.
Files named like this, example in “posters” Folder, same Covers. Contents tv.plex.agents.movie_8df0dfcddaa83d69f1dd1028bc7204c44c5b43b6 Uploads com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb_51aae9a17718a897fe4397171f9c26e5d74bf8b0
Folder structure before was without any “Uploads” Folders (Movie DB)
“Uploads” Folders came after Upgrade to “Plex Movie”, did it Monday 2021-06-28.
Sadly there is no known opportunity to check if Plex could run the scheduled task?
Is there a way to start the scheduled task manually?
No third party plugins or modifications, except "ArticleStrings=“0” in the “Preferences.xml”
“Uploads” Folder won’t be recreated, at least not inside the same “.bundle”.
@ Yaracuy, Date is not as important, Files in the Folders won’t be changed or downloaded again, if they are the same.
But these “Uploads” Folders looks like a Plex Upgrade Issue as well.
One Week later, still same behavor.
When i look at @Yaracuy Screenshot which is from February 2021, it would be more of a coincidence if Plex itself will fix this.
New added Movies won’t create a “Uploads” Folder
Rescan the whole Library Metadata will keep the “Uploads” Folders
Scheduled Tasks sholud be done because the NAS was always on, maybe Standby (Plex can wake it up for its Schedule, as i know)
If you have the opportunity, you could forward this behavior to the Devs, because i guess there would be many others with the same issue which just don’t know it.
Tried over an SQL Browser to find out if in the com.plexapp.plugins.library.db is somewhere to find a linked “Uploads” folder, but i could not even find the linked “Contents” Folder.
Do you know where is the Metadata linked that i could proof if there just shows up the “Contents” and not also the “Uploads” Folder?
I have deleted manually 3 of these folders, refreshed metadata in the respective movies and there doesn’t seem to have undesired effects. All is as it should be.
I am interested in removing these folders as I have 2100+ of them. I could remove them manually but would rather have confirmation that nothing will break.
Agree with @Soluna. It’d be nice if we could find out if these folders are in use somewhere and why they were created. Perhaps as a helper for migrating to the new agent?
When you change the agent for your library and refresh its items we’ll retain the currently selected posters for the items and copy it to the Uploads folder in its bundle. This is because the new agent may not have that exact same poster/artwork available or in rare cases could not have a poster at all. This way you can always go back to the previous poster if you want to.
Deleting the Uploads folders shouldn’t really cause any issues unless of course you’ve uploaded your own posters through Plex Web, in which case those will be gone. If the poster is in the Uploads folder because of switching agents as described earlier then those will be gone too and you will no longer be able to select them.
If one of the posters in the Uploads folder happend to be the currently selected poster then you’ll find after a while that the item will display with a blank poster, you can then just go an edit it and pick a new one.
