Plex not finding music on Synology DS218+

[bobk2]

DS218+ running latest DSM 6.2.1-23824 Update 2

Plex Server Version#:1.14.0.5470-9d51fdfaa - this is the version downloaded from Plex’s site, not via DSM Package center.

I’d like to use Plex’s iOS apps for playing back music stored on my Synology DS218+, both at home and away. (Synology’s DS Audio app is flaky and poorly supported.)

I use iTunes on my desktop and laptop Macs for ripping CDs, making playlists, and occasionally for playback.

I’ve had no issues with the iTunes library residing on the DS218+. iTunes works fine with it.

Plex successfully connects to the DS218+.

All iTunes related folders, including the media, are in a folder called “music” at the root level of the DS218+. When I direct Plex to that folder, it doesn’t see anything inside it - apparently not examining any of the sub-folders (which are: iTunes, iTunes Music, Movies, playlists, and Podcasts). Plex’s web interface hasn’t allowed me to select sub-folders.

DSM settings:

Plex has read/write permissions in DSM > Control Panel > User

Plex also has read/write permissions for the folders “music” and its sub-folder “iTunes music”.

I’ve tried searches here and on the web, with no success.

Suggestions?

Also: the Playlists folder mentioned above (music/playlists) contains m3u format playlists exported for use with the Synology apps. Can Plex use these playlists?

Thanks!

Bob

[bobk2]

@trumpy81

Are your iTunes files named correctly and stored correctly for Plex?

I just now did a test where I ran Plex on my Mac Pro. It accessed the iTunes library on the DS218+ without issue. Playlists, albums, etc, all appeared as expected. (I don’t have “Album Artist” tags in iTunes, but that didn’t appear to be a problem.) So I assume the file names, tagging, and organization of the library are all OK, unless Plex for Synology has different requirements.

@trumpy81

You will also need to enable ‘Use Embedded Tags’ in the Music library settings

I already had that enabled.

@trumpy81

You also need to enable the Local Media Assets agent and sort it to the top of the list in Plex settings > server > agents.

Local Media Assets agent was enabled, but was not at the top of the lists. Now corrected.

@trumpy81

In DSM Control Panel > Shared Folders > Edit your Music folder (See Q5) and make sure that both Plex and admin have R/W permissions to that folder.

Double-checked - all good.

[quote=“trumpy81”]
Then see Q18 on the Synology FAQ’s page and reset your file permissions, link in my profile.[/quote]

I checked Q18, but so far haven’t been able to figure out how to run Terminal in DSM.

[bobk2]

Per Q14, I enabled SSH on the DS218+. Also enabled port forwarding on my router for port 22.

When I tried to log in, Terminal said:

“nodename nor servname provided, or not known”

This is my first time using Terminal on a NAS, so I don’t really know what I’m doing.

[bobk2]

Yes, I’m on a Mac.

Before doing this, I successfully executed sudo -su root

cd /volume1 seems to have worked - after hitting “return” I got a new line with sh-4.3#

Then I entered the next line of code in Q18, hit enter, and got the same result.

Then entered the 3d line of code, and the result was find: missing argument to '-exec'

[bobk2]

I didn’t see any typos, but when I tried again, it seems to have worked - I didn’t get the ‘missing argument’ message.

What does sh-4.3# mean?

How do I know if a command succeeded?

[bobk2]

If I don’t get a prompt after entering a command and hitting “return”, does that mean it’s still executing?

And once this is done, what’s the next step?

Thanks for all the help!

[bobk2]

Where is the Plex folder supposed to be located?

This support document shows it at the root of Volume 1.

But when viewing the file structure via the Mac OS Finder, I don’t see a Plex folder at the root of the NAS. There’s a Plex folder inside the folder ‘homes’, though.

[bobk2]

The scan is working now - yay!

Would imported iTunes playlists appear in the “Playlists” section above the library in the browser sidebar, as in this image? If not, where? So far, there are none there. Are they imported separately, or does that occur after the music is scanned?

Thanks again!

[bobk2]

I got it to scan the playlists, but the only ones that showed up were four smart playlists, as in the attached image.

The FAQ says " Note: You may need to remove any reference to smart playlist criteria in the iTunes Music Library.xml file before Plex is able to read the file correctly."

How exactly does one do that?

I have a text editor, but don’t know anything about xml.

I searched for the names of those four smart playlists (e.g., “Recently Added”) and removed what I guessed were the chunks of code responsible for them (including what I assume are opening and closing ‘dict’ tags).

When I scanned again, the four smart playlists no longer appeared. Progress, I guess.

Then I searched for “Smart Criteria” in the xml and found many additional mentions.

Should I get rid of those, and if so, how? I searched the forum but didn’t find any specifics for newbs like me.

Thanks again!

[bobk2]

After editing the iTunes XML file, will I still be able to use iTunes?

I don’t care at all about smart playlists, but otherwise would still like to use iTunes sometimes on my desktop and laptop.

And will using iTunes cause the problem code to be re-added to the XML file?

[bobk2]

@"trumpy81

Of course you COPIED the .xml file to the NAS and only edited that copy right?

No- all my iTunes media and library files live “permanently” on the NAS. Only the iTunes app itself is on my Mac.

(Even so, I forgot to copy the xml file before editing. Oops. Thanks for the reminder! Not really a problem, as I took notes and saved the removed stuff.

And it looks like just launching iTunes caused the smart playlist code to be re-added to the xml file. Ugh.

I’ll give it another try. But having to re-edit the xml file every time I add a playlist to iTunes might be a deal-breaker.

Many thanks for the help!