Server Version#: 4.144.1
Player Version#: 1.106.0.276-fe8d1d20
Linux: LinuxMint 21.3
Kernel: 6.8.0-51-generic
I recently had to rebuild my media server. Everything is back and working:
Installed plex from an initial .deb file downloaded from the plex site then enabled it to use the repository.
Added my user to the plex group.
plex server is running
I did not restore the database, I just let it build a new one and it picked up everything.
Yet, today, just a couple days after the rebuild, I added a new movie, hit scan, and it does not pick up the new movie. I’m probably just missing something simple but I’m just not finding it.
I’ve reviewed other similar posts but didn’t see anything that seemed relative.
The specific newly added media is this one:
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 7733736282 Jan 22 11:23 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Sixth Sense (1990).mkv'
List showing owner and permissions of other media files:
rod@media:~$ ls -al /mnt/Data/Movies/S*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 3199755310 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Saints and Soldiers (2005).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 2111341187 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Saints and Soliders: The Void (2014).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 3945366517 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Saturday'\''s Warrior (2016).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 2737168562 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Secondhand Lions (2003).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 3766676517 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Secret of the Andes (1998).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 2361138204 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Sentinel, The (2006).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 3556354819 Nov 29 09:57 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Seven Alone (1974).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 3436251603 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Shergar (1999).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 2447452154 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Shrek (2001).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 2459472885 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Shrek 2 (2004).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 3306638474 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Signs (2002).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 3350297154 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe (1985).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 1885894275 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Silent Night (2002).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 7733736282 Jan 22 11:23 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Sixth Sense (1990).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 3100322575 Dec 1 10:02 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Sommersby (1993).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 2233124815 Apr 6 2024 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Song of Hiawatha, The (1997).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 10125472743 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Spider-man 3 (2007).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 3088734850 Nov 28 00:25 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Spymate (2003).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 3228494562 Nov 28 00:26 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Star Trek (2009).mkv'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 plex plex 2862340979 Nov 28 00:26 '/mnt/Data/Movies/Straight From the Heart (2003).mkv'
Initial thought: Head to your library and select the Library view. Select the “Duplicates” filter option:
See if perhaps it was added as a duplicate of another movie for some reason (it happens).
Also, be sure it’s /mnt/Data/Movies/ you’ve added as the folder for your movie library and not /mnt/Data/. Plex doesn’t always deal well with extra folder levels in its folder hierarchy.
Thanks for the ideas. Nothing under “Duplicates”. (Didn’t even know about that option!).
/mnt/Data is the mount point for the data drive. Movies is at the root level on that drive. That is the path configured in Plex and that is the path used when I first installed it and I haven’t changed the path (see screenshot at bottom).
Is there a way to reset/reinitialize the database? Or maybe it is worth just going through the install all over again; i.e., uninstall plex, rm /var/lib/plexmediaserver, then install plex and start over. I just don’t understand why it picked everything up when I first installed it following the system rebuild but won’t pick up anything new.
I know you just did a rebuild and probably don’t want to read this.
I am sorry.
Mint is unstable, unpredictably, and unreliable running PMS.
I unfortunately can’t tell you how many folks have tried to make it work.
Yes, it’s a Ubuntu derivative but they changed just enough somewhere to make things go screwy
I’ve had folks get upset when I shared this. After they did a fresh install and setup of Ubuntu or Debian, it worked right off the bat without any issues.
I also want to suggest you consider renaming your movies to spec with something like FileBot, TheRenamer, or TinyMediaManager.
For you, as example: /mnt/Data/Movies/Star Trek (2009)/Star Trek (2009).mkv
Lastly, Permissions are important when mounting anything.
Create the mount point
chmod 755 the mount point directory
Now mount the target
It’s not necessary for plex to own the media. It only needs to read it.
Dir = 755, File = 644 accomplishes that … and you can still own the files.
I appreciate you taking time to respond. I can say that your initial statement (Mint is unstable) does not match my experience. I have been running Mint since LM20 without any significant issue and it has been running my Plex server since 2020 – through three OS versions and upgrades (20, 21, 22) and multiple versions of Plex since then.
As to my reported issue, I discovered that it was actually finding the move but was making a completely erroneous match. As noted in the OP, the movie is “Sixth Sense” and is labeled as such with the year 1990. The match was with " Inspiration, Pleasure, and Sixth Sense".
The statement was that Mint was unstable, unpredictable, and unreliable running PMS. It was not a general statement about the OS itself. Let’s not generalize too much when fairly specific statements are made.
I didn’t intend to generalize. I was inaccurate in my quote. And no offense was taken nor intended. I’m not emotionally invested in any OS.
So, to clarify with a complete quote: “Mint is unstable, unpredictably, and unreliable running PMS.”
Having now been more accurate on quoting you, my response still stands: “I have been running Mint since LM20 without any significant issue and it has been running my Plex server since 2020 – through three OS versions and upgrades (20, 21, 22) and multiple versions of Plex since then.”
So, please don’t take offense. I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong. I’m only saying my experience doesn’t match what you wrote.
Given the amount of tech support I provide,
I have had the most issues come from users running Mint.
My statement about it being unstable for PMS is based on that experience.
I do not discount that it’s fine for many other purposes.
I merely state it’s demonstrated it doesn’t hold up well to the demands of running a PMS server.
I am glad you found the problems.
Many are not as fortunate.
I accept that. From the things you’ve encountered, have you identified anything that particularly makes it an issue on LM? Given that LinuxMint is often the first experience someone new-to-Linux has, I wonder if it could be attributed to operator error. My experience is likely shaded by 40 years experience building computers and writing software, so it could definitely be different from someone with less experience.
In any case, I do appreciate your chiming in on this. Thanks.
Both Chuck and I have seen cases where the OS in Mint handles operations differently which then leads to issues. With both the troubleshooting and nature of the issues, operator error may be possible, but is very unlikely given the number of times its happened, and that those proving support understand the limits of a normal user.
Thanks for that additional input. I’ll just accept that I’ve been particularly fortunate with my experience.
In this instance it was clearly operator error assisted with very poor matching. If I’d noticed the match was just poor and that it really had picked up the new file, you’d not have heard from me on this issue.
