Plex Permissions on Raspberry Pi OS

Plex Media Server
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1

I have the latest version of PMS running on a Raspberry Pi 4, running the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS.

When I try to add media to Plex, I can see very few folders (see screenshot.) I understand that this is because of Plex running as the user ‘plex’ and that the user that I configured Raspberry Pi OS with is ‘pi’.

What is the most effective way of giving permissions to the ‘plex’ user?

I have a mixture of files that are stored in a folder on the desktop, and also on an external HDD, which is formatted as NTFS (and needs to stay as NTFS.)

There are a lot of guides out there on Google, but I’m never sure which is correct / up to date.

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2

Assuming you have access to the command line on the server chown and chgrp would be simple ways of doing it

3

I do indeed. I have run the following:

sudo chown -R plex:plex /media/pi/Elements/Media

However, the folder doesn’t show the owner as being ‘plex’

Is there something wrong with the command that I am issuing?

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4

When you mount USB drives (pretty much ANYTHING in /media)

  1. Don’t let the automounter do it. Permissions look right but never work.
    (Nautilus does what it wants and not what it’s told )

  2. Make a mount point directory away from /media which is stable and username-idependent.

This How-To has been available for a while :wink:

The TL;DR -

  1. You own the media and have full control.
  2. You grant ‘plex’ permission (RO or RW) as you deem appropriate
  3. Issues disappear