I’ve read that scanning and downloading the files for the database is normal when Plex is doing it’s initial scan to add everything.
What is not normal is how much data it’s used since it started. Most people have a data cap for the month and I’m no different.
On my linux VPS running ubuntu, I have a 2 TB bandwidth for the month.
Before I started the scan, I had around 100 GB used out of the 2 TB.
I have about 3900 movies, and it’s added around 300 of those so far in about 3 hours. The ridiculous part is it’s used 300 GB for 300 movies.
I know it needs to scan and down metadata, but that’s excessive. Metadata usually only amounts to a few gigabytes for the entire collection, not hundreds.
Any ideas?
It’s also performing media analysis and, if you have thumbnail generation on (It is by default), it will scan each file in its entirely to pick out chapter marker images. Stop the scan Edit the library section… Delete and disable the Thumbnails
Same issue. I had to delete Plex from the VPS. It wasn’t setup correctly and ended up disappearing. I couldn’t get it to show up again to claim, so I redid the install.
I turned off thumbnails, video previews, and other settings that could cause it before I started the scan.
55 Movies on there now, and it’s used another 70 GB.
Something isn’t right. My local main server never used this much bandwidth, even with adding TV Shows into the mix. My home internet I have a 1TB cap per month, and I’ve never went over.
When you create a library section, after you Add the folders, you need to UNCHECK the thumbnail box in the Advanced tab. It is checked (enabled) by default.
Weird how it’s separate from the main settings. I’ll try it and see how it goes.
They did it that way because it’s a per-Library Section setting (the intent). You want chapters for movies but not for television or home video items
Still having the issue. It’s using around 5-10gb of data for each movie it adds.
Should I try deleting the library and starting over?
Delete the library section.
Empty Trash
Clean bundles
Optimize database
Now, when you create the library, make certain to turn it off in the Advanced tab before you click Add.
Because your thumbnail generation is still in progress, the change won’t take effect until first pass is done. No need waiting that long
It added 500 movies over night, and it used about 800gb
I’m out of ideas.
I won’t be able to try anything else until next month after the data cap restarts. Any other ideas?
I might be reading the posts wrong, but I believe the OP was a question regarding the amount of data being downloaded, and the suggested solution was a method to reduce the amount of space taken up on a hard drive.
Kindly ignore this comment if I have mis-read
The odd thing is it’s not using any data on the local disk, only 10GB roughly. That doesn’t make sense either.
It’s using excessive bandwidth when scanning and adding movies, or in other words it’s downloading a massive amount of data. I’ve never seen Plex use this much data when adding a library before. It would of been hard not to notice, as Comcast would have charged me for going over the 1TB data cap.
At this point, I need the log files.
When you again attempt, As it’s adding media (and not streaming to anyone), collect the logs and attach here
Here are the logs. I had 200 GB left for bandwidth usage. It added 30 movies and used another 53 GB. I stopped the scan at that point.
I was supposed to leave debug checked and verbose logging unchecked correct?
Please go back and manually grab the PMS Plug-in Logs subdirectory (under Logs) before it is lost. I need it. This tells me everything about what’s happening.
For reasons unknown, it’s not in your logs.
Not sure how to do that with a headless server
SSH to it.
ssh IP.of.remote.server
-login-
# get to root
cd "/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server"
tar cfz /tmp/Logs.tar.gz ./Logs
now copy that tar ball out to where you can get it back to your computer and attach here.
Ah, I figured it out. It’s weird having a headless server and forced to use command line for everything. Makes good practice though.
There are a bunch of files in the zip btw.
the ZIP file is corrupt. That’s why I had requested tar
