Plex server folder getting to large "Cache"

General Discussions
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Hy there , i just wanted to ask a fev question before im move on to procces. I just purchase Plex recently and a 4TB Ext HDD for movie storage , i not have all movies on that storage and deleted the movies from my internall HDD onmy PC. Scaned the livbrarys with gived it new direction adn all seems fine again.

Whats i wanted is to use the plex server folder from the stock directory , to move it to the same External 4TB HDD , so i did , and i changed in the plex server the direction and all is fine.

What i was wonder , is the size of my Server folder , i know metadata and movie tumb previews using much , but in my situation its only arround 1,5GB , thats fine to me when i only imagine that i have near 400 movies and over 100 animated 3d movies in the library now , but the folder called “Chache” in the server folder , is huge , its almost going near 7GB and what i wanted to ask , do we can clean up this Cache folder “delete it” or anything , to let Plex creat again new files as i think there are much stuff in that ive already deleted from the plex server , or should it stay untouched and let it getting bigger ?

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https://support.plex.tv/articles/202529153-why-is-my-plex-media-server-directory-so-large/

https://support.plex.tv/articles/201553286-scheduled-tasks/

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ive seen this , but this does not gives me any answer , ive already tould im fine with the tumbs and metadata , its the chache folder that causing me to have that big size , and nothing in here is sayed about chache folder. Thanks for your reply.

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The cache folder will (among other things) contain downsized versions of all the posters and preview pictures which were created on-the-fly by the server for all the different clients (in the PhotoTranscoder subfolder).

For users with Plex Pass it will also contain pretranscoded versions of your media for syncing to mobile devices. But only until they are actually downloaded.

The cleanup jobs of the server “butler” will take care of the posters/thumbnails on a regular basis and will remove those which weren’t used for a while.
There will be quite a few items in there, particularly if you have large photo libraries in plex or have many, many items in your libraries in general.
(mine sits currently at ~ 5GB)

Apart from the above mentioned clean up tasks, there is nothing you can do to reduce the size of this folder. This is partt of normal Plex operation.
If you run into storage space shortages, you can only move the folder to a larger drive, which you already did (but I recommend you to not move it to an external drive – or even a networked share)

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Ok then i just leave it like it is and i hope it will not go that much . may i ask you why do you not recommended to move this server folder to the Externall HDD where i have stored all those stuff im using on Plex ?

As i curently move all tho this 4TB Toshiba HDD thats runs @ 7200 rpm’s. It seems working all just fine , i was just to know about this fev folders why they got big and am i aloved to clean “chache” folder by my self without to damage anything on my server , but its working all fine.

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External connections are usually slower and less reliable (plugs get disconnected etc.)
And if you have all your media on the same drive, it means that all the data will have to travel 3 times through the same wire back and forth during playback.
Hence why I recommend to use an internal drive, like an SSD with plenty of space to spare.

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So it would be better to keep my Media files on that externall 4tb hdd , but move the server folder to an SSD internall ? I can do that as i have an Samsung evo 850 , and its currently blank as i used the nnew m.2 now for OS , i can use this evo of 250GB for the server. Should be enought or ?

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Yes, that should be perfect.

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Ok , i just moved the plex server now to the SSD and keepd my Media on the external as before , now i have a huge problem , all the Playlist ive done , all the collections ive done over the Tags in each of the medie are gone , it seems and looks like it just scaned a fresh list of the externall HDD and all the process ive done in the server plex app is gone. Posters ive manualy added , background’s , playlist , collections , all is missing now , and im sure i gived the server again the right location to the copy’ed server path.

Whats going wrong now , do i really have now to sit for hrs and do this all over again to have everything as it was before ?

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I hope you did move the data while Plex server was shut down?
If you did not shut down Plex server, your primary Plex database is now damaged and you’ll have to restore an older backup. https://support.plex.tv/articles/202485658-restore-a-database-backed-up-via-scheduled-tasks/

Or

you didn’t tell Plex server where you moved its data to.
Settings - Server - General - ‘Show Advanced’ - “The path where local application data is stored”

But careful:
The path you type in must not include ‘Plex Media Server’ as last part.
So if now your plex data reside in G:\plexdata\Plex Media Server\ , you type only
G:\plexdata into the input field.
(Keep in mind that G: must use the NTFS file system, not ReFS which gets used with Windows Storage Spaces. It must also not be a networked drive. exFat is also not usable.)

After putting in the path there, shut down and restart Plex Server.

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I did it the rthis way , i first turnet off the little app running on the task near the clock. Then i Copy and Paste the Plex server folder from the external HDD to the SSD.

When the copy was done , i started the server , and was straight away to the setting to give it the new patch of the location , but it seems like nothing happens , ot really locks all like it created a completly new database or what eva , and its not even close to what i have left before , all is on stock settings in there now.

Lucky me i did not removed the server data from the externall hdd , when i turned the server again off , and going to the setting , and gived again the old patch to the externall HDD , its working all fine as it was before.

The Samsung Evo SSD is formated on an single NTFS partition as it was before used for OS

Easly it looks like it simply will not read the datas i have copy’ed to the ssd , and this way its shows like a fresh new installation of plex.

The path was before with the externall like this: H:_Plex

because the “_Plex” is sitting in the root of the disc and inside of it it haves the folder i have moved from disc C to that.

This way worked all.

Now when i moved this folder from H disc to G = Samsung SSD

and gived it the new patch , also: G:_Plex
it seems to failed to read the datas…

I have to take a closer loock next days , so far everything is still fine with all the Media and Server on externall HDD…I just watched a movie , and childrens 3 animated movies on android box , and we dontespect any issue so far this way.

btw: i really apreciate your time , and try to solve it the best way. Thanks man

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The other notable plus side of doing this is in the event of a PC disaster or simply choosing to reinstall the OS.
In that event you would simply reinstall Plex and then point the Plex Directory to the SSD again.
Assuming the media paths don’t change you will be more or less back as you were.
There’s a little more to it than that and if that bad event does ever happen take a look at the Plex docs. :grinning:

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