PLEX WON'T RECOGNIZE NETWORK DRIVE

After the last update, plex does not recognize the networked drive where all the media lives. I cant add a location and previously added files are listed as “unavaliable”

had the same problem - it worked after i restarted the computer

I am having same issue, have restarted PMS, server & NAS (where netowrk drive is located) and still no luck. Drive is still mapped to PC and usable, when I try and create a new library i cannot select the network location.

I have the same issue. I have mapped a drive from my synology NAS to my Windows 7 PC. It does require a username/password for the mapping. I am not able to see the Z: (the drive letter for the mapped NAS drive) under PMS. Nor am I able to see any media from that drive when I add using server-name/drive or ip-address/drive. Server Version 0.9.16.6.

Can someone please look at this issue?

You might want to take a look at this thread. https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1108969#Comment_1108969
It discusses using UNC paths instead of mapped drives. When I had a separate file server I used UNC paths for all my access and never had a problem but I did have occasional problems with mapped drive letters.

There are a number of things that can go wrong with mapped drive access and there are fewer such with UNC paths.

Of course things like the drive not being available at the source or it going to sleep etc are not really mitigated by UNC paths but a lot of other potential problems are.

I have had similarly weird issues with windows on occasion. It just starts giving you the finger when accessing a share. If you use the name instead of the ip or a different ip on the same nas box it works fine. It doesnt happen often enough to me to get to the bottom of it. Try using ips instead of names and vice versa? Look at your network card power saving mode and turn that off. Mess around with the SMB settings. What do the windows event logs look like. Hit me up and I will try to help. Can you replicate the problem easily?

Having the same problem. This is the address to one of the media folders on my network drive:

\READYSHARE\T_Drive\Video

Emby recognizes this address no problem but Plex can’t see anything on my network drive. There is also no option to directly map the location because the network drives do not show up as an option to select. Am I missing something here?

I was able to get around the problem by mapping the network drive and then using path Z:\Video. I’m not the most computer literate person in the world so maybe that should have been an obvious solution.

@jhs39 said:
I was able to get around the problem by mapping the network drive and then using path Z:\Video. I’m not the most computer literate person in the world so maybe that should have been an obvious solution.

Unfortunately this may appear an obvious solution, but it has its drawbacks.
Drive letters are only restored upon a user ‘logging in’ to a Windows account. sometimes Plex server is ‘faster’ there than the drive letter, which leads to ‘unavailable’ files sometimes.

You could copy the UNC path \\READYSHARE\T_Drive\Video into the Windows clipboard (CTRL+C), and then paste it into the input field (CTRL+V) which appears when you click on ‘Add folder’.

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I run Plex as a service and utilize Symbolic Links. This method not require a user to be logged in, and I set my service as an account, this way I can set permissions to the shares.

In Command Prompt:
mklink /d C:\Folder\ShareName \\Server\ShareName\Directory

It will create a link folder named ShareName.

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