If I no longer attempt to interfere with the existence (or non-existence) of a PlexData share,
Does the creation of a Plex Media Server symbolic link in it conflict?
The reasons I chose “PlexData” are
A lot of folks have a “Plex” share which holds their media. It is inappropriate for me to meddle in anyone’s media directory.
We used to use a “Plex” share for the metadata but, which occurs with high frequency on Synology units, people put media in the metadata area – highly prone to error and system failure.
PlexData being used on other NAS platforms (hidden from user access) so the desire to have consistent naming across all platforms is highly desirable.
If “PlexData”, with a “Plex Media Server” symlink in it conflicts,
and I can’t take over “PMSLibShare” because QTS does not grant any access to qcli_sharedfolder without me knowing your admin credentials (which I do not want / will not get involved with).
PMSLibShare is a “virtual” shared folder. It has no base directory. It’s a manually-specified path shared folder directly into the .qpkg directory structure.
I wish you had been available for comment sooner. This is exactly the type feedback I needed to have early in the Forum Preview stage before any of this went to beta release status.
To “non-geek” the name, do you have any other suggestions?
I’ve thought of “PlexMetadata” but, to me, that’s awkward to both think and write and what drove us to “PlexData” (Plex’s internal data)
I’m nervous about the creation of a symlink in there — if one of the docker containers with read/write to the data share can follow that symlink, now any vulnerability in that container app can achieve malicious access to PMS which isn’t containerized.
There’s a “principle of least surprise” in monkeying with other people’s storage mappings, doubly important when it comes to paths and security.
Sounds like PMSLibShare would have been ideal, agree about not asking for admin creds to get it. There are (unfortunately?) ways one can drop a script to run as admin to make that one available (think autorun.sh), but that seems both rude and fragile.
Looking at what’s in the folder we want to access over a share:
I discussed this with the rest of the team here while awaiting your reply.
This was in Forum Preview for almost 6 months before becoming production. There was low-moderate feedback but generally all positive. Nothing about the name came up.
I have authored several threads related to this packaging
I opened this thread on June 29 to address other issues which came up since launch to overcome the technical issues.
I provided three months of Preview status and opportunity to suggest before committing to final production status.
If you have a docker container, what it does or doesn’t do is your responsibility. Imho, it is unreasonable for hold Plex accountable for any unwanted interaction by some unknown third-party app .
By default, No permissions were assigned to the PlexData share. Assigning any would have been overstepping boundaries about the security needs of our customers.
Since launch, technical differerences / discrepancies with different QNAP models have forced a change. As disussed in this thread and a few others,
a. The PlexData share use will be completely optional. I, as package engineer, will no longer create one.
b. If I do find one, I will place the symbolic link.
Regrettably, I cannot honor the request for name change.
More than 3 months of Forum Preview to voice concerns
Initial release in PMS 1.19.5 . We are now PMS 1.20.1.
It it the responsibility of the user to know the interactions of software on his/her system. Plex can’t be held accountable for arbitrary third-party applications.
Again, I’m sorry. This is the sole dissenting voice out of all those raised from the thousands of downloads so far… It is felt that ample time was granted . Had this issue been raised earlier, I would gladly have changed it. At this point, however, changing the name impacts everyone who has it setup and integrated into their home Plex systems / support mechanisms.
How I’m in this thread now: I upgrade Plex Server on every prompt via the Plex UI. This update, with the error message, suggesting I come to the forums, is the first opportunity I’ve heard of this. I believe this is the PlexPass track. I don’t know about a Forum Preview track if that’s what you mean. Not knowing about a breaking change, what would cause me to be in here looking for it to give feedback on in advance?
Regardless of that:
Chucking “Share” names onto a device you don’t own is poor form.
Deleting and recreating share names that might not be yours is poor form.
Dropping symlinks into a share you don’t manage is poor form.
Contrary to the note above about not responsible for third party apps, if you drop symlinks into a share that cross OUT of that share, you are proactively breaking people’s security. Uncool.
You jumping on me for not being aware of whatever Forum Preview is, seems weird. My guess is a manager-type made you post that.
To be clear, your step 7b is unacceptable. You do not have the right to break out of someone’s security boundaries.
Someone has a share you didn’t make, you don’t have the right to write to it at all, much less to reach from inside it to content outside of it.
I will add the ability to prevent the Plex Media Server symlink from being created.
I will look for the hidden file .disablePlexDataSymlink
If it exists, no symbolic link will be created.
If this inhibitor is not present, the PlexData feature will operate normally.
The solution will be:
touch "${QPKG_DIR}/Library/Plex Media Server/.disablePlexDataSymlink"
This method survives backup & restore as well as migration to other volumes.
It will be implemented in an upcoming release. I don’t have the exact version for you to commit to ,.
# Is the PlexData feature (NOT) disabled?
if [ ! -e "${QPKG_DIR}/Library/Plex Media Server/.disablePlexDataSymlink" ]; then
# If a shared folder, named PlexData, exists, create a link there
# Otherwise, do nothing
if [ -e "/share/PlexData" ]; then
# And there's a real directory backing it
PlexDataDir="/share/$(readlink /share/PlexData)"
if [ -d "$PlexDataDir" ]; then
# Update linkage
rm -f "$PlexDataDir/Plex Media Server"
ln -s "${QPKG_DIR}/Library/Plex Media Server" "$PlexDataDir/Plex Media Server"
fi
fi
fi
There is one side effect of this.
Setting the disable flag
With an old link in place.
– Does not remove the previous as I’ve been told “hand’s off”.
Umm, skimming through this thread, I have that lovely error about plexdata path whenever I rebot my nas.
As of now, what is the current way to mitigate this? (For some reason, I can’t download the version of plex from chuckpa’s post, so not sure what it is I’m meant to be doing)
Why do you always worsen everything? If things are going well then please leave it like this. Before the last update, everything worked fine for me and now nothing works anymore and I am constantly disconnected, files are not found although everything is present. The Plex Share network folder is not visible in FileStation in the Explorer view and I have no access to the folder or can create another folder as PlexData. It works for a few days after a NAS reboot, but then Plex loses connection to the NAS and library. And the early access app versions didn’t find a lot of files, so I had to reset the early access apps all back. I can’t set up the described way, everything doesn’t work as described. It was so easy to set everything up before and you make everything worse and without deeper IT knowledge you don’t seem to get anywhere. I already regret that I bought a Plex Life Time subscription.
What a mockery. Why should I go to the Plex Forum and look around? Only when the new version caused the problems did I read something about a Plex Forum in my NAS bug report. Only when the bug happened and the crappy new version was installed. I have a Plex Life Time subscription (which I regret by now, with such crap), why didn’t I get dozens of warning emails and notifications about such a major change? It was so easy to use Plex, even for rent. It worked great, why do you always make everything worse and more complicated? What a ■■■■, without IT studies I can’t use Plex anymore? And apparently I’m so stupid, but before that I had done everything wonderfully well and have the third NAS and a total of 15 years in use and I can’t do anything with the manual, because nothing works as described. And above all I don’t want to have to tinker with anything, I’m out of the old age where I tinker all the time. I buy something and it has to work, if it doesn’t it goes back and not tinker and repair. Above all, everything was going wonderfully before.
Hey there, I just wanted to express my sincere gratitude for your efforts here. I’ve personally just acquired a new QNAP TS-453D and intend on syncing my Plex movies and television shows from an older TS-451. The idea would be to retain all my collections and metadata, and to have Plex running on both devices. Seeing this thread, which contains so much useful information, it would seem like you’re attempting to make this migration or duplication process accessible for all. So, thank you very much, for both your time and effort.
I suppose I do have one question though, since I still haven’t begun the one-way Hybrid Backup Sync. Would you recommend waiting for the upcoming Plex release before starting this whole PlexData share process?
Yes, it is my intent to provide easy access to obtain log files and effect database repairs when things break as well as backup , restore, and/or clone from one machine to another easier on QNAP systems by providing access to the QPKG storage area through FileStation (which QNAP does not readily provide) and make that linkage such that it will manage itself if / when you “migrate” your HDD-based PMS installation to another DataVolume.
I have the general Linux procedure for migrating here:
It’s more detailed than the support pages.
As this pertains to QNAP and the PlexData share, you will want to make your Backup, and later restore into when viewing all the files, “PlexData/Plex Media Server” (click the link) in FileStation.
When it’s time, I’ll help you through it. I should probably make a How-To with screenshots for everyone to follow.
You can start copying your media files over and put them where you want them to end up. (When I migrate to a new machine, it takes a few days to copy everything over)
I followed these simple four steps. I now have a PMS folder in my PlexData folder on my QNAP, and I can access it via FileStation but Plex will no longer recognise my server. Do I roll back? HELP!
