So some months back I was having trouble adding files to my library and updating the library when I would add a movie to my external hard drive that PMS was using. So I attempted to delete the library and re add it. But when in PMS settings to Add Library, the Folder on my External Hard drive were not showing up. I had not made any permission changes and have already checked that they have access in my System preference to include Plex. I also have tested a different external HDD with PMS and it can access everything on it just fine. Additionally, I have typed in the sub folders manually and that hasn’t worked either . I have attached some screen shots. The first one is the external HDD that is being read fine by PMS. The second, blank one, is the external HDD that used to work great with PMS but now can’t be read. And third shot is there side by side drive info.
Any thoughts? It’s driving me crazy and I think I may just replace the drive. Which seems nuts because it works perfectly fine for everything else, and is able to be read by my Mac just fine. I have uninstalled and reinstalled PMS as well.
As described in OP, Plex is reading a different removable volume just fine. The “Mephistopheles” drive that it’s reading is removable. The privacy settings for Plex are already checked. It’s not reading a different hard drive, that is used to read just fine. PMS suddenly stopped reading the Angra Mainyu drive after year+ of working.
So I use the drive pretty regularly for storage and it hasn’t had any issues. I don’t have another computer to test it on. I just have the one mac. My other (smaller) hard drive is being read fine by both PMS and mac.
To me, your description sounds like a failing drive
You said you had it hooked up and working and then you started having issues with some new content not being recognized that you were adding? Now Plex doesn’t see the drive at all now that you’re trying to recreate the libraries. Drives fail all the time and not always in a spectacular fashion. Sometimes you see a slow creep and these little clues pop up
I know it used to work fine a year ago. I used to have a really fast Mustang I got a lot of tickets in. Now it’s parked in someones backyard and racoons live in it
The good news is if it is failing there’s time to save your content before it fails completely
If I’m wrong, great, but at least you’ll know you have to investigate something else.
Mac does have a built-in disk utility program you can use to check the health of that drive disk utility instructions
SOLVED: Not sure when it happened, maybe it was an OS update, but the drive I was using was also my Time Machine disk and it made it unable to be used by Plex. Not sure why. I changed my Time Machine disk and then deleted all my back up files on the Angra Mainyu drive and it was read by PMS just fine. Probably for the best to have a separate hard drive just ONLY for back ups any way. Thanks for the input.
