possible to exclude a directory from scanning

General Discussions
1

Hello,

My music library is build upon 2 folders

vtmsbhw1700u.png747×549 53.2 KB

The folder
\mediaserver\MEDIA\MUZIEK\collectie
is rather static

The folder
\mediaserver\MEDIA\MUZIEK_new
contains all my new music and is more dynamic

I wonder if it is possible to exclude the first folder from being indexed.
If I need to update my library, It takes a while before everything is processed. It consumes time and processing power and interferes with other processes on my server. So I want to exclude the biggest folder from being updated everytime. It contains no new information whatever.

The same for my picture library: every year I start a new folder. I do not need to re-crawl all my pictures in my archive, so I want to exclude the previous years (folders)

However, I want to have one library for my pictures.

Is this possible?

Kind regards,
B

2

@plex.plessers@gmail.com said:
Is this possible?
Take a look at this support page.

3

If this answers your question please mark my post as the answer. Thanks.

4

I haven’t tried this recently, but I think if you use .plexignore, it won’t just not scan that folder. I think it will remove items in that folder from the Library.

5

@beckfield said:
I haven’t tried this recently, but I think if you use .plexignore, it won’t just not scan that folder. I think it will remove items in that folder from the Library.
Correct. The OP should be able to do this by following the instructions on the official Plex support page I linked for him.

6

Yes, but I think his intent was not to remove those items from his library, but to just stop re-scanning them because they aren’t changing.

7

@beckfield said:
Yes, but I think his intent was not to remove those items from his library, but to just stop re-scanning them because they aren’t changing.
Good point. Not sure if it will remove existing content as the first line states, “When scanning in new content for your libraries, you can tell the scanner to ignore files or patterns by adding a .plexignore file to any folder in your Library’s content location.”

8

It removes existing content…
So not a real solution for me. :frowning:

(but anyhow an interesting option I was’nt aware off)

9

@lqvnguyen :
apart from above comments, I noticed following:

I placed the following file .plexignore

# https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201375253-Excluding-New-Content-with-plexignore
# Ignore files with the extension ".mp3"
# *.mp3
# Ignore files with the extension
# tonido.db
# .picasa.ini
*.db
 *.ini

in the root of my picture library folder
\\mediaserver\media\FOTO

However, if a new tonido.db file is created, plex starts a full scan of my picture library.

Is this a bug? Or does the .plexignore file not work for picture libraries?

kind regards,
Bart

10

How about just ignoring your directory?

Ignore directories called “FOTO”

FOTO/*

11

?
I need to index my pictures, that’s why I created the library :slight_smile:
I only need to ignore *.ini files and *.db files.
New *.jpg, *.png, *.mov, etc should automatically be added.

12

*.ini and *.db are not recognized photo formats, so a Photo library will ignore them anyway.

That may not, however, prevent Plex from seeing a “change” in your folder. In Plex Web, go to Settings > Server > Library. If the option labeled "Update my library automatically " is checked, that’s probably why even an unrecognized file type is kicking off an update. But it shouldn’t pick up your .ini or .db files.

13

@beckfield : correct.
But how to prevent Plex kicking off that update? Everytime I start Picasa or browse to a folder with Tonido (some applications that generate indexes local on disk), Plex starts updating. Of course, I can disable the “update my library automatically” setting, but then I loose this feature…

Because my picture library i rather large, it takes some time and resources.

any suggestions to have a responsive server (quick updates of library) without having to scan everything every 15minutes?

B

14

Not that I’m aware of. I think this is the state of things for now.

15

Yes, that is why we often recommend that no other software should have access to source from where Plex gets the media. If one of these softwares “touches” the folder timestamp, Plex will do a scan. Similar with why one should try and avoid having Movie files in a big pile, better performance-wise to have them stored in subfolders.

16

OK, thanx for answers. I will make a request for this.

Right now, my folderstructure is for my libraries is (as recommended by plex/xmbc/kodi):

\mediaserver\MEDIA\MUZIEK\collectie%ALBUMARTIST% - %ALBUM%
\mediaserver\MEDIA\FILM%MOVIETITLE% (%YEAR%)
\mediaserver\MEDIA\FOTO%YEAR%%EVENT%

In a real world, you can not avoid other software to manipulate data. Plex is not the only software running is my world :slight_smile:
So even a small touch of a file a directory of my pictures, starts a scan, consumes CPU and power.

I think there must be a better way to handle this.

kind regards,
Bart