I followed the instructions for moving one plex install to a different server (running Ubuntu 18.04). I wanted my downloads taking place on one server and use a 2nd server just for Plex. Somehow I managed to screw something up in the process. I have managed to get plex all up and running again, but its not adding new stuff to the library, despite it being available to Plex. To explain, here are the steps that I took:
Zip and copy the entire plex directory and extract on new system. Unfortunately, some of the user profile stuff didnt match exactly so Plex wouldnt start. I used CHMOD and CHOWN commands to change all of the newly extracted stuff to plex:plex user.
Since then, I havent had a single thing add properly to the library. I even have sonarr and radarr “connected” to plex, and before I moved it, this worked flawlessly.
Even now, when scanning, the scan goes through the same directories where the new stuff is, but never actually adds it to the library.
I know all about naming conventions etc, so its definitely not this thats causing it.
I feel as though i’ve now tried everything I can do, so what I need help on is essentially starting from scratch. I have a number of users who arent very tech savvy so would like to make this as painless as possible for them without having to set everyone up again.
I would like to simply keep the same server “authentication” but completely rebuild from scratch. How do I back up just the “claim token” to ensure that the server authenticates as the same one with all the existing shares, and simply rebuild and scan in my content?
Only difference between the 2 are that the original installation is a different home directory. First was a diff user and the new one was copied with root.
The data appears ok and I receive no errors. It’s just scans no longer add anything. I was careful to remount my drive with identical paths so it should pick up content. All the old stuff still plays no problem at all.
I decided to delete the database within Plex so it retained most of the information I needed.
I have readded all of my libraries but it’s still not adding data correctly. My downloads take place on another server and upload to cloud. I have sonarr and radarr linked to my Plex instance so content should appear as soon as it’s uploaded but this still doesn’t happen correctly. It also appears that scans are not completing correctly when I try to force them. The scan icon starts with the circle and then stops abruptly.
Nothing in the logs to indicate why as far as I can see.
I think i’ve solved the problem. Even though the user plex is in the right groups and had read/write access to my mounted drive, it still seems to fail. Everything will play correctly but nothing will add and scans just dont seem to do anything. Scans first directory and stops.
If anyone else is having this problem, I have resolved it by mounting my rclone mount using the plex user rather than root or a standard user account.
Its odd because i’ve never had to do this before.
so… another update. That didnt fix it. It was temporary, everything was scanning fine. Left it working and now its back to the same. No scanning - first few folders and then just stops. Checked permissions on the mount - everything is still set to plex so that doesnt seem to be the issue.
Thanks Chuck - I believe I have things set correctly as my steps were very similar.
I’ve done some more digging and uncovered that the problem appears to be the scanning engine.
I dont know why this is, but I can do a machine reboot - scan the files and everything adds properly. A few hours later though and nothing incremental has been added during the day and the server will no longer scan files. Just the first couple of folders and then quits and refuses to scan more.
A full reboot resolves this again.
Thanks, but I tried this and it results in the same behaviour. Plex begins a scan and nearly immediately stops. Only way I can restore this is to do a full reboot and then it allows a scan - once. Then back to the same behaviour.
I’m at a point where I think a fresh install is needed, so I can rebuild library from scratch but I would still like to keep the server identification so users don’t need to have stuff reshared. Is it just the preferences.xml file I need to keep for this or are there others?
Further to this, i’ve discovered that the issue appears to be with the rclone mount. If I restart the rclone service mount, it allows plex to scan once again.
Not sure why the scan keeps killing the mount - but the strange thing is, this doesnt affect play back at all. It just prevents Plex from scanning. My integration from radarr and sonarr is also not working for some reason. It should automatically update, but it doesnt - so i was wondering if maybe it was that that was causing this. I will remove the “connect” integration and report back tomorrow.
I disabled both Sonarr and Radarr integration and things seem to be running ok, but i’m reliant on daily scans. These occasionally kill the TeamDrive mount process but i’ve managed a few days without that happening.
However, as soon as I turn back on the Sonarr and Radarr notification to plex, my mount dies shortly afterwards. I’ve had this working before with immediate updates between sonarr and plex. The only difference in set up now to when it was working, is that sonarr and radarr are no longer on the same machine as plex. Would this be enough to cause confusion and break my drive mount? Anyone else experienced similar?
