Putting Thumbnails in a different location

General Discussions
1

The Thumbnails folder is growing quite large, which should be expected on very large databases. Is it possible to move that folder to a different location (drive) and have Plex not only recognize it but also continue to update it there?

I have Win 10.

In case it matters …1,500 movies and 3,400 TV episodes

2

Yes it is possible. Check this topic and this support article

3

Here is an elaborate HowTo for Windows I made earlier:

4

Thanks for the responses. I ended up moving the complete Plex Media Server folder to a different drive (using the settings options and not junctioned folders). I want to make sure it is working but I am not seeing anything show up in the “Thumbnails” folder. That is where the index thumbnails go, isn’t it? The job is supposed to run each evening and it has been a few days and it is still empty.

5

If you moved the whole plex data folder to someplace else,
and you followed my guide above,
and your server is working and shows you all posters and covers,

  • yes, then it is indeed working.

I don’t quite understand, what else do you expect to see?

6

Everything is showing but now that I have more space and I have thumbnails turned on I was expecting to see folders and data in the “Plex Media Server/Thumbnails” folder. I’m sure everything is fine, I just get worried any time I change something. Thanks for the assistance, I will just “let it ride”.

7

It is pretty possible, that this particular Thumbnails folder was not created by Plex but by some other software which you used to browse the Plex data folder.
I don’t have a Thumbnails folder in my Plex data.

8

Well, there you go. Are the index/thumbnails in the Media folder or the Metadata folder then?

9

All data the Plex server creates are in the Plex data folder.
PMS never touches your media folders (with two exceptions: explicitly enabled ‘media deletion’ and ‘optimized version’ creation)

the video indexes and the full resolution posters/cover art/episode thumbs are in the
[Plex data]/Media/localhost subfolder.

I can’t tell you exactly how to find out which particular subfolder is for which media item. But I think you are able to find out using the URL of the item and/or its mediainfo XML.

10

Thanks! I get a little overly concerned at times. It works, your instructions to move the folder worked, the family is happy, I should stop worrying.

Thanks again @OttoKerner for your assistance and patience.