Server Version#: Version 4.147.1
Player Version#: latest
Hi there,
I do have a rather large server with multiple libraries. At this moment it is not possible to scan for new content. The server crashes almost immediately and does not recover. Even a reboot of Windows or/and Plex Server does not help. The only way to recover was/is to restore the latest backup files of the db.
At the moment the server is running on the “backup”-database. Any attempt to scan for new content leads to a crash.
Does anybody have a suggestion? Are there any size restrictions for “huge“ servers? Is there limitation for the sqlite database file? (current size: 2.17 GB (2’340’171’776 bytes))
My database is a little larger than yours.
I would start with a copy of your server logs. But it sounds like you may have database corruption that needs dealt with.
How can I upload the logs? It’s ~24MB and this system limit is ~8MB.
I can see entries in Plex Media Server.log like
Jan 02, 2026 13:59:36.211 [8084] ERROR - SQLITE3:(nil), 11, database corruption at line 134583 of [a29f994989]
Jan 02, 2026 13:59:36.211 [8084] ERROR - SQLITE3:(nil), 11, database corruption at line 69165 of [a29f994989]
Jan 02, 2026 13:59:36.211 [8084] ERROR - SQLITE3:(nil), 11, statement aborts at 10: database disk image is malformed
Jan 02, 2026 13:59:36.211 [8084] ERROR - SQLITE3:(nil), 11, malformed database schema (787389) in “PRAGMA cache_size=4096”
Jan 02, 2026 13:59:36.212 [8084] ERROR - Promise destroyed without handling exception: Promise fell out of scope without resolving or rejecting
Heureka! The problem is resolved. The crash was caused by an invalid setting (?) for the plex video scanner. Here are the logs
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:50.571 [12144] INFO - Plex Media Server v1.42.2.10156-f737b826c - LENOVO 90UY00A4MZ x64-x64 - build: windows-x86_64 windows - GMT 01:00
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:50.571 [12144] INFO - Windows version: 10.0 (Build 26200), language en-US
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:50.571 [12144] INFO - 16 3793 MHz processor(s): Architecture=9, Level=25, Revision=24834 Processor Identifier=AMD64 Family 25 Model 97 Stepping 2, AuthenticAMD
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:50.571 [12144] INFO - Compiler is - MSVC 1929
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:50.771 [11148] WARN - [CERT/OCSP] getCertInfo failed; skipping stapling
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:50.772 [11148] INFO - Running migrations. (EPG 0)
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:51.278 [11148] INFO - Running migrations. (EPG 0)
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:53.388 [8580] INFO - LibraryUpdateManager path watching is disabled
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.027 [4548] INFO - [Req#3a] AutoUpdate: no updates available
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.037 [17160] WARN - [DatabaseFixups/class DatabaseFixupsConsolidatePeopleTags] Held transaction for too long (D:\gha\plex-media-server\plex-media-server\Library\DatabaseFixups.cpp:374): 1.156250 seconds
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.072 [4548] ERROR - [MetadataAgentManager/getAgent] Unable to find or create media provider for agent ‘tv.plex.agents.movie’
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.074 [4548] ERROR - [MetadataAgentManager/getAgent] Unable to find or create media provider for agent ‘tv.plex.agents.movie’
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.075 [4548] ERROR - [MetadataAgentManager/getAgent] Unable to find or create media provider for agent ‘tv.plex.agents.series’
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.076 [4548] ERROR - [MetadataAgentManager/getAgent] Unable to find or create media provider for agent ‘tv.plex.agents.series’
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.078 [4548] ERROR - [MetadataAgentManager/getAgent] Unable to find metadata agent provider for identifier ‘com.plexapp.agents.none’
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.079 [4548] ERROR - [MetadataAgentManager/getAgent] Unable to find or create media provider for agent ‘tv.plex.agents.music’
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.081 [4548] ERROR - [MetadataAgentManager/getAgent] Unable to find metadata agent provider for identifier ‘com.plexapp.agents.none’
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.082 [4548] ERROR - [MetadataAgentManager/getAgent] Unable to find metadata agent provider for identifier ‘com.plexapp.agents.none’
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.084 [4548] ERROR - [MetadataAgentManager/getAgent] Unable to find or create media provider for agent ‘tv.plex.agents.music’
Jan 03, 2026 06:50:54.086 [4548] ERROR - [MetadataAgentManager/getAgent] Unable to find metadata agent provider for identifier ‘com.plexapp.agents.none’
This caused eventually the crash when new content was added. To resolve the issue I just modified the scanner settings to a different provider - and back.
it looks like the problem is caused by a specific movie file. When this movie is scraped it renders the database useless. Even Chucks script can not repair the database then.
So the final solution was to clean the database with Chucks script and delete the movie file…
Now, everything seems to work fine. Thank you @dbirch for your support and your patience!
I created a staging environment on a new server with only one library “Movies“. The configuration is as follows
Scanner: Plex Movie
Agent: Plex Movie
Movie Trailer: enabled
Country: United States
Original Title: disabled
Prefer local data: disabled
Extras: enabled
Red Band Trailer: enabled
Subtitles: disabled
x-rated: enabled
collection: disabled
source: rotten tomato
thumbnails enabled
Then I added several movies that worked flawlessly. But, as soon as I added a movie titled “The Muse (1999)“ located in a directory with the same name. The Plex Server crashes almost immediately.
It’s not the file itself, because I tested it as well with a different file with the problematic file-name.
I can provide the database, or a complete copy of the Plex Media Server if necessary..
Steps to reproduce (on Windows)
install a fresh server
configure a library with Plex Agent
Create a directory “The Muse (1999)“ and add movie file with the name “The Muse (1999).mkv”
Run Library refresh
crash
I know it is farfetched, but I assume that the meta data for this specific movie is broken.
best regards,
Alain
ps: Renaming the file to “The Muse (1999) {imdb-tt0164108}.mkv” does not help. The server crashes again.
Going to bet its something corrupt in that file or directory.
Remove the file from your library, scan for changes, empty trash, clean bundles then Take a known good movie, and rename it to the muse.
Let me know if it crashes again.
Hmm, that worked. I’m confused beyond limit. After emptying the trash and cleaning the bundles (what does this do?) it seems to work. I’m still very reluctant to put in the library though. But it definitely worked on the staging environment. What could it be that caused the problem in the first place? I mean the problem occurred on a clean install on a different machine…. I’m so confused.
If you did what I suggested above, that means that something in your specific mkv is malformed and when Plex attempts to scan it, it causes a server crash. By doing the dance above we validated that it wasnt the metadata for that file at fault.
Ok, got that. What I do not understand is why a broken file should be able to crash a server? Shouldn’t that be handled by the software and display a fancy message rather than trashing the system?
I finally found the problem that caused all the trouble. If you want you can verify it on your server. When I add a movie I usually download the cover from tmdb as well ( The Muse (1999) — The Movie Database (TMDB)) and put this in the movie folder. My reasons are dubious, so do not ask why
This image file caused all the trouble! When I just added a movie without providing a cover-image everything worked fine. As soon as I addes the cover image the system breaks. And because the image is stored the server crashes immediately at startup.
ps: the “invalid” cover-image damages com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db. It is not necessary to scan for new data. Just looking at the details of the movie will be enough.
