Server wont start after moving Application Support Directory

[xokmillzo]

I have been trying without much success to solve this issue for a few days so figured I would post here for some help.

I have moved my Application Support Directory to a drive with more space using the following procedure.

1. Copied all files to the new location
2. Deleted the original directory
3. Created a link between the original location and the new one using the below command.
   /bin/mount -o bind /home/plex/rlmedia/MetaData/plexmediaserver /var/lib/plexmediaserver

Reading some other posts I changed this new directory to be read write execute by any user using chmod 777 and ensured it was owned by the plex user that runs the plexmediaserver. I also used the -R flag to make this recursive and effect each file and directory in the Application support folder. As another note this entire procedure was done using the plex user and the new location is in the plex users home directory so everything is 100% owned by and read/writable by the plex user that runs the server.

See below the results of an ll command in the new directory as well as in the original /var/lib location

New location

Original Location (with the mount enabled)

However I still get just a super unhelpful sorry failed error looking at the status of the plex service. See below.

Has anyone gotten this to work before who could offer me some tips on troubleshooting? I cannot seem to find any logs that are created with more information than the below

Error from systemctl status plexmediaserver.server

> **●** plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server
> 
> Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
> 
> Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d
> 
> └─override.conf
> 
> Active: **failed** (Result: start-limit-hit) since Sat 2020-09-05 13:51:57 EDT; 7min ago
> 
> Process: 2246 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_VENDOR="$(grep ^NAME= /etc/os-release | awk -F= "{print \$2}" | tr -d \" )"; export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_DEVIC
> 
> Process: 2243 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/test -d "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" || /bin/mkdir -p "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" (code=exited,
> 
>  Main PID: 2246 (code=exited, status=255)
> 
> Sep 05 13:51:52 vps.server.com systemd[1]: **plexmediaserver.service: Unit entered failed state.**
> 
> Sep 05 13:51:52 vps.server.com systemd[1]: **plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.**
> 
> Sep 05 13:51:57 vps.server.com systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
> 
> Sep 05 13:51:57 vps.server.com systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.
> 
> Sep 05 13:51:57 vps.server.com systemd[1]: **plexmediaserver.service: Start request repeated too quickly.**
> 
> Sep 05 13:51:57 vps.server.com systemd[1]: **Failed to start Plex Media Server.**
> 
> Sep 05 13:51:57 vps.server.com systemd[1]: **plexmediaserver.service: Unit entered failed state.**
> 
> Sep 05 13:51:57 vps.server.com systemd[1]: **plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'start-limit-hit'.**

[ChuckPa]

It appears the system was damaged before copying.

This is how a running PMS should appear (This is my Synology NAS – it has weird & non-standard permissions).

Please notice:

1. Media, Metadata, Plug-ins, and especially Plug-in Support have entries in them.
2. The database resides in Plug-in Support/Databases.
3. Indexed media will cause growth of both Media and Metadata directories.

admin@moesern:/volume1/Plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server$ ls -la
total 48
drwxrwxrwx+ 11 plex users 4096 Jul 21 17:13 .
drwxrwxrwx+  3 plex users 4096 May 30 00:39 ..
drwxrwxrwx+  5 plex users 4096 Jul 21 17:08 Cache
drwxrwxrwx+  4 plex users 4096 Jun 28 02:22 Codecs
drwxrwxrwx+  4 plex users 4096 Jun 13 00:46 Crash Reports
drwxrwxrwx+  2 plex users 4096 Jun 11 02:03 Diagnostics
drwxrwxrwx+  3 plex users 4096 Jul 21 03:11 Logs
drwxrwxrwx+  3 plex users 4096 May 30 00:42 Media
drwxrwxrwx+  4 plex users 4096 May 30 01:11 Metadata
drwxrwxrwx+  4 plex users 4096 May 31 12:21 Plug-ins
drwxrwxrwx+  7 plex users 4096 May 30 00:39 Plug-in Support
-rwxrwxrwx+  1 plex users  896 Jul 21 16:16 Preferences.xml
admin@moesern:/volume1/Plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server$ 

[xokmillzo]

Thanks Chuck I appreciate the response.

There is something very odd going on here for sure. When I cd into Plug-in Support for example I actually do see files. It is very strange that the system reports it as empty when I run the ll command at one directory level up.

For example please see these screenshots.

However this feels less like a plex issue and more like an OS issue so I might be barking up the wrong tree bothering you and the team here. I will do a bit more research on my own and see what I can find.

Thanks again though for the response I was totally stuck before and now I have an avenue to investigate really appreciate you taking the time!!

[ChuckPa]

What is the filesystem formatted as?

Ext4 and xfs will behave as I state.

If you think about it; A directory is a file. It’s a file with names, permissions, date, size, and starting position on disk information in it. Therefore, when you create directory entries , the size of the directory should grow to at least 4K (1 linux page).