@OttoKerner How many collections are too many? I have about 100 automatically generated collections in my Movies library. I do not believe I have ever had any collections in the Music library.
I have started adding music back letter by letter. I am pausing after each add to make sure all of the processing has happened.
Side Note: I am still unable to manually optimize the database without crashing the system.
That should be fine, then.
I have no further ideas on how to go about your issues. Maybe the amount of items is just too much for that little NAS box?
I guess if you could put more RAM into it, there might be some improvement.
Did you ever manipulate the āDatabase Cache Size (MB)ā preference? Default is 20 MB. Definitely avoid raising that to over 100 MB. It is not a file cache.
I have reached the Cās for Artists, and the Sonic Analysis Loop has kicked back in.
Logs while looping:
Plex Media Server Logs_2025-07-28_14-36-59.zip (7.5 MB)
The QNAP is a monster, and should be able to handle this kinda stuff with ease. Has 64gb of RAM behind the Xeon processor. It was running absolutely fine on a sizeable music library for years up till a few months ago.
I have retried adding Music back with Sonic Analysis disabled and so far, no issues.
This is a total bummer because I use a LOT of music library functionality without it. 
Plex music without sonic analysis would be a bummer for sure.
How many tracks do you have? Is there some insane amount or something? I have 200k tracks and itās fine here and in my head thatās a lot.
Also have you tried deleting the sonic analysis databases letting them regenerate? They are in a subfolder where the main database resides. There should be 3 of them. Note that I have not tried deleting then myself so I donāt know if itās a bad idea doing so.
Iām going to wager my library is about that size. Iāll have a better answer in a few days. Iām adding it all back in each letter by artist.
I have not tried deleting the sonic analysis database. I had deleted the entire Music Library and operated like that for several weeks until a few posts back where I tried putting them back in which caused a new sonic analysis scan. It worked great, with sonic analysis till I reached the Cās.
Iād wager I have some files in there causing the issue, but Iād like to know for sure before trying extreme things.
Sonic Analysis is disabled, but it now appears that I have looping music scans. I dropped the full library yesterday. It will scan for a while, stop, and then scan again.
Logs:
Plex Media Server Logs_2025-07-31_09-34-04.zip (7.0 MB)
Would love to have someone take a look at these who knows what theyāre looking at.
Could you enable Verbose logging restart PMS, repro the issue and grab the new logs?
Some funky stuff happening in that log, this is a rare time that verbose logs might be useful.
Do you want Sonic Analysis enabled or disabled before the attempt?
I have removed the files from the library again to stop the scans. Pretty sure this is easily reproduceable.
Disabled is fine.
Nabbed this after an uninitiated scan completed. Another scan has started as I type. Let me know what else you need. Iām going to leave it rolling until Iām told otherwise.
You have āScan my library automaticallyā and āInclude music libraries in automatic updatesā enabled so itās looking at filesystem changes and triggering a scan each this happens.
Looks like you have constant changes to files in your music paths, like this:
Jul 31, 2025 12:29:35.220 [139632596650808] INFO - Library section 10 (Music) will be updated because of a change in ā/share/ZFS27_DATA/Media/Music/Rush/1996 - Working Man - A Tribute To Rush/1996 - Working Man - A Tribute To Rush.m3uā
This is constantly triggering scans. To remedy this you can check why these files are constantly changing or disable automatic updates for music libraries.
Super interestingā¦ I looked up that specific Rush file in Explorer and I am literally watching the Date Modified change before my eyes.
Iāll dig into this. Assuming that might also be causing the Sonic Analysis issues? Iāve had Plex with auto scan settings since the dawn of time. Odds favor some other piece of software is mucking the directories.
AntiVira solution perhaps?
Donāt think so. No scans currently running. I manually deleted a few of these M3U files, and theyāre recreating themselves. I disabled QNAPs Multimedia Console which has caused me headaches in the past as a first step. Will let you all know what I find.
I believe it to be a QNAP issue, as the owner of the file is my server name, and admin name.
Is there any chance Plex makes an alteration to M3U files when it scans? I seem to have stopped them from being auto-recreated, but the ones that still exist seem to change their Date Modified concurrent with Plex scans?
I have removed Multimedia Console from the QNAP, as I donāt use it for anything. It is entirely possible that it was the culprit for creating the M3U files, as they stopped recreating the moment I disabled it.
Puttyād in and used the following command to eradicate errant M3U files (directory is mine, replace with your own)
find /share/Media/Music -name ā*.m3uā -type f -delete
This seems to have removed the problem files from the system and stopped the scans. No idea where they came from, or how long theyāve existed given that they updated nearly every 60 seconds or less. Neighboring files (non FLAC) with similar file names were dated several years earlier, so the M3U files ācouldā have always been there, but thereās no way to know.
I have re-enabled Sonic Analysis and will report back tomorrow to see if that loop has been solved as well.
If I have auto scans enabled (which I have had since the dawn of time), and Plex does make an alteration upon scanning a M3U file, would that not cause a scan loop?
Sadly not a music guy, only a QNAP guy, so that would be a Q for @drzoidberg33
But when said, if so, then that would be the first time in history Plex ever altered peoples data, and a lot more folks would be impacted, so highly doubt that
Highly unlikely, since Plex doesnāt even use m3u files.
Uninitiated library scans appear to have stopped, and a full library Sonic Analysis has completed over the weekend. I feel confident that this issue has been solved by the removal of errant .m3u files.
I still do not now what was creating or updating them. I sincerely appreciate the look into the logs that lead to solving the issue for me. Happily used PlexAmp all weekend. 
