Thousands of files in my media folder

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
1

Server Version#: 1.18.3.2156-349e9837e Jan 14, 2020
Player Version#:

My media folder is constantly being filled with some kind of data files, ranging from 70-120K bytes each. About a dozen of these are created each day. A typical file name is something like “636fcb0d-3209-11e8-31574d59-40c0039e”

What are these files for, and can I delete them? My server runs on a Netgear R9000 router with the media on its attached storage.

2

Sounds like you found the video thumbs Plex is creating or some of the downloaded posters/backgrounds.
You can get rid of the thumbs by disabling this feature – however… please do that from within Plex… otherwise you end up with a whole lot of dead links where Plex can no longer find files it stored/created.