Server Version#: 1.42.1.10060
Player Version#: 4.147.1
I have a plex server running in Unraid. When i installed the server it seems that it automatically created a group of collections. Now that I want to start using collections I want to delete the automatic ones. When I select delete from the dropdown it takes a while for anything to happen, then I get a error message in the top right saying unable to perform action. Then what usually happens is the server becomes unresponsive and I have to restart the docker container on the Unraid UI.
In verbose mode there aren’t any indicators of the reason for the error. Only thing I see on the console that is strange is: Sqlite3: Sleeping for 200ms to retry busy DB.
I can delete the smart collections ive been creating without any issues. Just the initially created collections.
Update, I realized parts of my plex wasnt running on the cache drive and on my slowest HDD (wouldn’t you know it). Plex is now incredibly fast, but I’m still unable to delete the automatically generated collections.
But finally found some logs:
Sep 01, 2025 18:53:04.807 [22861876300600] Info — Request: [192.168.0.25:57164 (Subnet)] DELETE /library/collections/23854 (12 live) #1381 GZIP Signed-in Token (Username)
Sep 01, 2025 18:53:04.810 [22861876300600] Debug — [Req#1381] No items were found in the request filter, nothing updated.
Sep 01, 2025 18:53:04.810 [22861876300600] Debug — [Req#1381] Destroying metadata item 23854 (Boomer Collection)
Sep 01, 2025 18:57:23.786 [22861876300600] Warning — [Req#1381] Took too long (116.620000 seconds) to start a transaction on /home/runner/_work/plex-media-server/plex-media-server/Library/MetadataItem.cpp:773
Sep 01, 2025 18:57:23.786 [22861876300600] Warning — [Req#1381] Transaction that was running was started on thread 22861888957240 at /home/runner/_work/plex-media-server/plex-media-server/Statistics/StatisticsManager.cpp:288
Sep 01, 2025 18:57:23.794 [22862239738680] Info — Completed: [192.168.0.25:57164] 200 DELETE /library/metadata/23854 (10 live) #1381 GZIP 258986ms 326 bytes (pipelined: 1)
Looking through your logs and you have several Plex Media Server logs filled with transcoder error messages.
Sep 02, 2025 04:13:06.347 [23075754756920] ERROR - [Req#48240/Transcode/3ba2166b-5511-423d-95ae-9266ac721e37/94cbfc66-14b6-41f5-8a5e-05dfd62262bf] Error while decoding stream #0:1: Invalid data found when processing input
Sep 02, 2025 04:13:06.347 [23076016044856] ERROR - [Req#48241/Transcode/3ba2166b-5511-423d-95ae-9266ac721e37/94cbfc66-14b6-41f5-8a5e-05dfd62262bf] [aac_lc @ 0x151ac4afd040] channel element 0.0 is not allocated
This is likely the reason why deleting collections was being held up and why the collection that you deleted eventually did delete after you restarted PMS. Why this transcoder issue is happening… Still looking. It looks like maybe some file that were being analyzed that Plex did not like.
From a Plex Media Scanner Analysis.log
Sep 02, 2025 04:56:17.122 [22621086609152] WARN - [FFMPEG] - Format mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 detected only with low score of 1, misdetection possible!
Sep 02, 2025 04:56:17.122 [22621086609152] ERROR - [FFMPEG] - moov atom not found
Can you review the files listed in these logs and see if they will play in Plex or in another player?
I’ve cleared out all the broken media I could find (thanks for that). But I’m still not able to delete the collections. I can try delete one, get an error, try delete another, then the server becomes unresponsive. Fresh logs attached.
Ok I think I see what’s happening. Each of the collections I try to delete, seems for some of them there is a media file that is damaged or broken, when I delete the broken files the collection content drops to zero and I can delete the collection. There are cases where the files open fine in VLC, I leave those then.
is likely the reason why deleting collections was being held up and why the collection that you deleted eventually did delete after you restarted PMS. Why this transcoder issue is happening… Still looking. It looks like maybe some file that were being analyzed that Plex did not like.