Unable to map external hard drive and pull videos

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: 4.116.1
Player Version#: 4.116.1
OS Ubuntu 2.04.3 LTS
Intel i5-8500
Plex Media Server Logs_2024-01-25_23-37-52.zip (988.7 KB)

Been running plex for a long time on windows, decided to switch it over to Linux and get my server transferred over there. I’ve set everything up and everything looks good. I only have the problem of not being able to pull my media from my external hard drive. Fairly new to linux and learning commands and permissions, but i’ve been looking for days and can’t find the answer.

I see Plex user as one running the media server
plex 18971 0.1 0.3 133848 57484 ? Ssl 22:55 0:03 /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server
plex 19006 0.2 0.2 64924 43916 ? SNl 22:55 0:03 Plex Plug-in [com.plexapp.system] /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Plug-ins-fb6452ebf/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resources/Ver
plex 19093 0.0 0.0 43932 13568 ? Sl 22:55 0:01 /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Tuner Service /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Tuner/Private /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources
plex 19126 0.0 0.2 64516 43752 ? Sl 22:55 0:01 Plex Plug-in [com.plexapp.agents.imdb] /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Plug-ins-fb6452ebf/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resource
plex 19175 0.0 0.0 4332 3200 ? S 22:55 0:00 /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Relay -p 443 -N -R 0:127.0.0.1:32401 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=yes -o UserKnownHostsFile=/var/lib/

When trying to mount the external hard drives it says they are already mounted…
zach@ZachsMediaServer:/media$ udisksctl mount -b /dev/sdd1
Error mounting /dev/sdd1: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.UDisks2.Error.AlreadyMounted: Device /dev/sdd1 is already mounted at `/media/zach/4TB Hard Drisk’.

I have my folder library mapped to: /media/zach/4TB Hard Drisk

but still no movies appear on my media server. Says movies is empty.

I think I am able to put the items on my desktop and map it that way, Plex will see the movies, but not when i put them in my external hard drives. i have 2 External hard drives and nether one of them are pulling any data.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

When things are in /media/YOUR_USERNAME, the automounter has already blocked access.

Here’s one way of mounting drives so you can access them and Plex can access them

3

so i’m trying this… not sure if i have it all right, but when i go to unmount to check it out i get the "No mount point specificied… Here is what i’m putting in, maybe its not right?

/dev/sdd1 3844550588 27950232 3621233092 1% /media/zach/4TB Hard Drisk

/dev/sdd1: LABEL=“4TB Hard Drisk” UUID=“f3daad3f-ad26-4476-8189-386acdc281ea” BLOCK_SIZE=“4096” TYPE=“ext4” PARTUUID=“79d2d314-62eb-491c-9470-2c6104cc8bab”

/dev/sdb1 13563487148 14480864 12865370780 1% /media/zach/14TB Hard drive

/dev/sdb1: LABEL=“14TB Hard drive” UUID=“8a37d9f0-5572-493a-bb96-5baf4e7ced17” BLOCK_SIZE=“4096” TYPE=“ext4” PARTUUID=“e45b9786-c484-4783-81ea-4a67273a689c”

mkdir /disks /disks/c /disks/media3 /disks/14TBHarddrive

mkdir /disks /disks/c /disks/media3 /disks/4TBHardDrisk

chown -R 

zach

:

zach

 /disks

# Addtions for external and internal drives

# Mount 4TB Hard Drisk (ext4)  at /disks/4TBHardDrisk for Plex

UUID= f3daad3f-ad26-4476-8189-386acdc281ea /disks/4TBHardDrisk  ext4  defaults,auto,rw,nofail 0 1

# Mount 14TB Hard drive (ext4

) 

/disks/14TBHarddrive for Plex

UUID= 8a37d9f0-5572-493a-bb96-5baf4e7ced17                     /disks/14TBHarddrive 

ext4

  defaults,auto,rw,nofail 0 1

# Mount /dev/sda1 directly  READ-ONLY,

/dev/sda1                                 /disks/c       ntfs  defaults,auto,ro,nofail 0 1

umount /media/chuck/14TBHarddrive
4

Your attempt to show me each line has made it hard to read.

Can you please show me, as one block of text for each of:

  1. /etc/fstab

-and-

  1. the output of df
5

df

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 1601220 3892 1597328 1% /run
/dev/sda3 959783984 58349808 852606068 7% /
tmpfs 8006100 744 8005356 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
efivarfs 256 83 169 33% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
tmpfs 8006100 0 8006100 0% /run/qemu
/dev/sda2 524252 27540 496712 6% /boot/efi
/dev/sdd1 3844550588 27950232 3621233092 1% /media/zach/4TB Hard Drisk
/dev/sdb1 13563487148 14480864 12865370780 1% /media/zach/14TB Hard drive
/dev/sdc4 24817908 7664 23524204 1% /media/zach/writable
/dev/sdc1 4914194 4914194 0 100% /media/zach/Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS amd64
tmpfs 1601220 124 1601096 1% /run/user/1000

when i put in /etc/fstab it says permission denied

6

This is your first time using Linux?

7

it is… been trying to figure this out for a few days following a few different guides so i’m hoping i didn’t mess it up further

8

/etc/fstab: static file system information.

Use ‘blkid’ to print the universally unique identifier for a

device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices

that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).

Addtions for external and internal drives

Mount 4TB Hard Drisk (ext4) at /disks/4TBHardDrisk for Plex

UUID= f3daad3f-ad26-4476-8189-386acdc281ea /disks/4TBHardDrisk ext4 defaults,auto,rw,nofail 0 1

Mount 14TB Hard drive (ext4) /disks/14TBHarddrive for Plex

UUID= 8a37d9f0-5572-493a-bb96-5baf4e7ced17 /disks/14TBHarddrive ext4 defaults,auto,rw,nofail 0 1

9

Linux has normal commands (for users) and commands which require “super user” (administrator) privilege.

Working on /etc/fstab requires those extra privileges
That’s why you get “permission denied”. It wan’t to know that you really know what you’re doing :slight_smile:

I’ll walk you through this whole process so please bare with me.

  1. Let’s unmount the drives from the automounted locations
sudo bash
umount /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdd1
  1. Now if you type df again, you’ll see they’re gone.
10

root@ZachsMediaServer:~# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 1601220 3892 1597328 1% /run
/dev/sda3 959783984 58375372 852580504 7% /
tmpfs 8006100 744 8005356 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
efivarfs 256 83 169 33% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
tmpfs 8006100 0 8006100 0% /run/qemu
/dev/sda2 524252 27540 496712 6% /boot/efi
/dev/sdc4 24817908 7664 23524204 1% /media/zach/writable
/dev/sdc1 4914194 4914194 0 100% /media/zach/Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS amd64
tmpfs 1601220 124 1601096 1% /run/user/1000

11

I’ll put commands you type (or copy/paste if you wish) in blocks

This would be a command you copy/paste or type  if it were a command

Here we go:

1 Like
12

Do you have a favorite editor?

gedit? vi? nano?

13

I dont, I’ve been using the vi and think i finally figured out how to save/exit with :wq

and figured out how to insert (or copy/paste in there) but i’m not set on any of them

14

try

sudo gedit /etc/fstab
  1. it’s a graphical text editor :sunglasses:
  2. You get what you see
  3. Be carefull because I’ve had you open it in privileged mode

If you get “command not found” , then type “sudo apt -y install gedit” and we’ll install it.

15

got it opened

16

Check your spelling in /etc/fstab

  1. /disks/4TBHardDisk
    – Disk , not Drisk :slight_smile:

  2. /disks/14TBHarddrive

Might you want consistent naming here ?

17

i can rename, when i was creating the disk and it was originally /disk/4th Hard Disk, it looked like it was creating files for disks/4tb disks/hard and disk/disk… so i tired to combine it as one hard drive…

Also not sure why it says drisk isn’t of disk… but can def rename it to disks lol

18

but we can rename both to HardDrive to make them the same… 4TBHardDrive and 14TBHardDrive

19

Linux doesn’t like spaces in HDD mount points.

Can you think of something meaningful without spaces?

maybe? /disks/14TB-movies and /disks/14TB-tv ?? or some other theme?

20

That works. as long as you keep your sanity :sunglasses: