I migrated my Plex server from Linux to Mac (Apple Silicon M4).
Both access the media files through the same Samba shares.
On my Mac, there seems to be an issue where some movies (232 out of 1,223 total, in a specific Library) show as Unavailable in Plex.
If I go in Get Info, the files doesn’t appear as Unavailable.
If I use terminal, and copy-paste the complete file path from Plex into an ls command, the files is there. I can also browse to the file without issue from Finder, which shows my Samba share on my Desktop.
If I Scan this complete Library (Movies), which uses the path /mnt/samba/PlexArchive/Movies-EN, it doesn’t fix the issue.
But if I send a request to the Plex server to scan just the folder that contains the movie:
curl "http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/sections/11/refresh?X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&path=/mnt/samba/PlexArchive/Movies-EN/American History X (1998) {tmdb-73}"
Then that movie is not Unavailable anymore, and I can play it without problem:
Here’s my Plex server version:
Plex Media Server v1.41.3.9314-a0bfb8370 - Apple Mac16,8 arm64 - build: darwin-aarch64 macos - GMT -05:00
MacOSX version: 15.3.0, language: en-CA
Processor: 12-core Apple M4 Pro
Compiler is - Clang 11.0.1 (https://plex.tv b587490162c22e078c314e3f7dc560c691d126aa)
And the logs when I scan the Movies Library:
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:38.400 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity fe9933b9-ea55-4143-abd9-41fad7030256 - "Scanning"
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:38.402 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Scanning section 11
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:38.402 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity fe9933b9-ea55-4143-abd9-41fad7030256 - completed 0.0% - Scanning Movies
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:38.402 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:38.422 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Asked to cull library timeline before time 1739293718, we're starting with 164 items.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:38.422 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Library timeline cull complete with 164 items left.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:38.422 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Scanning Movies using en-US(Plex Movie) with 1229 current media items and 3 section locations in the database.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:38.422 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Performing a scan with 'Plex Movie' (language: en-US virtual: 0).
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:38.422 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - * Scanning /mnt/samba/PlexArchive/Movies-EN
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:38.798 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /mnt/samba/PlexArchive/Movies-EN (parent: no)
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:41.266 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Skipping over directory '', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
...
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.103 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity fe9933b9-ea55-4143-abd9-41fad7030256 - completed 33.0% - Scanning Movies
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.103 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /mnt/samba/PlexArchive/Movies-EN/ALGORITHM - Of hackers and DRM (2014) (parent: yes)
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.103 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'ALGORITHM - Of hackers and DRM (2014)', as nothing has changed; removing 1 media items from map.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.103 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity fe9933b9-ea55-4143-abd9-41fad7030256 - completed 33.0% - Scanning Movies
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.103 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /mnt/samba/PlexArchive/Movies-EN/7 Days in Hell (2015) (parent: yes)
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.104 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Skipping over directory '7 Days in Hell (2015)', as nothing has changed; removing 1 media items from map.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.104 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity fe9933b9-ea55-4143-abd9-41fad7030256 - completed 33.0% - Scanning Movies
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.104 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity fe9933b9-ea55-4143-abd9-41fad7030256 - completed 33.0% - Scanning Movies
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.104 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Performing a scan with 'Plex Movie' (language: en-US virtual: 0).
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.104 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - * Scanning /mnt/samba/Plex/Movies-EN
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.365 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /mnt/samba/Plex/Movies-EN (parent: no)
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.368 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Skipping over directory '', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.368 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity fe9933b9-ea55-4143-abd9-41fad7030256 - completed 66.0% - Scanning Movies
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.368 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Performing a scan with 'Plex Movie' (language: en-US virtual: 0).
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.368 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - * Scanning /mnt/googledrive-xelp/Movies
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.369 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - * Marking media not available in /mnt/googledrive-xelp/Movies
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.419 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - * Taking 0 items out of the map (which has 234 items) for being unavailable.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.487 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - * Taking 0 directories out of the map (which has 281 dirs) for being unavailable.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.487 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity fe9933b9-ea55-4143-abd9-41fad7030256 - completed 99.0% - Scanning Movies
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.487 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Scanner [Plex Movie]: Idle and left with 1227 media items.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.487 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Removing 232 media items that were left.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.487 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Soft-deleting media item 340087.
... Same line repeated 230 times with a different media item ID ...
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.512 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Soft-deleting media item 1101820.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.512 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Removing 281 directories that were left.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.523 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Updating directory '' (ID 329) to time 2025-02-11 03:25:58.
... 994 other movies folders listed here
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.534 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Updating directory 'tick, tick.BOOM! (2021)' (ID 20504) to time 2024-08-29 05:38:16.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.538 [0x1706bb000] DEBUG - [UltraBlurProcessor] Generated for item 305644 in 0 ms.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.538 [0x1706bb000] DEBUG - [UltraBlurProcessor] Generated for item 305644 in 0 ms.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.550 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Collections: Found 153 collections tags in section 11.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.550 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Collections: We had 156 collections in the library already.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.550 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Collections: Synced tags in section 11 in 12ms.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.561 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - PlayQueue: Converted 'server://a7e6c68977c39af318645b562af29b9d67e8f3aa/com.plexapp.plugins.library/library/sections/11/all?type=1&sort=addedAt%3Adesc&contentRating!=qc%2FNot%20rated&and=1&contentRating!=qc%2F18%2B&and=1&contentRating!=qc%2F16%2B&and=1&contentRating!=qc%2F14%2B&and=1&contentRating!=qc%2F13%2B&and=1&contentRating!=qc%2F8%2B&and=1&contentRating!=qc%2FG' to 'library://x/directory/%2Flibrary%2Fsections%2F11%2Fall%3Ftype%3D1%26sort%3DaddedAt%253Adesc%26contentRating%21%3Dqc%252FNot%2520rated%26and%3D1%26contentRating%21%3Dqc%252F18%252B%26and%3D1%26contentRating%21%3Dqc%252F16%252B%26and%3D1%26contentRating%21%3Dqc%252F14%252B%26and%3D1%26contentRating%21%3Dqc%252F13%252B%26and%3D1%26contentRating%21%3Dqc%252F8%252B%26and%3D1%26contentRating%21%3Dqc%252FG'
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.562 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Setting container serialization range to [0, 0] (total=-1)
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.563 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Collections: Refreshed attributes for 0 collections in section 11 in 12ms.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.565 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Collection: Refreshed visibility in section 11 in 1ms.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.565 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity fe9933b9-ea55-4143-abd9-41fad7030256 - completed 100.0% - Scanning Movies
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.565 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Refreshing section 11 of type: 1
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.565 [0x17085f000] DEBUG - Refreshing 0 IDs.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.566 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity b87687ac-89c6-4c12-80e5-13695b37a7dd - "Processing subscriptions"
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.566 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity fe9933b9-ea55-4143-abd9-41fad7030256.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.566 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Grabber: Cleaning up orphaned grabs.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.639 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Grabber: Cleaned up 0 decrepit directories in 0.0 sec.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.639 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 186634fd-dd59-4028-a875-95b2c3a7749f - "Processing subscriptions"
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.639 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Subscription: Scheduling subscriptions.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Subscription: Initialized 1 schedulers.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Subscription: Starting with 0 grabs, scheduled 0 active ones preemptively.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Partitioning, step one, let's compute an absolute ordering.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Initial partitioning completed with 0 partitions.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: Partitioning completed with 0 partitions.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: We computed 1 alternative realities in 0 ms.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - DVR:NewSchedule: The winning schedule had score: 0 and 0 conflicts.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Subscription: Scheduled all subscriptions in 0 ms.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 186634fd-dd59-4028-a875-95b2c3a7749f.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Subscription: There are 0 active grabs at the end.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity b87687ac-89c6-4c12-80e5-13695b37a7dd.
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.640 [0x173e27000] DEBUG - Subscription: Refreshed all content in 74 ms.
Of note: the American History X media is ID 1101820 (as seen in Get Info > View XML), so during this scan, this media, and 231 other media items, are listed as:
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.512 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Soft-deleting media item 1101820.
And they are NOT listed in the list of (996) OK media items, like this one:
Feb 11, 2025 12:28:52.534 [0x16fa27000] DEBUG - Updating directory 'tick, tick.BOOM! (2021)' (ID 20504) to time 2024-08-29 05:38:16.
If I search for American History X in the logs generated during the scan, nothing is found. The only trace the scanner logs about this is the line with the 1101820 ID, shown above.
There are only DEBUG lines added to the log files ; no INFO, WARN or ERROR.
I can go into a Terminal, and use ls -l in this Library path (/mnt/samba/PlexArchive/Movies-EN) and all movies folders are listed, and have the same permissions:
gb@MacBookPro-Plex:/mnt/samba/PlexArchive/Movies-EN $ ls -l
total 38440
# This media is OK:
drwx------ 1 gb staff 16384 2 Sep 13:57 Adam Sandler- Love You (2024) {tmdb-1244705}
# ... This movie is Unavailable:
drwx------ 1 gb staff 16384 27 Aug 19:44 American History X (1998) {tmdb-73}
# ...
For some reason I can’t explain, it seems that most of the movie folders that are “missing” are at the beginning of the alphabet (folders that begin with a number, or those that begin with letters A to D), but that is not the case for all of them… eg. Adam Sandler- ... is OK, but The Shape of Water ... is Unavailable.
Being able to fix the problem with a request to scan a single folder seems to indicate that the file (and folder) is indeed accessible to Plex server, but somehow, it is not found, when a Library scan is executed…?
Side note: After I fix the problem with a request to scan this movie’s specific folder, if I scan the whole Library again, then the movie is back to Unavailable.
Any idea how I could further debug this issue?
Thanks.
