# Using USB drive for media **URL:** \ **Category:** Metadata & Adding Files\ **Tags:** server-linux, library-management\ **Created:** [April 28, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/using-usb-drive-for-media/582272 "2020-04-28T18:22:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![johnsonb.brian\_gmail.com](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/johnsonb.brian_gmail.com/32/13846_2.png) [@johnsonb.brian\_gmail.com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/johnsonb.brian_gmail.com)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/using-usb-drive-for-media/582272/1 "2020-04-28T18:22:09Z")
Server Version#:1.19.1.2701.6327e27bf Hello. I am new to Linux and reasonably new to Plex. It installed fine on a Mint-64 PC. The problem I am having is browsing to an external USB drive of all the media. I cannot navigate to the folders needed when trying to add it as a media library. I can get to _/media/bj/System F_ but no folders. The USB drive is _/dev/sdb1_ and putting that in as the library path does not work. It is formatted in NTFS . _/media/bj/System F_ and I tried that as well. My media is _/media/bj/System F/Media I_ and _/media/bj/System F/Media II_ It’s driving me nuts and there must be a way to access it. thanks, Bj ---
**Author:** ![pshanew](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/pshanew/32/160555_2.png) [@pshanew](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pshanew)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/using-usb-drive-for-media/582272/2 "2020-04-28T18:33:17Z")
Drives automatically mounted under /media/user (or /run/media on certain distributions) cannot be read (or written) by any user other than the user, typically. This is because this location is managed by udisks2 and has Access Control Lists (ACLs) associated applied to it. The recommended way to mount external drives is described here: > [@Linux Tips](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/2): > > Using other hard drives (Windows or Linux) with PMS This How-To is written to help with Internal and External drives. It also is written to demonstrate how to cope with NTFS and EXT4 formatted drives. By logical extension, any format supported by Linux can be handled using the technique shown here. In all cases, the goal is to give user plex permission to read your media files which Linux doesn’t allow by default due to its strict security model. We will walk through the steps needed … If you carefully follow that guide to mount your disk, Plex will be able to access it. There is another method, which I don’t necessarily recommend. You can try modifying the ACLs for the auto-mount home for your user to allow Plex access. To do so, run the following command: `sudo setfacl -m u:plex:rx /media/bj/` This will give user `plex` read and execute permissions to the `bj` directory, under which your disk is being mounted. I’ve only tested this under Ubuntu. You should probably just use the method described in the linked thread to set up permanent mounts though. ---
**Author:** ![johnsonb.brian\_gmail.com](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/johnsonb.brian_gmail.com/32/13846_2.png) [@johnsonb.brian\_gmail.com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/johnsonb.brian_gmail.com)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/using-usb-drive-for-media/582272/3 "2020-04-28T19:07:27Z")
Thanks, I appreciate the info. That is certainly an in depth process. I need to get the house kid and wife free before I tackle that. thanks ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/using-usb-drive-for-media/582272/4 "2020-07-27T19:07:30Z")
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