Server Version#: 1.41.6.9685
Player Version#: Plex for iOS 2025.15.0 (1053)
Since the new version of the Plex, the downloads first convert the movies/tv shows and then downloads them.
My issue with that apart from that I can’t download the originals anymore (which worked on my device with the older version), that I can’t locate the “optimized versions” for downloads on the server.
They just fill the free space on the server, but I can’t see them and remove them.
They don’t appear on the Conversions or the Optimized Versions.
Where can I locate them and free some space on the server?
In Plex Web (and Desktop) you can tell Plex Media Server to create an Optimized Version for mobile/tv/etc. It will be stored in the folder with the media or in another location you designate.
In the Plex client, you can choose which version to stream, the original or one of the optimized versions.
Downloads are separate from the optimized versions.
It is not possible to download an optimized version to the client (that I can find).
If Downloads quality = Original, PMS will download the original file to the client.
If Downloads quality = high/medium/low, PMS will transcode the original file, then download it to the client.
If Plex Media Server needs to transcode before downloading, it transcodes the entire file, downloads it to the client, and then deletes the temporary transcoded file from the server.
The location for the transcoded file is the Transcoder Temporary Directory.
On Linux, the default location is in the Plex Data Folder: /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/Transcode, in the Downloads subdirectory. [1]
The Transcoder Temporary Directory can be changed in Settings → Transcoder.
Ubuntu 24.04, bare metal installation, no Docker, VM, etc. ↩︎
A movie I tried to download to my iPad (around 65GB) gets transcoded and downloaded afterwards. But on the server it took another 60-70GB space.
The folders you mentioned are empty.
Any other idea?
Plex will use extra space while creating the transcoded file. However, it should free up after the file is downloaded to the client.
The ...Cache/Transcode/Downloads directory will be empty unless something is transcoding or in the process of downloading after transcoding.
That location is for a “bare metal” installation. If you are using Docker, virtual machine, SNAP, etc., then the location will probably be different. It will also be different if you’ve moved the Plex Data Folder to a different location.
You could also look in Preference.xml for TranscoderTempDirectory. If using a non-default location, then it should be present in the file.
I downloaded a movie and tv episode to my Android phone and watched the ...Cache/Transcode/Downloads directory via SSH (used ls -l to watch the file sizes). Plex created a file in the temp transcoder directory, downloaded it to my phone, then deleted the file from the server.
Thanks, I think I got it.
I let some downloads in the night for my journey and it started transcoding and downloading through the night.
I also have auto snapshotting for zfs volumes, so the transcoded movie got snapshotted before it got downloaded and deleted. That explains the difference.
For future reference, yes the default path is /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/Transcode/Downloads/.
