Hi all,

 

I've been looking at folder last modification times for the user folders. The problem I've been investigating is why these timestamps aren't updated after a file is added to the folder.

 

It looks like the folders themselves through the disk folders DO have their mtime updated on file add, however through the user folders these timestamps can be masked by other disk folders. So if a file was recently added to /mnt/disk3/folder, the modification timestamp on /mnt/user/folder can still be /mnt/disk1/folder. Looking at the folder through /mnt/user it's not possible to tell when it's been modified.

 

To me it would make more sense if the user folder mtime was the most recent of all the folders from the disk paths. This allows media library scanners and other processes to run more efficiently by looking at mtimes and not having to iterate through their contents. The recent Plex Media Server update 0.9.2.3 is an example of one such scanner.

 

I'm currently running 4.7 so I don't know if this behaviour is changed in 5.0. If not I'd like to submit a request for limetech to consider.

 

J

@stormshaker: followed you from the Plex forum. Unfortunately, no change on this one in most recent 5 beta. So, +1 for your request.

To me it would make more sense if the user folder mtime was the most recent of all the folders from the disk paths.

To me, that would make the most sense too.

+1 on this request

 

Plex rocks, hopefully we get Plex PMS for Linux/unRAID soon

So how do we officially request this?

So how do we officially request this?

your looking at it

So how do we officially request this?

your looking at it

 

THE DAY HAS COME BABY!!!

 

"there are many flavors of Linux, and it runs on many different architectures, so we wanted to make sure we had an easy build and packaging system, which I’m proud to announce, we now do."

 

"We’re targeting three Linux flavors with this initial version: Ubuntu 10.01, Slackware 13.1 (unRAID), and ReadyNAS (Intel CPUs)"

 

 

http://elan.plexapp.com/2011/05/14/the-plex-penguin-friendly-media-server/

 

 

I posted on Plex about two(+) weeks ago looking for the best media storage solution. They sent me here. I couldn't be happier. Can't wait to try this out. Now only if my preclears would finish so I can upgrading to the 5 beta to try this out....

To me it would make more sense if the user folder mtime was the most recent of all the folders from the disk paths. This allows media library scanners and other processes to run more efficiently by looking at mtimes and not having to iterate through their contents. The recent Plex Media Server update 0.9.2.3 is an example of one such scanner.

 

Any news whether this will be implemented in the next release? If I would point the Plex scanner to disk shares, would it then pick up additions to the libarary without performing a deep scan?

 

Thanks!

It took me more than an hour to find out why the new series aren't showing up in Plex.

 

so +1 for Folder mtime changes in user shares

 

P.S. using unRaid 5.0beta6a + PlexMediaServer-v0.9.2.8-34480ac-slackware

To me it would make more sense if the user folder mtime was the most recent of all the folders from the disk paths. This allows media library scanners and other processes to run more efficiently by looking at mtimes and not having to iterate through their contents. The recent Plex Media Server update 0.9.2.3 is an example of one such scanner.

 

Any news whether this will be implemented in the next release? If I would point the Plex scanner to disk shares, would it then pick up additions to the libarary without performing a deep scan?

 

Thanks!

 

good question. Wouldn't you achieve the same by creating multiple sources in plex pointing at each disk? Manageable with a relatively small number of disks, probably annoying with 10+. Plex is smart enough to merge sources itself so shouldn't impact how content is presented to you. User shares are most useful for apps like sickbeard, which only supports a single folder for a TV show, or sabnzbd.

 

BTW, does plex support 'update when changes detected' or wouldn't that work over a network and you'd have to schedule it instead. Want to keep disk spinups to the minimum to keep noise down.

Yes, plex supports 'update when changes detected' but not on the current Linux Release.

 

I changed the Library from the user share to the disks. This works for the moment. But it´s hopefully a temporary solution.

 

Sickbeard and Couchpotato do the Library update automatically.

sorry, I meant if I was using the OSX client, with unRAID being the source. can I point the OSX server at a bunch of disk shares on unRAID and it'll detect changes?

 

currently I'm planning to have sabnzbd, sickbeard and couchpotato running on the unRAID, but Plex server running on OSX as I need transcode support

If you export all your disk why not.

But i haven`t tested the 'update on changes' feature.

 

Sickbeard and CP can update the Library not only on localhost.

So there shouldn´t  be a problem.

 

How would you go about changing plex to point to the disk shares without losing watched status on your media?

How would you go about changing plex to point to the disk shares without losing watched status on your media?

 

Not sure if you got this answered somewhere else, but adding the disk shares to the Plex media server section first, then doing a scan, then removing the user share(s) from that section should preserve all of the metadata including watched status.

I've been fighting with the same thing.

 

Looking at the logs I see the following.  Does this affect the folder mtime on user shares?

 

Changes from 5.0-beta7 to 5.0-beta8

-----------------------------------

- shfs: fixed user share file system to return latest atime/mtime/ctime timestamps on directories

 

If not, I'm about to add a cache drive and I saw someone say that for some reason the cache drive made mtimes show up properly for them.  Any chance that's an alternative?

 

Thanks

Any new on the matter of mtime? I've got Plex Media Server on a OSX machine pointing to my unRAID server (5.0-RC8). I'm tearing my hair apart trying to get the turbo scan to work properly. Have tried adding the disk shares instead of user shares but with no real luck. It seams like a known problem but hasn't anyone found a work-around? Please help

 

Thanks /Kim

As an update to this, when I was running Unraid 4.X I switched Plex to access the DISK rather than USER shares and that took care of the updates for me.  Since then I've been running Unraid 5-beta8a I believe and I've added a cache drive.  I'm not sure if it was beta-8a or the cache drive but my Plex updates just fine now via User Shares.

 

Hope that helps some.

Thanks for your reply. I have pointed plex to the user shares now but with no luck. And sometimes when I do a deep scan it even removes movies that existed before the scan. It never behaved like this when the library was on USB drives. I've read in a other thread that a cache drive might do the work. Maybe I've to look into that. Is a cache drive hard to manage? What does the drive do that changes the mtime behavior?

For details on the cache drive see: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Cache_disk

 

I like the write speed increase on several of my user shares, but for me the biggest benefit is that my cache drive can operate as a hot spare.  When I get a drive failure I can replace that drive with the Cache drive and start shopping for a replacement or wait for the RMA.

I'm having this issue where Plex won't detect changes again.. it went away, but now it's back. Only the "daily" scan seems to pick up new shows. The problem has only appeared since upgrading to Plex 0.9.7.9.375-d056f10 and unRaid RC10. Anyone else having the same issues?

 

whiteatom

The same situation here.

Same here. I've tried with and without a cache drive

@Alexandro/@hgelpke

 

Are you on RC11 or RC11a?