I have had this server up for a long time, and rarely peek in as it just runs like a tank. Its used for file storage and as a Plex server.

In the last few days new media moved onto the server was stuttering during playback. When I logged in I was greated with 10's of messages about the cache being full. Sure enough of the 3TB it has 2.88 sitting on it. Also I noted in the main screen the "thinking" wave is just going forever. I don't run any VM's and the only Docker is Plex. I set Plex to not auto restart and rebooted the tower. It came back up with Plex off and I manually selected to run the mover. As of now I have not seen any movement.

I only have three shares and they are specified to live on the array not the cache. Nothing is being transferred in or out with Plex off. But I have the thinking wave non stop.

Any ideas what is going on?

I also pulled up the logs just now and I see that when I execute the move, in the same second the log shows it completed. I can see my scheduled hourly moves try to happen.

tower-diagnostics-20260131-1040.zip

Edited January 31Jan 31 by ryankenn

Please post the diagnostics and the names of the shares not being moved.

Added that file. Shares are Movies, TV, 4K and Documents

Not spotting anything obvious that should stop mover operating. - maybe someone else may have better luck.

Noticed some things about your share settings:

• appdata and system shares are configured to only be on the array. Normally you want the opposite - to only be on a pool to maximise performance of docker containers and VMs (if any) and to allow array drives to be spun down more easily. You then typically use the Appdata backup plugin to make regular scheduled backups to the array.

• You do not have a Minimum Free Space set for the cache pool. You want this to be set to be larger than the biggest file you expect to store there so that when the free space falls below this value Unraid will start by-passing the pool for shares configured for caching. This will help with avoiding with running out of space on the cache pool.

• You do not have Minimum Free Space configured for your shares. You want this set so that when the free space on an array drive falls below this value Unraid will select another array drive for the file (other share settings permitting).

Have you actually rebooted since noticing this issue? If not then that might be worth doing on the off-chance it rectifies things.

I have rebooted a couple of times. Mainly to see if turning off the autostart on the Plex docker would allow array to correct itself. Its the only Docker/VM or Plugin I have running on this, its specifically a Plex server so there is no real fluff, and I think is why its run so well so long.

I will address those max/min values for the future. I am going to be upping my drives as I am nearing the end of my comfort level with space.

As for the appdata and system shares, that is something I will take a look at. Does setting all the shares to live on the cache mean I need a much larger drive there? I have about 14TB of media and a 3TB cahce drive. I also don't know if I want to switch it now while the cache drive is having issues offloading.

Edited January 31Jan 31 by ryankenn

The few plugins you have are so out-of-date they can't be upgraded. You need to remove them and install the new versions.

3TB cache should be plenty for appdata and system shares. If you aren't using VMs you don't even need a domains share, system share should only be taking about 21GB, and if plex is your only container, appdata shouldn't be very large either.

And there will be plenty left over for caching user share writes, provided you have your user shares configured correctly.

Just now, trurl said:

The few plugins you have are so out-of-date they can't be upgraded. You need to remove them and install the new versions.

You should always update all plugins before installing a new Unraid version.

Wow I think that worked. Updating the plugin's allowed the thinking wave to finally cease. I then stopped the array and applied the update which finally successfully applied. So no I am on 7.2.3 and on reboot with Plex off and the array started I am seeing massive reads on the cache drive and reads/writes across the array. Fingers crossed this did it, thanks for all your help!

About 3 hours and I have 600GB free and climbing on the cache so it looks to be fixed. Weirdly I guess the out of date plug ins which prevented the update also prevented the cache dump.

Thanks for your help!

38 minutes ago, ryankenn said:

out of date plug ins which prevented the update also prevented the cache dump.

Not obvious that should be the case, but glad it seems to be working now.

Post new diagnostics when it finishes if you want more detailed advice on how to improve your configuration.

Will do thanks!

Well its all done and running. I adjusted the cache/array settings for my three major shares as well as letting them spread over all 4 drives. I am running low on space which is what prompted me to first look at this but IDK if I should just start a new thread for questions on how to go about that part of my upgrade.

tower-diagnostics-20260202-1913.zip

Your docker/VM related shares - appdata, domains, system - have all files on the array, and in fact, are configured to be moved to the array. Ideally these shares should have all files on cache or other pool so dockers/VMs will perform better, and so array disks can spin down since these files are always open.

Nothing can move open files so you have to disable Docker and VM Manager in Settings before you can move those files to cache where they belong. Mover can do the moving for you if you set each of those shares to Primary:cache; Secondary:array; Mover action:array->cache then click the Move button in Array Operation.

And those will be good settings going forward, or you can make them exclusive to cache after everything is moved there.

You need to set Minimum Free for cache

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/cache-pools/#minimum-free-space-for-a-cache-pool

And Minimum Free for each of your User Shares. Some already have Minimum, probably calculated values which you can reconsider if you want, and some have no Minimum Free set.

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/shares/#share-settings

So these three? I just don't know how this all works when their sizes show as way larger than my Cache drive.

The minimum free cache field is greyed out on the drive. If there some other setting I need to activate to make that field active?

2 hours ago, ryankenn said:

So these three? I just don't know how this all works when their sizes show as way larger than my Cache drive.

Those are not the size, the numbers are the Free Space (says so at the top but you have clipped the top).

On those shares that are configured to use only the array, it is the total free space on the array. For those configured to use cache and array, it is the combined total of free space of cache and array.

Under the SIZE column, click on Compute... for each share and wait for the result. It will show how much of each disk is used by the share.

Or just click the COMPUTE ALL button at bottom of page. If it hasn't produced results for all after a few minutes, refresh the page.

2 hours ago, ryankenn said:

minimum free cache field is greyed out

You have to stop the array to edit that.

I made the adjustments. The only concern is those shares now show as orange exclamations saying "some or all of the files are unprotected". I ran a Parity check and this morning still show the same.

tower-diagnostics-20260203-1928.zip

Your system share still has files on the array. Possibly duplicates, Mover won't overwrite files. You should delete the old version and move new version to cache if it isn't already.

6 minutes ago, ryankenn said:

those shares now show as orange exclamations saying "some or all of the files are unprotected"

Since you don't have redundant cache that is true but not necessarily bad. You just need to backup those shares.

Or add another drive to cache to make a mirror.

1 minute ago, trurl said:

backup those shares

for example

That's weird. I stopped both the Dockers and even though I have no VM's I stopped all anyways. I will try the Move again tonight.

50 minutes ago, trurl said:

Possibly duplicates, Mover won't overwrite files.

How do I see these files? I made System Export ready so in Windows I now see that share and it has two files in it. Docker and something else, but are those instances the ones on the cache or the dupes.

NVM I did find it. So clicking the view on the System share it shows the files are located on the Cache and Disk 1. Clicking the Disk 1 it gives me the option to delete. But are the versions on the cache complete? Or should I delete the cache versions then re-run the mover.

Edited February 4Feb 4 by ryankenn

14 hours ago, trurl said:

You should delete the old version and move new version to cache if it isn't already.

14 hours ago, ryankenn said:

stopped both the Dockers

You have to disable Docker and VM Manager in Settings. Simply stopping individual containers or VMs isn't enough.

I did the full stop. But I don't know how to tell which instance of the files is the more current?

I just deleted the cache System and it is seemingly working. Maybe I'll post a last log tomorrow to see if it all looks good.

tower-diagnostics-20260205-0048.zip

Edited February 5Feb 5 by ryankenn