Is there a point where too many files in a directory will impact performance\cause issue?

[Ouze]

Hi guys,

 

I used to try to keep my directories under x number of files, because Windows would bog down when navigating them. That's not really a problem any more: since the only one looking in the directory is Plex, I almost never navigate to those directories anymore. 

 

So I was wondering: Is there a point where too many files in a directory will impact performance or cause performance problems? I have about 3,000 movies in a single directory, and it SEEMS ok, but wondering if I should start breaking those up at some point in the future.

 

I googled it, and it seems like the answers is "no" for XFS, but those searches aren't unraid-specific.  

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Frank1940]

You really haven't asked a question in a manner that can be answered.   As you know, too many files in a folder/directory can be a problem for Windows but there are some Windows settings that will help (some, or a lot, depending your view) with that issue.  Remember that the application that opens that share is the one that is going to have to deal with organizing the file names-- not Unraid!  And remember, that all of those file names are going to have to be transferred to that application before the 'sorting' can begin!

 

I would suggest that you could wait until using the system starts to 'choke' if you have a simple scheme in mind to break up the current collection like alphabetical.  (I did this a couple of years ago when I got to about 500 movies.  It was relativity painless and I did it in less than an hour.) If you are thinking about classification-- like Action, Comedy, Drama, Romantic Comedy, etc., it may already be too late.