Setting Up Plex Media Server on Linux Mint

[houston]

Hello!

I'm on Linux Mint 18.3, and am trying to get Plex Media Server up and running, but am hitting roadblocks.

After installing Plex and going through the sign in process, when I try to add a library I only see some files, and any deeper into most file structures appear empty (i.e. /home/houston/).

My folder structure looks as such:
/home/houston/Media
home/houston/Media/Movies
home/houston/Media/TV Shows

I've also tried adding the file paths manually,

/home/houston/Media/Movies

for instance, but it is still not seeing anything in those directories.

I've tried solutions from:

viewtopic.php?t=218929&start=20#p1174386 Here, which suggested changing the PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USER from 'plex' to the current user ('houston'), but to no avail.

and

viewtopic.php?f=90&t=215658#p1126159 Here, which suggested the following:
1. Try setting the group for videos to plex

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sudo chown -R :plex Media

2. Set the setgid so files copied there will inherit the group

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chmod 2755 Media

After trying both of these, I am also restarting the plexmediaserver service.

After running the second option, my

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ls -lh

output for the /Media folder is:

drwr -xr -x 5 houston plex 4.0K Jan 14 10:43

.

Could anyone help me out further? Thanks!

[HaveaMint]

Is Houston a member of the plex group?

[houston]

Is Houston a member of the plex group?

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I follow.

[HaveaMint]

That was my best shot at guessing, you have the folders setup under plex as the group and I wonder if the user you are using "houston" is a member of the plex group.
Oh wait you saying plex can't see the sub folders or houston can't see them? Apparently i'm confusing myself.

[houston]

That was my best shot at guessing, you have the folders setup under plex as the group and I wonder if the user you are using "houston" is a member of the plex group.
Oh wait you saying plex can't see the sub folders or houston can't see them? Apparently i'm confusing myself.

I'm saying Plex can't see the folders. As my normal user either using the GUI or command line I can access/view/edit files in /home/houston/Media, but when I go to add the Movies and TV Shows sub-directories as a Library within Plex, Plex is unable to view those files. When browsing via Plex to add those libraries, the /home/houston/ folder appears empty (though it is not, as confirmed by my having lots of stuff in that directory, and not just /Media)

[HaveaMint]

Sounds like a permission issue to me. What happens if you set it to chmod -R plex:plex /folderstructure

[houston]

Sounds like a permission issue to me. What happens if you set it to chmod -R plex:plex /folderstructure

What would the exact command be? I'm running

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chmod -R plex:plex /home/houston/Media

and getting the response "invalid mode: 'plex:plex'

[HaveaMint]

looks correct to me however my suggestion of adding the user to that group is probably the error since there may not be a user called plex. Please understand I am guessing at this.

[HaveaMint]

Who owns /home/houston/Media

[houston]

Who owns /home/houston/Media

When I run

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ls -lh

the output for Media is:

drwr -xr -x 5 houston plex 4.0K Jan 14 10:43 Media

[HaveaMint]

Someone else will need to jump in and help you, I am out of my league here.

[altair4]

Not a plex user but does this make sense: https://forums.plex.tv/t/proper-way-to- ... s/158853/3
Instead of making changes to accommodate the plex user make the plex user you. Whatever you have access to so will plex. Anyhoo that's how I read it.

[smurphos]

Basically what you need to achieve it the user plex having a minimum of read access to your media files. I don't condone giving plex ownership of chunks of your home folder. That way lies misery.

Assuming your user has ownership of the folders/files in question.......

Method 1 - made your media folders and files readable by all other users including plex.

Change permissions for folders

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find /path/to/media -type d -exec chmod -c 755 {} ";"

Change permissions for files

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find /path/to/media -type f -exec chmod -c 644 {} ";"

Method 2 - add plex to your group and make sure that folders and files are readable to your group.

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sudo adduser plex $USER

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find /path/to/media -type d -exec chmod -c 750 {} ";"

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find /path/to/media -type f -exec chmod -c 640{} ";"

Plex does give the option to remove media via it's GUI - as written the permissions given above will not allow that access. If you do want it to be able to do that I'd recommend method 2 but permissions of

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find /path/to/media -type d -exec chmod -c 770 {} ";"

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find /path/to/media -type f -exec chmod -c 660{} ";"