Plex will not find storage volume shared from jail

[DaWaltz]

Looking for some help here.

After the FreeNAS 10 disaster and recovery I have finally got back to installing the Plex plug-in. The problem I am having is when I add the volume with my media to the jail. I then start the Plex plug-in and I cannot find the Media share...Plex just doesn't see it for some reason.

So I can't add my media to Plex....the most basic of steps to get it working lol

Steps I've made so far

-made sure permissions are correct for the volume.
-added/removed the volume to and from the jail.
-restarted the plug-in

Any help very much appreciated, this has gone on for a week now. Watched all the plex setup videos.....I'm stuck

 

[joeschmuck]

You need to manually configure Plex to look at "/media", that means within plex it will not show /media as an option but you can manually type it in and then save your configuration. That should solve your issue. This issue happens a lot, I'm surprised a search didn't find this info for you.

 

[joeschmuck]

Also, are you storing your media actually within the jail or are you linking it outside the jail to /media like 99% of the people do?

 

[DaWaltz]

Also, are you storing your media actually within the jail or are you linking it outside the jail to /media like 99% of the people do?

like 99% of people do.

You need to manually configure Plex to look at "/media", that means within plex it will not show /media as an option but you can manually type it in and then save your configuration. That should solve your issue. This issue happens a lot, I'm surprised a search didn't find this info for you.

Yes, this is the problem I am having. I cannot find /media. How do I add this manually to Plex?

You said type it in. So I figured typing /media/FreeNAS/Derek/Media/New Movies would work.....but no dice.

How do I browse the media share I want to add, without typing it manually?

 

[joeschmuck]

How do I browse the media share I want to add, without typing it manually?

You don't.

When you add a library to your Plex and when you click on "Browse for Media Folder", it opens up a browser. You need to manually type in "/media" (without the quotes) and save it. Now your media should be added.

Hopefully you setup in the GUI the proper path to your media. Here is my example...

 

[DaWaltz]

You don't.

When you add a library to your Plex and when you click on "Browse for Media Folder", it opens up a browser. You need to manually type in "/media" (without the quotes) and save it. Now your media should be added.

Hopefully you setup in the GUI the proper path to your media. Here is my example...

View attachment 19983

Right, but my media folder has many sub folders depending on the type of media I am adding....tv shows etc.

I have browsed my file system before....so how do I do that? Thank you but your "manual add" solution is not what I'm looking for.

The path to my media is setup correctly as per your example.

 

[joeschmuck]

In the FreeNAS GUI you would link to the dataset location of "/mnt/FreeNAS/Derek/FreeNAS/Derek/Media" (by the way, that is one tuff path to follow) and in the plex jail you would link to "/media" (as you have done).

In Plex when adding a library you would manually enter any subdirectoy path beyond "/mnt/FreeNAS/Derek/FreeNAS/Derek/Media", and if I understood your path above you would next have "New Movies" so you would enter into plex "/media/New Movies" (include the quotes on this entry becasue you are using a space, I don't know if Plex will like it) for movies and and example for TV Shows may be "/media/TV_Shows" (no quotes).

Additionally, I would refrain from using spaces in directory paths, use an underscore instead, FreeBSD and Linux will like you better, otherwise you must use quotes around the entire path and hope Plex likes it.

 

[DaWaltz]

In the FreeNAS GUI you would link to the dataset location of "/mnt/FreeNAS/Derek/FreeNAS/Derek/Media" (by the way, that is one tuff path to follow) and in the plex jail you would link to "/media" (as you have done).

In Plex when adding a library you would manually enter any subdirectoy path beyond "/mnt/FreeNAS/Derek/FreeNAS/Derek/Media", and if I understood your path above you would next have "New Movies" so you would enter into plex "/media/New Movies" (include the quotes on this entry becasue you are using a space, I don't know if Plex will like it) for movies and and example for TV Shows may be "/media/TV_Shows" (no quotes).

Additionally, I would refrain from using spaces in directory paths, use an underscore instead, FreeBSD and Linux will like you better, otherwise you must use quotes around the entire path and hope Plex likes it.

Alright.....Thanks for your help! I seem to have it working and am able to find my subfolders! Very Much appreciated friend.

Good tip with the underscores. I'll be doing that moving forward

 

[pschatz100]

The best thing to do when naming directories in FreeNAS is to avoid spaces. You can use dashes or underscores to help keep things readable. This is good practice for all non-Windows machines.

 

[Stux]

The best thing to do when naming directories in FreeNAS is to avoid spaces. You can use dashes or underscores to help keep things readable. This is good practice for all non-Windows machines.

But don't take this advise to mean that FreeNAS doesn't support spaces, it does, it's just often easier when using CLI stuff to not have spaces.

 

[nightshade00013]

But don't take this advise to mean that FreeNAS doesn't support spaces, it does, it's just often easier when using CLI stuff to not have spaces.

Agreed if you are doing something in the CLI that deals with a directory with a space make sure you add quotations around the directory string and it will work just fine. Navigating to the Plex install directories is one such place where this can be a pain as far as applications.

 

[LLeo]

Enjoying this discussion! I have my folders mounted in the Plex jail. I am accessing the data from outside of the jail by adding storage inside the jail such as "Source: /mnt/FNSRV/Video/Music Videos to Destination: /media/Music Videos. I have 5 such folders (7 total with/without spaces) that work just fine in Plex. However, I have tried adding two more folders in the same manner but Plex "says" there is nothing in there! If I am correctly thinking, the "media/Whatever" folders are just a shortcut to the /mnt data folders. Of course, I have checked and there is actual data in all 7 folders but just two won't propagate to Plex. I am using joeschmuck's method of setting up the Plex folders above by adding the /folder name after /media but coming up blank on those two for some reason! BTW, I did not check "Read Only" as I may delete files later. I checked my permissions and they all seem equal but I am a noob in the command line language so I may have missed something. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[pschatz100]

My first thought would be to rename your folders and mount points so that they do not have spaces. Use underscores or dashes if you want to keep things readable. For instance: Music Videos would be Music_Videos or Music-Videos. This should be standard practice with anything you install in FreeNAS. Some folks will tell you that you can use spaces in folder names by enclosing the folder name in quotes, and in many cases you can, but there are too many ways for you to get this wrong. Just avoid spaces in folder names. Since Plex lets you assign names to the libraries as you wish, there is no particular reason why the folders must have "pretty" names. Make sense?

Also, don't forget that file names and folder names are case sensitive in FreeNAS: "Music Video" is not the same as "music video".

If this is not your issue, then post more details of what you are doing and the errors you are getting.

 

[LLeo]

I appreciate the "no spaces" suggestion and it makes sense. All these problems started a couple of weeks ago when the Creators Update came through on Win Update. The network communication, mapping, sharing, etc., died. The SMB sharing was working fine. What I will confess to is that I got the bright idea to use the Windows convention of redirecting its folders to another network location (Freenas in this case!). Bad move considering Windows can't see Freenas (or any of the other network computers) like it was successfully doing just a couple of weeks ago! I did discover the FTP function in Freenas and recovered all my data by transferring it onto an outboard HD! I have just rolled back Windows to the Anniversary edition and I'm stopping there. If that restores my network settings, I may just start over completely with Freenas 11 since all my data has been backed and can be put back into my new Freenas config. I plan on ground zeroing it, creating new volumes, new datasets, etc., if my Windows refresh gets me back to where I was last month. Then I'll redo Plex in your naming convention as suggested. I'll post if it works. And thanks so much!