Moving Plex "Media" Folder to array (Video Thumbnail Previews)


JimPhreak

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Hey everyone,

 

I'm in the process of upgrading my cache pool (adding two 480GB SSD's to my two current ones) and figured now is a good time to clean-up (free-up) some space that some of my dockers take up on that pool.

 

My Plex server is HUGE and most of that is because I have Video Thumbnail Previews enabled on my Movie (1,650+ movies) and TV Show (11,000+ episodes) libraries.  Is there a way for me to store that data (which resides inside of the Media directory in the Plex appdata folder) on my array and if so is there any reason not to do so?  With that data stored in my Plex config folder my Plex appdata folder takes up over 180GB (35GB without the Thumbnail Previews) of space so you can image why I'd be anxious to free some of that up.

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I would not move that data to your array. It means the array drive will need to be spinning any time anyone looks at your plex library and the performance will.. disappoint you.

 

I am in the process of moving my plex config folder to it's own SSD to improve the speed of browsing plex. I'd recommend another drive outside the array for your plex media folder.

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I would not move that data to your array. It means the array drive will need to be spinning any time anyone looks at your plex library and the performance will.. disappoint you.

 

I am in the process of moving my plex config folder to it's own SSD to improve the speed of browsing plex. I'd recommend another drive outside the array for your plex media folder.

 

I see.  Well if I have 4 SSD's in a cache pool what would be the advantage of putting my Plex data on it's on SSD outside of the pool?  I personally wouldn't want to have my Plex data on an unprotected drive/array as it's very valuable to me.

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I would not move that data to your array. It means the array drive will need to be spinning any time anyone looks at your plex library and the performance will.. disappoint you.

 

I am in the process of moving my plex config folder to it's own SSD to improve the speed of browsing plex. I'd recommend another drive outside the array for your plex media folder.

 

I see.  Well if I have 4 SSD's in a cache pool what would be the advantage of putting my Plex data on it's on SSD outside of the pool?  I personally wouldn't want to have my Plex data on an unprotected drive/array as it's very valuable to me.

If you have room in cache that is always easier than dealing with a separate drive that isn't managed by unRAID.
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I would not move that data to your array. It means the array drive will need to be spinning any time anyone looks at your plex library and the performance will.. disappoint you.

 

I am in the process of moving my plex config folder to it's own SSD to improve the speed of browsing plex. I'd recommend another drive outside the array for your plex media folder.

 

I see.  Well if I have 4 SSD's in a cache pool what would be the advantage of putting my Plex data on it's on SSD outside of the pool?  I personally wouldn't want to have my Plex data on an unprotected drive/array as it's very valuable to me.

If you have room in cache that is always easier than dealing with a separate drive that isn't managed by unRAID.

 

I will have room once I add these 2 new SSD's.  Can I just simply add two new drives to an already created cache pool without losing the data on the pool as currently configured?

Link to comment

I would not move that data to your array. It means the array drive will need to be spinning any time anyone looks at your plex library and the performance will.. disappoint you.

 

I am in the process of moving my plex config folder to it's own SSD to improve the speed of browsing plex. I'd recommend another drive outside the array for your plex media folder.

 

I see.  Well if I have 4 SSD's in a cache pool what would be the advantage of putting my Plex data on it's on SSD outside of the pool?  I personally wouldn't want to have my Plex data on an unprotected drive/array as it's very valuable to me.

If you have room in cache that is always easier than dealing with a separate drive that isn't managed by unRAID.

 

I will have room once I add these 2 new SSD's.  Can I just simply add two new drives to an already created cache pool without losing the data on the pool as currently configured?

It's supposed to work that way, but you might make a backup just in case something goes wrong.
Link to comment

I would not move that data to your array. It means the array drive will need to be spinning any time anyone looks at your plex library and the performance will.. disappoint you.

 

I am in the process of moving my plex config folder to it's own SSD to improve the speed of browsing plex. I'd recommend another drive outside the array for your plex media folder.

 

I see.  Well if I have 4 SSD's in a cache pool what would be the advantage of putting my Plex data on it's on SSD outside of the pool?  I personally wouldn't want to have my Plex data on an unprotected drive/array as it's very valuable to me.

If you have room in cache that is always easier than dealing with a separate drive that isn't managed by unRAID.

 

I will have room once I add these 2 new SSD's.  Can I just simply add two new drives to an already created cache pool without losing the data on the pool as currently configured?

It's supposed to work that way, but you might make a backup just in case something goes wrong.

 

Yup, already on it.  Thanks!

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I would not move that data to your array. It means the array drive will need to be spinning any time anyone looks at your plex library and the performance will.. disappoint you.

 

I am in the process of moving my plex config folder to it's own SSD to improve the speed of browsing plex. I'd recommend another drive outside the array for your plex media folder.

 

I see.  Well if I have 4 SSD's in a cache pool what would be the advantage of putting my Plex data on it's on SSD outside of the pool?  I personally wouldn't want to have my Plex data on an unprotected drive/array as it's very valuable to me.

 

I back it up to the array each night with rsync. With that big a cache, just leave it there!

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If you want to move just the video thumbnail previews (the bif index files) there is an easy way.

 

The "media" folder in your plex library contains only the bif index files, one screengrab (used in case there is no thumb available on the internet) and subtitles plex may have retrieved.

 

You can easily move this folder elsewhere and create a symlink in its place. That's what I did because I was running out of space on the SSD that is hosting the docker config folders including plex.

 

I moved it to a much larger but slower cache drive (hdd). There is no hit in performance as the actual artwork is stored in a different folder which is still on the SSD. My "media" folder is huge thanks to the index files. Each about 20-40MB and there are thousands of them (One for each video file).

Link to comment

If you want to move just the video thumbnail previews (the bif index files) there is an easy way.

 

The "media" folder in your plex library contains only the bif index files, one screengrab (used in case there is no thumb available on the internet) and subtitles plex may have retrieved.

 

You can easily move this folder elsewhere and create a symlink in its place. That's what I did because I was running out of space on the SSD that is hosting the docker config folders including plex.

 

I moved it to a much larger but slower cache drive (hdd). There is no hit in performance as the actual artwork is stored in a different folder which is still on the SSD. My "media" folder is huge thanks to the index files. Each about 20-40MB and there are thousands of them (One for each video file).

 

You have multiple cache drives that are not in the same pool?

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  • 1 year later...
On 12/15/2015 at 0:55 PM, aptalca said:

If you want to move just the video thumbnail previews (the bif index files) there is an easy way.

 

The "media" folder in your plex library contains only the bif index files, one screengrab (used in case there is no thumb available on the internet) and subtitles plex may have retrieved.

 

You can easily move this folder elsewhere and create a symlink in its place. That's what I did because I was running out of space on the SSD that is hosting the docker config folders including plex.

 

I moved it to a much larger but slower cache drive (hdd). There is no hit in performance as the actual artwork is stored in a different folder which is still on the SSD. My "media" folder is huge thanks to the index files. Each about 20-40MB and there are thousands of them (One for each video file).

thanks for your reply on the other post.

one question, is the symlink set up inside the container folder where the media file resides?, do you have an example?

 

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thanks for your reply on the other post.
one question, is the symlink set up inside the container folder where the media file resides?, do you have an example?
 


Symlink would have to point to the folder from the container's perspective. Easiest way to do that is, mount the volume /mnt as /mnt in container settings so the symlink is the same inside and out. Just point to the new location /mnt/user/share/etc
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