Setting up a media directory for Plex

Technical Issues and Assistance Third-Party Applications
#1

Almost all answers I've found online are years old and involve changing permissions of the home directories and mounting NTFS volumes.

I have an ext4 partition mounted at /home/twifty/Downloads. The "Add Folder" item within plex can see this directory but not it's contents.

I want to create a /home/twifty/Downloads/Plex directory dedicated to plex, into which I can drop (and/or possibly link if plex doesn't have issues) files.

How should I configure the permissions?

All I'm looking for is a simple DNLA server so that my son can watch his movies on the TV. If there is a hassle free alternative to plex, I'd also accept that as a solution.

#2

It would help if you post which Manjaro you are running, cause it will make a difference in instructions that you get. That said there are plenty of recent threads / post on the Plex forums about making Plex see your files. I'll use my setup as an example.

Manjaro KDE testing build
Both the latest PMS and PMP
Mount Points
   /home/agentx/Clsassified/Movie Series
   /home/agentx/Classified/Movies
   /home/agentx/Classified/Music
   /home/sagent/Classified/Music Videos
   /home/agentx/Classified/Television

Now because I have Dolphin with KDE once I create those folders and mount my drives and partitions to them all I have to do is go into each of those folders, rightclick, select root actions, and select ownership to active user and then PLEX sees all of my files.

#3

Given that linux permissions are not really dependent on the DE used, I didn't include those details. But, I have the same setup - KDE on the testing branch.

Why do you have PMP (Plex Media Player) installed? I intend to serve not watch, is that a requirement?

I don't have a "root actions" in the right click context menu, but permissions under properties shows that the owner is myself, and I have changed the group to 'plex'. However, the files are still not found.

#4

No PMP is not required it is a matter of choice. I find it much easier to fix series and movie matches on the desktop rather than log into the browser app. Now if you are on Manjaro KDE then yes if you rightclick in a folder or on a item you have root actions and ownership to active user.

#5

I posted a reply about 8 hours ago but the forum appeared to be broken. I now see that it never went through.

I solved the issue by adapting an Ubuntu solution I found online and made the plex service run as my own user.

For anybody else with similar problem:

Edit the service User=plex and Group=plex to become your own username:

sudo nano /usr/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service

Copy the directory /var/lib/plex to your home:

cp -R /var/lib/plex ~/.plex

Update plex to point to new directory. Change PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/var/lib/plex to PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/home/user/.plex:

sudo nano /etc/conf.d/plexmediaserver

Finally restart the service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver
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#6

Far more complicated than it needed to be, though glad you got it resolved.

#7

Do you have some kind of plugin enabled for dolphin to display that context menu? Mine doesn't have the "root actions" or many of the other entries you have. I only have "compress" "activities" and "copy to" in that section.

Found it:

pacman -S kde-servicemenus-rootactions
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#8

Cool forgot I had added the root actions myself. Will have to try yours in the future, cause I downloaded it and manually added it to the services menu folder.

#9

You can also change the ownership of /var/lib/plex:

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/lib/plex

This avoids having to copy the directory and changing the PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR variable. But I personally prefer having user owned files in my home directory.

#10

Hey Mate, I just created an account to thank you for this issue.

Started with Manjaro / Linux a week ago and was mind-boggled about what to do with Plex not being able to access my folders until I get to your post.

Thank you!

#11

No problem. One warning though, when plex updates it will overwrite the /usr/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service file. It would be better to copy the contents to another service file, disable plexmediaserver and enable the new file.

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