Plex (Docker) USB hard drive data mount disappears

  • Hi Everyone,

    I've been having a consistent issue with the Plex docker where my USB hard drive's video files are 'disappearing' from within Plex (all still visible and accessible from inside Libreelec/Kodi and via SMB on any of my other devices) I've not removed or unmounted the drive, but when I click on the /data mount inside Plex it says that nothing is there....

    I'm using a Haswell NUC, and my video content is on a WD 4TB portable USB hard drive.

    Strangely enough, i've been having the same issue with Emby and Jellyfin... Is there something I can try with the mounting of the USB...or does the USB time out or sleep and disconnect from the Docker image? I've got no idea what to try.. and i'm not sure which logs to consult...

    Any guidance would be amazing!

    :)

  • sorry! I was unclear - I started with Plex, then moved to Emby, then Jellyfin, all had the same problem... I was hopeful by switching software that the error would go away, i'm not trying to run more than one server at a time..

    I'm back on Plex at the moment, simply because of the UI.

    I'm going to try mounting a test video in a local drive, mount that, and see if/when my USB drive 'disapears' it happens to my other local drive as well...

    Outside of that, i'm coming up short for ideas...

  • That likely suggests the mount is dropping or disconnecting temporarily. The issue is, after reconnect, docker doesn't detect it without a container restart.

    I had a similar issue with a mounted smb share. Switched to docker mounted nfs, which doesn't drop (or maybe comes back properly).

    While I have no idea why it may be happening, disabling and re-enabling the the addon will restart the container and the mount should come back (as long as it's reconnected on the host).

  • That likely suggests the mount is dropping or disconnecting temporarily. The issue is, after reconnect, docker doesn't detect it without a container restart.

    I had a similar issue with a mounted smb share. Switched to docker mounted nfs, which doesn't drop (or maybe comes back properly).

    While I have no idea why it may be happening, disabling and re-enabling the the addon will restart the container and the mount should come back (as long as it's reconnected on the host).

    Yeah, thats what I figured... I guess I could mount the local drive as an nfs, either through Libreelec, or connect the USB drive to my router and share it out that way..

    You're right, that restarting the addon brings the mount back.. but obviously thats not ideal, as I'm hoping to use Plex everywhere, even when I'm away from my NUC...

    Would anybody know how to have docker re-try to mount temporarily lost drives? I'll try the linuxserver.io forums maybe..

    I guess I could also try Escalade's Plex build inside Libre without Docker...last time I tried that script it failed out, but maybe another go at it, or use his RetroELEC build..

    Thanks guys for confirming that I'm not the only one with this issue at least!

  • I'm not aware of a way to bring back dropped devices without a container restart with docker (unless you use the docker driver to mount them, such as nfs Use volumes | Docker Documentation )

    You can also check out the status of the systemd service that mounts your drive to see if it failed and restarted or something like that and try and get to the root cause because an external drive shouldn't drop like that (smb maybe).

  • I guess I could also try Escalade's Plex build inside Libre without Docker...last time I tried that script it failed out, but maybe another go at it, or use his RetroELEC build..

    Thanks guys for confirming that I'm not the only one with this issue at least!

    Definitely retry with Escalade's script. Or use the TND82 repository to install it and then manually update it if you have to. I've ran Plex as a service on my RPi 3B for a long time and rarely have issues.

  • hey all,

    Just an update, incase people find this thread with similar issues.

    I decided to 'wait until it happens again' which didn't happen for a while, but when I went into Portainer after discovering it broke again I realised that it was failing its h3alth check when it broke.. So I installed this container..

    Docker Hub to reboot containers that fail h3alth checks.

    if it works properly, I would only have 2 mins of downtime every so-often (maybe 2/month? if that..) and that'll do for now at least..

    Thanks for your help everyone!

  • ?? What h3althcheck? Our image does not have h3althcheck

    I;m using the plexinc docker - I was using the linuxserver one, then it broke, so I tried the plexinc one. The Plexinc one does have a h3althcheck (obviously spelt correctly but I can't use the real word because of the forum filters) It also breaks, but I haven't bothered to go back to linuxserver, as it breaks in the same way, and then I found the solution I found (that I hope will work, it hasn't broken yet so I donno...)

  • This happens occasionally for various reasons, creating orphaned containers. I haven't looks at your diagnostics, but the simple fix is to go back to the Apps tab and on the top left you'll find Previous Apps. UPSers

    Edited 2 times, last by Berthas (September 22, 2020 at 5:34 AM).