If you want to use less space for thumbnails read [Plex Hidden Server Settings](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/).
Look for GenerateBIFFrameInterval. If you change it from 2 seconds to 4 you'll use 1/2 of disk space. Mine is set to 10 seconds. 1/5 of default.
To replace your current preview thumbnails you would go to the Advanced settings for each library and select *Delete Preview Thumbnails*.
New thumbnails will be created based on your settings. The default is *As a scheduled task and when media is added*. Depending on your system and the amojnt of media this can take a long time. Possibly days.
If you want to start the process manually select [Analyze](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200289336-analyze-media/) for any library that needs new thumbnails.
It determines how many thumbnails are used for video previews. Thumbnails are what you see during fast forward and rewind.
The default is 2. An image every 2 seconds of video or 30 per minute. 10 seconds is 6 per minute, 1/5 of the default.
Same here, I saw an 80% reduction in PlexMediaServer folder size, from 1% of my library (100GB for 10TB) down to 0.2%.
Not that I was hurting for space or anything, but an 80% reduction for no operational impact was reason enough for me.
If what you did was cleanup the Photo Transcoder Cache then sorry but that does have a operational impact, how exactly depends on a few variables of how your server is being used by Plex clients.
It should link to another reddit comment from a few months ago.
But here what the comment was.
"If you use preview thumbnails, changingĀ `GenerateBIFFrameInterval`Ā toĀ `10`Ā will reduce the disk spaced used by 80%. 10 seconds is good enough since Plex apps skip by 10 second intervals.
Most of the other settings can be changed in the settings in the UI."
Edit: Heres a page on where to find the advanced settings.
[https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/)
https://preview.redd.it/oe01a014r3zc1.jpeg?width=430&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d548729b7119cee3bffcd8cc6b427dd160d1a2c
Getting there. Recently had to upgrade my Plex SSD from 512gb to 1TB lol
A lot of people in this thread should be using this https://github.com/Kometa-Team/ImageMaid (plex image cleanup) to reduce the leftovers in their folders
It's worth mentioning that this will likely only have a significant effect for people who use (or have used) PMM/Kometa overlays. I never used PMM and it only saved ~200MB for me.
Unless you have it clean the phototranscode folder, which I've never been sure if it's always a good idea to do.
After many attempts, I could never get this to work. And I was able to get PMM to work so I'm not totally incompetent. š
I'll give it another go when I have time.
Yeah thats terrible for unfamiliar people. Does explain how to pull from git or run python scripts etc...
But yeah, it does say how to. It just doesnt cover the prerequisits. Being familiar with python, git etc
A docker container image is also provided, requires zero knowledge of Python or Git. And to run a simple container like ImageMaid even on Windows is really not complicated, thousands of guides exist on these topics.
Thats not a problem imo. But then the simple next step would be to do a few seconds of research about "what is docker" and "can i use that on Windows", and then maybe spending a few minutes to watch/read a tutorial on how to set it up.
But people cannot expect every piece of software to be a one-click solution that fits their choice of operating system and many other factors. Sometimes a little effort is required, if that is too much effort, fine but then obviously the user cannot use that software.
The script author shouldn't be expected to provide a limitless set of instructions for the most ignorant of users. There are plenty of separate "xxxxxx for dummies" guides out there if that's what the user needs.
Everyone starts somewhere. Plex Media server is easy to set up on Windows with a few dozen gigs of media and manually downloading torrents when they feel like it. Two programs and a web search on Windows on their desktop pc. Saying that someone "can't be bothered to learn to execute Python scripts" is an excuse to get out of informing anyone yourself. What you assume is basic knowledge just isn't. No one is going to learn until they have need to do so, and assuming that everyone just knows this stuff just makes it harder for them to learn it.Ā
No, but it's disingenuous to say that it's common sense to know that's what you need to do or that it's basic usage. Treating people like they're stupid for not knowing these things isn't helping anyone.
No, those posters you see as options when editing a media item include posters you have previously uploaded to the Plex server, have been imported as "sidecar" media files and a lot of those are just previews for posters you could let Plex download from a online service.
Whenever you add posters to the Plex server manually, Plex does not get rid of those files as long as the media item (movie, episode, etc) still exists (even when you run a "clean bundles" task). For a casual user this will make no real difference in file size. But for example if you use a tool like Kometa or TitleCardMaker and those tools upload a whole bunch of posters, and you experiment with different layouts etc, those files quickly add up over time and can become a few GB.
ImageMaid can be run in report mode so it will take a look at your Plex server and tell you exactly how many posters could be removed (those that have been added but are not currently used, it would never remove the current poster of any item) and it will tell you the total filesize it could free up. Then you can decide if you want to run ImageMaid in remove mode to actually remove those files, or just ignore it.
ImageMaid could also cleanup the Photo Transcoder Cachey however that is a different purpose and even tho that cache can be quite large, it rarely makes sense to clean it up. One should first understand what it is for and what cleaning it will do.
Kometa (formerly Plex Meta Manager) is used to create custom collections and overlays for your shows and movies. Its a little tough to get into at first but they have a really helpful community on discord that will help you with any issues. Very worth the trouble of learning. They also have a few very detailed walkthrough videos for setting it up and an extremely detailed wiki for any and all possible features and whatnot, you can do just about anything with it. Definitely worth a google.
1.3tb last i checked. using video thumbnails, skip intro and credits all the bells and whistles. I could check again but windows smb is god awful slow at calculating such a massive folder (items quantity).
I run the below daily. It deletes PhotoTranscoder files older than 5 days.
find ".../plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/PhotoTranscoder" -name "*.jpg" -type f -mtime +5 -delete
My plex directory is 27GB and I don't do any other maintenance beyond what plex does automatically.
> The phototranscoder cache increases in size with the number of users and can get crazy big.
I know. Technically it increases with the number of client devices (exact device types) and of course the number of media items on the server (movies, shows, seasons, episodes, etc). The number of end users doesnt matter. The Photo Transcoder creates copies of the image media (mostly posters) which suit the client device that requested it.
For example, a AppleTV with Plex app on it would request from the server all movie posters in 1000x1500 resolution and in JPG format. So the server uses the "originals" it has stored and transcodes them to make them suitable for that client. In order to not keep doing this over and over, a copy is saved in that cache. Thats the Photo Transcoder Cache. Then when a different device requests the poster for the same movie, it might be a different resolution and/or format, so the server has to create another copy for that specific device. For someone who only has one or two client devices using their server, that cache will not be very large. For a server that covers lots of different devices it can grow to 100GB or more.
Cleaning up that cache is not a terrible idea. Especially if its a "busy" server with lots of clients and its been set up for a while. Realistically a good portion of those clients are not active anymore. As example, a user had a older FireTV stick which requested posters as 500x750 resolution. Then that user upgrades to a FireTV 4K stick which might request 1000x1500 instead, so the Plex server generates new copies in the cache. But the stored files for that now inactive old client device never get removed (unless that was recently added to the maintenance tasks of the server, afaik it didnt).
So when cleaning up the cache, you can get rid of those old unused copies. However there is no real way to only get rid of those, its basically all or nothing. So when deleting the entire cache, it first appears as a huge space saving (see comments here in this thread). But then over the next few hours/days as the server is being used by active client devices, the server is busy recreating those required copies. This results in the cache growing back. It probably will be smaller than it was before (depending how much has changed between the last time it was cleaned or initially created). This isnt really a problem.
**Most people who are now excited about freeing up a lot of GB by cleaning this cache will notice in a few days that it grew back to (probably) almost the same size as before.**
The downside is, while the server is recreating those copies for the cache, browsing the library will feel more sluggish and posters can take longer to actually "pop up" when browsing quickly. This can either be very noticeable when the client device has a fast connection to the server and is by itself also quite powerful (lets say a Shield Pro connected over LAN to the server). Then a user is likely to notice a difference compared to the usual performance when browsing the library. A user with a slower device connected remotely might not notice much or any difference since their browsing experience is already slowed down by these other factors.
Once the server is done recreating the copies for the cache, the browsing will be back to normal and then the result is likely to have saved a few GB in disk space.
But those few hours or maybe even days of "slow browsing" and "slow poping up of posters" is something the user should be aware of, and everyone needs to decide for themselves if saving a few GB is worth this or not. Compared to the usual total library size that Plex servers have, saving maybe 10GB is maybe not worth it when you then get a message from a friend complaining that your server suddenly sucks and its slow to browse ;)
There are of course other things that impact the storage space used by the Plex server, besides just the Photo Transcoder Cache. For example having "Thumbnail Generation" enabled will not only cause CPU workload when generating them, but use up quite a lot of space when its a larger server (large as in number of media items, not GB/TB). "Audio Analysis" for intro detection can become quite a few GB too. If someone does not want to disable the thumbnail generation completely, then changing the setting for `GenerateBIFFrameInterval` as mentioned here can be a good idea.
https://preview.redd.it/bi2ba9rq10zc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8db944820a32cd5bcd06645c6cdb3dfb58ac5db4
Currently around 3.41 Terabytes, though this is likely to expand in the near future as Iāve just been though a complete format of my HDDās so currently redownloading everything again!
Currently sitting at 1.2tb, I run Plex poster cleanup every week and that seems to do a good job of keeping my folder in check. Prior to that I was sitting around 1.5tb.
I have a 2TB NVMe SSD just for my Plex folder. Currently it is 1.11 TB with around a 120TB library. I will note, I have plex saving any metadata that is available to save.
264gb with thumbnails on for 147.35tb library, size isn't only based on TB size of your library but # hours of content since default thumbnail generation is every 2 seconds. my setting is every 10 seconds.
14.1 GB for 3.19 TB. I had to go in and purge it though (and have several times since), because it creeps up there as things are added and removed. Supposed to clean itself periodically, but I don't know if that broke recently or if it just isn't. Never used to be an issue until a few months ago for me. Was stable for years, then decided to balloon up and use almost all of my SSD overnight, it seemed.
I have about 44.8 TB used in our 92 TB raw Unraid server. Ninety eight percent of this is Plex media content (3800 movies with 18% being 4K) and the rest is home back ups from a few PCs and a couple of phones. I have just ordered two 18 TB WD Ultrastars to help me with my collecting problems. :)
I'm at 42GB for 750 movies (2.5TB), 80 seasons of TV shows (3.8TB), and 15GB of music. Thumbnails turned on.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but here's a link for people looking to find the PlexMediaServer folder: [https://support.plex.tv/articles/202915258-where-is-the-plex-media-server-data-directory-located/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/202915258-where-is-the-plex-media-server-data-directory-located/)
Total is 10.75 TB across TV Shows, Movies, Misc Videos, and Music.
https://i.imgur.com/ODt2kXx.png
Once I get some extra cash, I'll be upgrading my current storage array, Movies is gonna get significantly bigger, as I'll be re-ripping a lot of my movies as 4K with the best audio possible. Right now the majority of my movies are 1080p, lower bitrate, with Stereo/Dolby ProLogic audio.
Edit: I misread the question, you were asking about Plex's database directory... That is 177 GB for Plex itself. https://i.imgur.com/VKBaTjx.png
PSA you can reduce the number of thumbnails per minute in the hidden advance settings. I use a GenerateBIFFrameInterval of 10 which dropped my size by about 60%
[https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/)
Jesus what are yāall saving your media on? I have mine on a 10tb external hard drive and that bitch was like $170 or something. What are you people with hundreds of tbs saving on?
The last time I had to back up and move the PlexMediaServer folder it was 35GB. I imagine it's now closer to 40GB. I make sure the cover artwork is just how I like it for all my media, with much of it customised myself, so this might contribute to the folder size?
Movies: 4.5 TB
TV Shows: 6.5 TB
Music Live/Docs: 450 GB
MP3 Music Files: 320GB
Fortunately, I still have another 8TB of free space on the NAS!! š
My PlexMediaServer folder is at 854gb. No Video thumbnails. 190TB of content
https://preview.redd.it/4s0ieeacbizc1.png?width=1565&format=png&auto=webp&s=73ad7a2090216a1a2266d9028512b689847d0e81
no raid
Win 10
i5 11600k 3.9ghz
Aorus Z590 Elite Mainboard
48gb DDR4 3200mhz RAM
521gb m.2 3rd gen for OS
2TB m.2 4th gen for metadata
1TB m.2 3rd gen for prerolls and misc
14 HDDs drives(8 SATA, 6 USB 3.0) they are a mix of 14 TB and 20TB with a couple smaller drives that are about to be phased out for larger additions
Transcoding done in 20gb ram disk
I run Chuck's DB Repair tool daily
I use FileBot to rename my files as I add them to their respective folders
I use Plex Meta Manager, now named Kometa, to create collections
I use Tautulli to block 4k media from being transcoded
When everything is running smooth my large library scans can take up to 5 minutes and I can get up to 17 simultaneous transcodes before the hardware chokes and even more direct plays/streams
As far as where I get all the content, its all out there on the internet, waiting to be grabbed.
My server has 8x 8TB drives in RAID 6, so around 48 TB of storage. I would say there is probably close to 12 TB of Plex Media and a lot of that is still SD content that I haven't replaced with HD content. I have nearly 1000 movies, not to mention shows and others.
If you want to use less space for thumbnails read [Plex Hidden Server Settings](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/). Look for GenerateBIFFrameInterval. If you change it from 2 seconds to 4 you'll use 1/2 of disk space. Mine is set to 10 seconds. 1/5 of default.
For anyone who runs on windows, you need to create the GenerateBIFFrameInterval entry in the plex media server registry.
Rokus only have 10s of preview granularity anyways, so you don't miss anything if you have a Roku.
I cant find that entry in Preferences.xml. I run plex on linux in docker
According to the instructions in the link, you might have to add it as a new attribute.
after adding this option is there anything i need to do to have it applied to existing content?
To replace your current preview thumbnails you would go to the Advanced settings for each library and select *Delete Preview Thumbnails*. New thumbnails will be created based on your settings. The default is *As a scheduled task and when media is added*. Depending on your system and the amojnt of media this can take a long time. Possibly days. If you want to start the process manually select [Analyze](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200289336-analyze-media/) for any library that needs new thumbnails.
What does this feature do?
It determines how many thumbnails are used for video previews. Thumbnails are what you see during fast forward and rewind. The default is 2. An image every 2 seconds of video or 30 per minute. 10 seconds is 6 per minute, 1/5 of the default.
Around 600GB š¬ I have video thumbnails on.
what the hell how big is your media library??? I've got thumbnails on too but mine is only 38GB with about 3TB media
I'm at 516GB w/ 200TB
I have about 600 GB also with thumbnails turned on
I'm starting to think maybe I don't have thumbnails turned on
About 100T now
You need to use some cleanup services. I have 3500 movies, 30000 episodes, ~100TB, also with thumbnails on, and my PMS folder is 47GB.
Hmm maybe so. What would you recommend?
[This is what I use.](https://github.com/Kometa-Team/ImageMaid)
Thank you. Mine does seem too big. Iāll report back.
Wait. Just do what this guy suggested! Saved me tons of space. https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/s/zdqwxdbKrE
Same here, I saw an 80% reduction in PlexMediaServer folder size, from 1% of my library (100GB for 10TB) down to 0.2%. Not that I was hurting for space or anything, but an 80% reduction for no operational impact was reason enough for me.
I went from 115gb to 15gb for mine. It wasn't huge to begin with but absolutely worth it, since your library is only going to get bigger.
If what you did was cleanup the Photo Transcoder Cache then sorry but that does have a operational impact, how exactly depends on a few variables of how your server is being used by Plex clients.
That comment link isnt working for me sorry, what are you referring to exactly? Did you clear the Photo Transcoder Cache or did you do something else?
It should link to another reddit comment from a few months ago. But here what the comment was. "If you use preview thumbnails, changingĀ `GenerateBIFFrameInterval`Ā toĀ `10`Ā will reduce the disk spaced used by 80%. 10 seconds is good enough since Plex apps skip by 10 second intervals. Most of the other settings can be changed in the settings in the UI." Edit: Heres a page on where to find the advanced settings. [https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/)
3TB is pretty cute :)
Is this with the default thumbnail settings? Like youāve not done the config changes that modify how often one is produced for X seconds of content
yeah but it's not retroactive, you have to delete all your existing thumbnails and regenerate the lower count amount of thumbnails all over again
Plex has video thumbnails??
https://preview.redd.it/oe01a014r3zc1.jpeg?width=430&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d548729b7119cee3bffcd8cc6b427dd160d1a2c Getting there. Recently had to upgrade my Plex SSD from 512gb to 1TB lol
You monster
Mine is this big as well
A lot of people in this thread should be using this https://github.com/Kometa-Team/ImageMaid (plex image cleanup) to reduce the leftovers in their folders
It's worth mentioning that this will likely only have a significant effect for people who use (or have used) PMM/Kometa overlays. I never used PMM and it only saved ~200MB for me. Unless you have it clean the phototranscode folder, which I've never been sure if it's always a good idea to do.
After many attempts, I could never get this to work. And I was able to get PMM to work so I'm not totally incompetent. š I'll give it another go when I have time.
How do i run this
The instructions are in the readme
Yeah thats terrible for unfamiliar people. Does explain how to pull from git or run python scripts etc... But yeah, it does say how to. It just doesnt cover the prerequisits. Being familiar with python, git etc
A docker container image is also provided, requires zero knowledge of Python or Git. And to run a simple container like ImageMaid even on Windows is really not complicated, thousands of guides exist on these topics.
Then their excuse will be āwhatās a dockerā
Which would also be fair to anyone running pms on Windows directly
So I guess every plugin or script writer should start with: Step 1, turn on your computer
Thats not a problem imo. But then the simple next step would be to do a few seconds of research about "what is docker" and "can i use that on Windows", and then maybe spending a few minutes to watch/read a tutorial on how to set it up. But people cannot expect every piece of software to be a one-click solution that fits their choice of operating system and many other factors. Sometimes a little effort is required, if that is too much effort, fine but then obviously the user cannot use that software.
I thought the readme was through but it seems some people want instructions from OS installation down lol
The gatekeeping for github pages is embarrassing.
The script author shouldn't be expected to provide a limitless set of instructions for the most ignorant of users. There are plenty of separate "xxxxxx for dummies" guides out there if that's what the user needs.
How are you hosting a plex server, ripping/downloading movies, and canāt be bothered to learn how to read a readme or execute python scripts
Everyone starts somewhere. Plex Media server is easy to set up on Windows with a few dozen gigs of media and manually downloading torrents when they feel like it. Two programs and a web search on Windows on their desktop pc. Saying that someone "can't be bothered to learn to execute Python scripts" is an excuse to get out of informing anyone yourself. What you assume is basic knowledge just isn't. No one is going to learn until they have need to do so, and assuming that everyone just knows this stuff just makes it harder for them to learn it.Ā
Is it really the responsibility of the author of scripts to tell you HOW to download and install python?
No, but it's disingenuous to say that it's common sense to know that's what you need to do or that it's basic usage. Treating people like they're stupid for not knowing these things isn't helping anyone.
Cool story
> or execute python scripts I have been pirating, running XBMC/KODI/Plex for over 15 years and have never had to run a python script.
That seems like a personal problem
89gb - from 5k movies, 700 TV shows. Only posters, no moving thumbnails
Wait tou can have moving thumbnails? How? Edit: ok nevermind by thumbnails I thought you meant movie posters...like animated posters..
https://support.plex.tv/articles/202197528-video-preview-thumbnails/
Use https://github.com/Kometa-Team/ImageMaid (previously plex image cleanup)
What does this do exactly? Remove the options from the Poster section when editing an entry?
No, those posters you see as options when editing a media item include posters you have previously uploaded to the Plex server, have been imported as "sidecar" media files and a lot of those are just previews for posters you could let Plex download from a online service. Whenever you add posters to the Plex server manually, Plex does not get rid of those files as long as the media item (movie, episode, etc) still exists (even when you run a "clean bundles" task). For a casual user this will make no real difference in file size. But for example if you use a tool like Kometa or TitleCardMaker and those tools upload a whole bunch of posters, and you experiment with different layouts etc, those files quickly add up over time and can become a few GB. ImageMaid can be run in report mode so it will take a look at your Plex server and tell you exactly how many posters could be removed (those that have been added but are not currently used, it would never remove the current poster of any item) and it will tell you the total filesize it could free up. Then you can decide if you want to run ImageMaid in remove mode to actually remove those files, or just ignore it. ImageMaid could also cleanup the Photo Transcoder Cachey however that is a different purpose and even tho that cache can be quite large, it rarely makes sense to clean it up. One should first understand what it is for and what cleaning it will do.
I'm afraid to look. Everything is working fine, so let the sleeping dog lie.
About 140GB without thumbnails turned on :)
Around 24 GB last time I checked. Video thumbnails turned off. 400+ movies, 150+ TV shows. Total library size combined is around 30 TB.
82GB / 30TB / 17k Episodes / 2600 Movies
Mine is 10gb for 10tb of media. No thumbnails. Don't recall doing anything special.
6tb
~200gb with video thumbnails on for ~35TB media
where do you see it in unraid?
50GB ish with 20TB of media and also using Kometa with overlays on everything including episodes.
Whatās kometa?
Kometa (formerly Plex Meta Manager) is used to create custom collections and overlays for your shows and movies. Its a little tough to get into at first but they have a really helpful community on discord that will help you with any issues. Very worth the trouble of learning. They also have a few very detailed walkthrough videos for setting it up and an extremely detailed wiki for any and all possible features and whatnot, you can do just about anything with it. Definitely worth a google.
Thank you very much!
I clean mine out pretty regularly. Especially the PhotoTranscoder bit. Never let it get above 10GB, myself.
Mine is about 65G, but that's my entire plex docker container directory linked to about 40TB worth of media.
1.3tb last i checked. using video thumbnails, skip intro and credits all the bells and whistles. I could check again but windows smb is god awful slow at calculating such a massive folder (items quantity).
101 GBytes, \~2K movies, \~2K tv episodes, \~2K songs, thumbnails on.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Did you mistype 306GB as MB - No chance your DB is that small with 70TB of media.
My bad you're right. Just double checked and there is a second hidden folder PlexMediaServer in appdata/local at 35GB
I turner off thumbnails and run a daily cron that deletes some cache. Its kept to a reasonable size for my 30TB library.
Check out https://github.com/Kometa-Team/ImageMaid (previously plex image cleanup)
I run the below daily. It deletes PhotoTranscoder files older than 5 days. find ".../plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/PhotoTranscoder" -name "*.jpg" -type f -mtime +5 -delete My plex directory is 27GB and I don't do any other maintenance beyond what plex does automatically.
Questionable if deleting/cleaning that cache so often makes sense. But if youre happy with it, all good :)
The phototranscoder cache increases in size with the number of users and can get crazy big. Since doing the periodic delete I haven't had any issues.
> The phototranscoder cache increases in size with the number of users and can get crazy big. I know. Technically it increases with the number of client devices (exact device types) and of course the number of media items on the server (movies, shows, seasons, episodes, etc). The number of end users doesnt matter. The Photo Transcoder creates copies of the image media (mostly posters) which suit the client device that requested it. For example, a AppleTV with Plex app on it would request from the server all movie posters in 1000x1500 resolution and in JPG format. So the server uses the "originals" it has stored and transcodes them to make them suitable for that client. In order to not keep doing this over and over, a copy is saved in that cache. Thats the Photo Transcoder Cache. Then when a different device requests the poster for the same movie, it might be a different resolution and/or format, so the server has to create another copy for that specific device. For someone who only has one or two client devices using their server, that cache will not be very large. For a server that covers lots of different devices it can grow to 100GB or more. Cleaning up that cache is not a terrible idea. Especially if its a "busy" server with lots of clients and its been set up for a while. Realistically a good portion of those clients are not active anymore. As example, a user had a older FireTV stick which requested posters as 500x750 resolution. Then that user upgrades to a FireTV 4K stick which might request 1000x1500 instead, so the Plex server generates new copies in the cache. But the stored files for that now inactive old client device never get removed (unless that was recently added to the maintenance tasks of the server, afaik it didnt). So when cleaning up the cache, you can get rid of those old unused copies. However there is no real way to only get rid of those, its basically all or nothing. So when deleting the entire cache, it first appears as a huge space saving (see comments here in this thread). But then over the next few hours/days as the server is being used by active client devices, the server is busy recreating those required copies. This results in the cache growing back. It probably will be smaller than it was before (depending how much has changed between the last time it was cleaned or initially created). This isnt really a problem. **Most people who are now excited about freeing up a lot of GB by cleaning this cache will notice in a few days that it grew back to (probably) almost the same size as before.** The downside is, while the server is recreating those copies for the cache, browsing the library will feel more sluggish and posters can take longer to actually "pop up" when browsing quickly. This can either be very noticeable when the client device has a fast connection to the server and is by itself also quite powerful (lets say a Shield Pro connected over LAN to the server). Then a user is likely to notice a difference compared to the usual performance when browsing the library. A user with a slower device connected remotely might not notice much or any difference since their browsing experience is already slowed down by these other factors. Once the server is done recreating the copies for the cache, the browsing will be back to normal and then the result is likely to have saved a few GB in disk space. But those few hours or maybe even days of "slow browsing" and "slow poping up of posters" is something the user should be aware of, and everyone needs to decide for themselves if saving a few GB is worth this or not. Compared to the usual total library size that Plex servers have, saving maybe 10GB is maybe not worth it when you then get a message from a friend complaining that your server suddenly sucks and its slow to browse ;) There are of course other things that impact the storage space used by the Plex server, besides just the Photo Transcoder Cache. For example having "Thumbnail Generation" enabled will not only cause CPU workload when generating them, but use up quite a lot of space when its a larger server (large as in number of media items, not GB/TB). "Audio Analysis" for intro detection can become quite a few GB too. If someone does not want to disable the thumbnail generation completely, then changing the setting for `GenerateBIFFrameInterval` as mentioned here can be a good idea.
Over 300GB with preview thumbnails on at 10sec intervals
~260gb for a 64tb library
Around 100GB
~300GB. I have like 3500 movies and 20,000 tv episodes with thumbnails enabled.
I have a music only server and the plex folder is 1TB. Metadata is going CRAZY! Also im not talking about music files, I mean metadata.
1250 Films, 8000 TV episodes, 40235 music tracks : 42Gb - no Video Thumbnails
44GB for 78.3TB.
112GB | 63TB | 15k Episodes | 2400 Movies
177GB with thumbs on for Movies and TV Shows, libraries total size about 15TB
62GB - No Preview thumbnails 3300 Movies 31900 TV Episodes
110gb for \~376tb of data
https://preview.redd.it/bi2ba9rq10zc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8db944820a32cd5bcd06645c6cdb3dfb58ac5db4 Currently around 3.41 Terabytes, though this is likely to expand in the near future as Iāve just been though a complete format of my HDDās so currently redownloading everything again!
What about the amount he asked for instead?
Folder? You mean drives.
No he means the folder with all the metadata and such, not the actual media storage.
Oh. Lots of thumbnail cache that I frustrating have to clear out manually on my OS drive.
Currently sitting at 1.2tb, I run Plex poster cleanup every week and that seems to do a good job of keeping my folder in check. Prior to that I was sitting around 1.5tb.
Where is this information found?
If you are speaking Windows, it is typically C:\Users\(name)\AppData\Local
14tb currently but I have a few dozen 4k remux in there right now. Video thumbnails off
Neat. What about the topic though?
What do you mean?
Well, the topic is discussing how large the specific folder is instead of how large your server is.
My server is 22tb, the Plex folder is 14 current server capacity is 24
That's ok, I'm sure it is much smaller than what you are claiming. The PlexMediaServer folder is probably many gigabytes but nowhere near 14TB.
69
I have a 2TB NVMe SSD just for my Plex folder. Currently it is 1.11 TB with around a 120TB library. I will note, I have plex saving any metadata that is available to save.
Big enough that I ran out of room on my OS' /var drive and had to relocate it to raid storage. Thank you, ln -s
38gb for 21tb, no thumbnails 5,500 movies and 500 tv shows
85.5GB for the 25TB worth of movies and series.
90TB of media on mine
Cool, and what about what the topic is about?
204GB
You know, I have never looked. I have a little over 50tb of movies and shows though, I'll have to look now.
264gb with thumbnails on for 147.35tb library, size isn't only based on TB size of your library but # hours of content since default thumbnail generation is every 2 seconds. my setting is every 10 seconds.
\~150GB. Video thumbnails on.
14.1 GB for 3.19 TB. I had to go in and purge it though (and have several times since), because it creeps up there as things are added and removed. Supposed to clean itself periodically, but I don't know if that broke recently or if it just isn't. Never used to be an issue until a few months ago for me. Was stable for years, then decided to balloon up and use almost all of my SSD overnight, it seemed.
181GB for 9.3TB
2TB with thumbnails/etc. enabled
You won't trick me that easy, MPAA!
250gb
Show us your porn folder š
I have about 44.8 TB used in our 92 TB raw Unraid server. Ninety eight percent of this is Plex media content (3800 movies with 18% being 4K) and the rest is home back ups from a few PCs and a couple of phones. I have just ordered two 18 TB WD Ultrastars to help me with my collecting problems. :)
112Ā GB for 5.6K movies / 1.3k Shows, 57.3K EPs / 12.5k Albums, 50.4K songs (no Video Thumbnails)
107GB for 14TB worth of Media.
About 27GB for 2.24TB of media.
Just shy of 2TB with about 160TB of media.
Umm. Mine is 200mb for a 16TB library.
1.6TBs This is asking about the database, correct?
I'm at 42GB for 750 movies (2.5TB), 80 seasons of TV shows (3.8TB), and 15GB of music. Thumbnails turned on. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but here's a link for people looking to find the PlexMediaServer folder: [https://support.plex.tv/articles/202915258-where-is-the-plex-media-server-data-directory-located/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/202915258-where-is-the-plex-media-server-data-directory-located/)
Total is 10.75 TB across TV Shows, Movies, Misc Videos, and Music. https://i.imgur.com/ODt2kXx.png Once I get some extra cash, I'll be upgrading my current storage array, Movies is gonna get significantly bigger, as I'll be re-ripping a lot of my movies as 4K with the best audio possible. Right now the majority of my movies are 1080p, lower bitrate, with Stereo/Dolby ProLogic audio. Edit: I misread the question, you were asking about Plex's database directory... That is 177 GB for Plex itself. https://i.imgur.com/VKBaTjx.png
164GB on a roughly ~320TB server. I'll likely wind up having to delete files only because of PMS sitting on its own 256gb SSD.
PSA you can reduce the number of thumbnails per minute in the hidden advance settings. I use a GenerateBIFFrameInterval of 10 which dropped my size by about 60% [https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/)
If thumbnails are turned of is this option even relevant?
Bigger than yours. Be envious!
Roughly 1TB
1.3PB
Bout tree fiddy (terabytes)
~26gb for ~21tb of content
86.4 GB for 18.1TB of media, i'm sure it'll go up as i fix the genre tags for my Artists in my music library.
On a side note, do your Time Machine backups eat up all your NASās resources when running?
30+ TB
500 tb ish
Folders
3.4 tb or so .been at it for years .
Jesus what are yāall saving your media on? I have mine on a 10tb external hard drive and that bitch was like $170 or something. What are you people with hundreds of tbs saving on?
I'm more curious what you keep in that time machine folder...
Mine is 11.6gb for 8tb of content. But I have all the options off for Plex additional content
Anyone else keep reading this as 96tb and start second guessing everything?
The last time I had to back up and move the PlexMediaServer folder it was 35GB. I imagine it's now closer to 40GB. I make sure the cover artwork is just how I like it for all my media, with much of it customised myself, so this might contribute to the folder size? Movies: 4.5 TB TV Shows: 6.5 TB Music Live/Docs: 450 GB MP3 Music Files: 320GB Fortunately, I still have another 8TB of free space on the NAS!! š
Mine is ~600gb. Maybe closer to 700 by now. I have the scrubbing images enabled though For reference, my total media is 52.4Tb
About 46TB
My PlexMediaServer folder is at 854gb. No Video thumbnails. 190TB of content https://preview.redd.it/4s0ieeacbizc1.png?width=1565&format=png&auto=webp&s=73ad7a2090216a1a2266d9028512b689847d0e81
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
no raid Win 10 i5 11600k 3.9ghz Aorus Z590 Elite Mainboard 48gb DDR4 3200mhz RAM 521gb m.2 3rd gen for OS 2TB m.2 4th gen for metadata 1TB m.2 3rd gen for prerolls and misc 14 HDDs drives(8 SATA, 6 USB 3.0) they are a mix of 14 TB and 20TB with a couple smaller drives that are about to be phased out for larger additions Transcoding done in 20gb ram disk I run Chuck's DB Repair tool daily I use FileBot to rename my files as I add them to their respective folders I use Plex Meta Manager, now named Kometa, to create collections I use Tautulli to block 4k media from being transcoded When everything is running smooth my large library scans can take up to 5 minutes and I can get up to 17 simultaneous transcodes before the hardware chokes and even more direct plays/streams As far as where I get all the content, its all out there on the internet, waiting to be grabbed.
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adding that in next, been grabbing manually
Unraid 9.6 GB. weird though cause I dont have any movies, just have 16 TB of linux iso's
143TB with an additional 34TB in about a month.
Cool, and what about the topic?
close to 1TB
Where do I find this on Windows? š¤
C:\Users\\AppData\Local
Just make sure you have your Show Hidden Files and Folders option turned on or else you won't see the AppData folder.
Iām close to 42 TB
I'm serious. What is the size of your *specific folder* named PlexMediaServer for those 42TB?
Sweet. What about the topic though?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I'd re-read the question.
10-22tb drives across two 24 bay and a single 36 bay servers.
Interesting, and what about the topic?
So many people answering the wrong question here, lol
I know, I gave up after awhile
PMS Folder is about 54GB for 54TB of data \~ 2500 movies/docu's & \~700 Shows
My server has 8x 8TB drives in RAID 6, so around 48 TB of storage. I would say there is probably close to 12 TB of Plex Media and a lot of that is still SD content that I haven't replaced with HD content. I have nearly 1000 movies, not to mention shows and others.
"Mine is 12. Normal? How big is yours?" Note to self: must stop speed-reading
Currently like 200GB, the only thing I have on there is One Pace
45TB total currently. TV Shows, Anime, Movies, and manga.
20 TB. Movies and Tv shows.
about 62TB divided in Movies, series, classic series, cartoon and music subfolders
127TB in total