Settings related to your libraries on your Plex Media Server. You can access these under Settings > Server > Library in Plex Web App.

Related Page: Plex Web App

Normal Settings

Scan my library automatically

When a change is detected in the source location for a library’s content, the appropriate library will be scanned.

Note: This function relies on the computer’s operating system providing the “something changed” trigger. Some operating systems don’t provide this trigger and content mounted via a network will also typically not work. If your library doesn’t automatically scan, you may have to set a periodical scan or do it manually.

Related Page: Scanning vs Refreshing a Library

Scan my library periodically

Turning this on will cause your Plex Media Server to run scans on your libraries using the designated interval.

Library scan interval

Choose to scan all of your libraries on a time-based interval. Choose the interval to use from the dropdown. Available frequencies:

• every 15 minutes
• every 30 minutes
• hourly
• every 2 hours
• every 6 hours
• every 12 hours
• daily

The scan interval is based on when the Plex Media Server is started. For instance, if you have it set to “every 6 hours” and you start your server at 12:35pm, then a scan will be started around 6:35pm.

Empty trash automatically after every scan

Choose to empty the library Trash after every update. With this option enabled, when an item’s file is deleted from the drive, it will be removed from the Plex library on the next scan. Disabling this option keeps the item in the library with an indicator superimposed over the item’s poster when the item is removed.

Related Page: Emptying Library Trash

Generate video preview thumbnails

This option creates a series of preview thumbnails from a media item when it is analyzed. Creating these images can take a considerable amount of time, CPU resources, and increase the storage space used. The images are stored in your Plex database so be careful you don’t fill the drive!

These images are used by some Plex apps when you move back and forward in an app with the timeline scrubber. They’ll also be displayed in Now Playing when someone is streaming from you so that you can see where they are in the video.

• never – never generate thumbnails.
• as a scheduled task – generate thumbnails during the regular server maintenance period.
• as a scheduled task and when media is added – generate thumbnails for new items when they’re added and for existing items during the regular server maintenance period.

Warning!: Be careful about enabling this feature prior to adding a large amount of content to your library. Doing so may mean that your server will be generating index files for hours or even days.

Related Page: Video Preview Thumbnails

Generate intro video markers

You can choose to have TV episodes analyzed to try and detect when the “intro” occurs during playback. When detected, apps will then offer a Skip Intro button, allowing you to quickly jump over the intro.

• never – never detect episode intros.
• as a scheduled task – detect episode intros during the regular server maintenance period.
• as a scheduled task and when media is added – detect episode intros for new items when they’re added and for existing items during the regular server maintenance period.

Related Page: Skip TV Show Intros

Generate chapter thumbnails

Chapter thumbnails provide images in the chapter view on supported apps. They can take a little time to generate and consume very minor additional disk space.

• never – never generate chapter thumbnails.
• as a scheduled task – generate chapter thumbnails during the regular server maintenance period.
• as a scheduled task and when media is added – generate chapter thumbnails for new items when they’re added and for existing items during the regular server maintenance period.

We recommend using the default as a scheduled task value.

Analyze audio tracks for loudness

Letting the server to analyze your audio tracks for loudness information will allow you to make use of features such as leveling (often referred to as “normalizing”) the loudness as well as letting apps perform smart transitions between tracks. Analysis can cause high CPU usage, but doesn’t take very long to complete for individual tracks or albums. If you’re adding a lot of music (or creating a music library for the first time), the process could take a long time to complete.

• never – never perform loudness analysis.
• as a scheduled task – perform loudness analysis during the regular server maintenance period.
• as a scheduled task and when media is added – perform loudness analysis for new items when they’re added and for existing items during the regular server maintenance period.

Analyze audio tracks for sonic features

Letting the server to analyze your audio tracks for sonic characteristics will allow you to make use of features such “Sonically Similar Albums”, “Track Radio”, and “Mixes For You”. Analysis requires significant CPU usage and can take a long time to finish (hours or multiple days for an existing music library, though usually just minutes for a single new album).

If you’re adding a lot of music, or creating a music library for the first time, the process could take a long time to complete (hours or even multiple days).

• never – never perform sonic analysis.
• as a scheduled task – perform sonic analysis during the regular server maintenance period.
• as a scheduled task and when media is added – perform sonic analysis for new items when they’re added and for existing items during the regular server maintenance period.

Location visibility

You can set who is allowed to see location names for items which contain geolocation metadata. For instance, photos taken by a mobile phone will often have GPS data embedded, which we make use of to determine where the photo was taken.

By default, only the server admin/owner account will be able to see the location information. You can optionally allow shared users to see the information, too.

OS X Specific Settings

Display notifications

Display system notifications when scanning libraries.

Advanced Settings

Click on the Show Advanced button at the top right of the settings area to toggle display of advanced settings. Be careful when adjusting or using advanced settings.

Run a partial scan when changes are detected

When changes to library folders are detected, only scan the folder which changed rather than the entire content location. This works together with the normal Update my library automatically setting (and requires that setting to be enabled).

Allow media deletion

Plex apps (signed in with the same Plex account as the Plex Media Server) will be able to delete media from the library. Users with which you share your server will not be authorized to delete media, even with this setting enabled.

Deleted items will be immediately removed from your library and the corresponding media file will also be deleted. Most operating systems will place the file in the system Trash or Recycle Bin, but it’s possible the file will be permanently deleted immediately (particularly when deleting large numbers of items).

Warning!: Be careful enabling this setting as it allows actual source media files to be deleted from your system.

Note: Shared users cannot delete media through an app, even with this option enabled. Only the server owner account can delete media.

Related Page: How do I delete something from my Library?

Weeks to consider for Continue Watching

Lets you choose how many weeks to check for content to be included in the Continue Watching data for a library. The default value of 16 weeks is good for the vast majority of users. You can lower the value if your Continue Watching is particularly slow to appear. (Increasing the value can cause Continue Watching or app dashboards to be much slower to appear.)

Maximum number of Continue Watching items which will appear

Choose the maximum number of  shows that can appear in Continue Watching. Setting a very high number can negatively affect performance.

Include season premieres in Continue Watching

Season premieres generally will fall outside of the number of weeks for Continue Watching for most people, since it can be several months before a new season starts. Enabled by default, this setting makes episode one of a new season appear even if it falls outside of Weeks to consider for Continue Watching setting (assuming all previous episodes are watched).

Enable smart shuffling on artists and smart music playlists

This affects how shuffling works when shuffling a musical artist or smart playlist. When enabled, playback will prefer highly rated, popular, and less recently heard tracks. When disabled, you’ll get true randomness (which, ironically, often feels less random to people.)

Group albums by type

Group albums under a musical artist by the type of album (e.g.EP, Single, Compilation, Live, etc.), when the metadata is available.

Run scanner tasks at a lower priority

On low-powered systems (e.g. ARM-based NAS devices), it can be beneficial to run scanner tasks at a lower priority than other tasks. This can help ensure they do not interfere with regular streaming.