Plex - External HardDrive - MacOS Sonoma issues

[ClemsonDV]

Recently I updated to MacOS Sonoma. No issues with the update or anything.

I have a Plex Server on my Mac Mini M1 and it is connected to an External Hard Drive (MacOS Extended Journal). It's been running smoothly for years now until the update.

Within Plex the libraries that point to the External Hard Drive are black... just a black area showing no sub folders or directories. If I go to main screen and try to open a video (that previously worked a few days ago), it gives me a permission error. So I go to Privacy -> Files and Folders -> Plex -> Give Access to Desktop, Downloads, and Removable Volumes. Still nothing.

I pulled a backup drive that is partitioned via MacOS Extended Journal but I made it so I could backup my Work PC (Windows). So now one external HD has my Mac backup stuff and one for my work PC. I go to set my PLex library to look at the Mac Backup (Green colored drive icon) give me the same blank option as my other external (Green colored drive icon). Yet the Work PC backup does allow me to view the sub directories and open files.

Anyone know why MacOS Sonoma or PLex or Time Machined External drives are giving me this problem?

 

[Honza1]

Did you restart Plex after giving it permissions? Or may be even Sonoma may be needed. I think programs need restart after changing permissions and since Plex may be running some services, system reboot may be needed.
You did not say if you can see all External drive content in Finder. If yes, it is Plex problem - if no, it is Sonoma problem.

 

[ClemsonDV]

Did you restart Plex after giving it permissions? Or may be even Sonoma may be needed. I think programs need restart after changing permissions and since Plex may be running some services, system reboot may be needed.
You did not say if you can see all External drive content in Finder. If yes, it is Plex problem - if no, it is Sonoma problem.

Yes I did a complete shutdown. Shut down the harddrive too. Still no luck.

Also I can access all the files via Finder no problem. I can take the files from my External to Downloads or Desktop and view them. Just not straight from External drives that are Time Machined.

Plugged in a USB drive and it was available to make as a library. So it is solely centered on Time Machined (Green Icon) Harddrives in MacOS. And only an issue with a recent Mac OS update.

Any ways to roll back to prior MacOS Version?

 

[Honza1]

TimeMachine disks are weird and not meant for regular use. They are slow and should not be written to by other programs, not into the backup structure. They are really meant to be used only by macOS for restore.
If I understand correctly, you are using still HFS = the old format? I am not surprised that Sonoma or some future system will limit capabilities of HFS disks, especially for TimeMachine. I thought at some point macOS forced conversion of TM disks to APFS...
I would setup a new TimeMachine APFS disk - and use it ONLY for TimeMachine. I have one large Hard drive with two APFS volumes, one for TM and second for other stuff, and that works fine. System sees both as separate drives and all works fine. TM disk is encrypted APFS disk.

Rolling back Sonoma? Good question. You might be able to wipe disk and restore from TM backup, I think that is the only supported way. It it works is not clear, though, sometimes the firmware of mainboard components needs to match macOS. You should investigate carefully before jumping on it.

 

[ClemsonDV]

I have another WD Elements HDD to test one. I will convert it to APFS and if that the format is the problem. Will report back. Going to have to piece meal the files over given the difference in file sizes of the hard drives, but I should have enough space across multiple drives for all my stuff. Thanks for the help.