Deleting the Plex Media Server transcode file??

Troubleshooting
1

I have a C2 running my Plex Server booting off an 8gb mSD with all my media on a 2TB external. I changed the user files to the external (which is less than 1/4 full) so I was surprised to start getting messages from Plex saying “This file can not be played, the transcoding storage is full” (not an exact quote).

I went into the DietPi file manager, and sure enough, my SD card is showing as 99% full, so the temporary Plex transcode files must have been going there. In the Plex server settings I have manually designated a location for the transcode files on the external drive, so that problem is solved and Plex is playing and transcoding again.

However, my SD is still 99% full, which seems like a bad idea. Where are those Plex transcode files? I have used the DietPi file explorer and can’t find them anywhere, and it’s hard to track them down without being able to see the total size of a system directory/folder.

Thank you for any assistance!

2

I think you need to setup in Plex a “temp” directory in order to transcode

Go into the server settings and look for that particular setting, set it to use your external drive (choose a directory) the files it generates are temporary

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250347-transcoder/

Find the files that are clogging up your SD card then delete them after you change the temp folder to a folder on your external drive (or even create one)

3

Yes, that is what I’m saying, I have moved the temp directory to the external drive, but I believe the old transcode files are still filling up my SD (I can’t imagine what else it could be). I can’t find where they were writing previously using default settings, I want to delete them!

4

look here
/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/Transcode

Find where they were originally going…then try this

I solved this issue by creating a new directory elsewhere on a convenient filesystem then deleting the normal plex sync directory and replacing it with an identically-named symbolic link to the new directory. Plex then thinks it’s writing into the usual place but in reality it’s writing into the other filesystem.