Issues with Plex (Permissions?)

I am using my main PC also as my Plex Media Server.

BACKGROUND

I am running Ubutnu 18.04

My media is stored on a second HDD that was kept from an old Windows install so it is in NTFS format. The drive does not ‘turn on’ (mount?) by itself after a reboot. I have to click it for it to start and then everything is fine.

Plex media server sees the HDD but no sub-directories. I would only like to grant permission to the Media files on the HDD as that HDD also contains other folders and files I do not want to make public.

/media/james$ ls -la
drwxrwxrwx 1 james james 24576 Oct 17 13:34 ‘Storage Second’

“Media” folder withing the HDD (Second Storage) has same drwxrwxrwx permissions

So not sure why Plex can’t see the files?

I don’t use Plex, but my guess would be that Plex does not run under the “james” user(1st james), and whichever user it runs under is not a part of the “james” group (2nd james). I would start there. Usually the config files will be in /etc.

For permissions, if you don’t want world readable, set that bit to 0. 4 Lets you just read, 6 lets you read and write, 7 lets you read, write and execute. What I think you want:
chmod 660 /media/james/parentdirectory

Edit: I point out the user and group despite the world readable, because the subdirectories may not be world readable. You can also set these to a different owner for the privacy effect you’re looking for.

You can edit the auto mount on boot up in /etc/fstab, I would have a look at that first and see if that fixes your issue.

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Editing the fstab and enabling the second HDD to mount on bootup has worked - Plex now has all the files and the xbox can play them.

However, now I have to read or write access to the HDD on the server end. I can’t even watch any of the video files, letalone add more files