How to Add a Network Drive to Plex on Ubuntu

Answer to "How do I add a network drive to Plex" (Ask Ubuntu)

One of the highest-rated answers I’ve posted on Ask Ubuntu is this (possibly outdated) response on one way to add files stored on a networked location to an installation of Plex on an Ubuntu server:

How To Add Storage

I don’t believe Plex has any way to access drives from a network location, but like this thread on Plex for Mac suggests – http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/58993-add-folder-from-local-network-nas-hdd-in-plex-server-library/ – if you are able to mount them within the local filesystem, then you should be able to do it with no problem.

• [I’m kind of modeling this after the answer to this thread: https://askubuntu.com/questions/109505/how-do-i-access-an-external-hard-drive-plugged-into-my-router ]
• I’m not really that familiar with NFS, but this is how you can do it with CIFS (the successor to Samba – should be compatible with your MyBook if MyBook supports Samba).

You’ll need to decide where you want the mounted files from MyBook to appear in your filesystem. I would suggest something like /media/Plex. Once you decide, open a terminal and type:

sudo mkdir /media/Plex

(This assumes you don’t already have that directory. You’ll need to enter your password, because usually only the operating system edits things in /media)

Now, let’s install CIFS Utilities:

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

Then, you’ll want to edit your /etc/fstab – this is what tells Ubuntu what to drives to mount (and where) when it starts up. You may wish to backup /etc/fstab first (in case something goes wrong your you want to undo this easily). You can do this by entering in terminal:

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak

(Now you’ve got a backup copy called fstab.bak)

Next, to add your NAS. Still in the terminal, type:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

This will open /etc/fstab in the text editor with write permissions. Don’t touch anything already added to the document, but add to the end of that document this line:

//192.168.0.13/Plex /media/Plex cifs guest 0 0

Since you said there’s no password, guest should work.

*Sidenote: If you use a password protected NAS, use this line instead:

//192.168.0.13/Plex /media/Plex
username={{username}},password={{password}},iocharset=utf8,sec=ntlm  0  0

And replace {{username}} and {{password}} respectively.*

Now, to test, type in terminal:

sudo mount -a

And open Nautilus (the file manager). Your MyBook’s Plex folder should now show up in the left-hand sidebar!

So, also, you should now be able to “Add Section” in the Plex Media Server web UI by clicking the big + sign in the My Library section (below in red).

Select the type of media, and then you should be able to select the Movies or TV shows from your new /media/Plex folder (which is really your MyBook). I did the same thing with what I have available (I don’t own a MyBook, but I did the same thing with my readyshare, and here it is after mounting it in /media/readyshare, ready to be added as a Plex section:)