SOLVED: jellyfin does not have permission to access the drive my movies are stored on?

[finalgirlfall]

okay, so, um:

my movie library is stored on /media/violet/pi1.0/, and my tv library is stored on /media/violet/pi2.0/. jellyfin is able to access my tv library just fine. the folder Movies is routed to is officially accurate--jellyfin just doesn't have access to the files! i've tried just about everything i can think of to give it access to the files, but it still doesn't, have access... i will list off what i've tried so far below.

• i've tried running ls -l file.ext on various files in my movie drive, but i don't think i quite understand the output to be honest! i do know that i do not see "jellyfin" in most of the assorted outputs, either as a user or as a group, which is not ideal...
  
• um, tried to use chmod &/ chown to retroactively(?) fix the permissions issues, but don't think either one really worked...
  
• (specifically, chmod -R 750 /media/violet/pi1.0/ and chown -R violet:jellyfin /media/violet/pi1.0/)
  

it is perhaps worth noting that the metadata for the Movies library is stored in a weird (and possibly invalid?) location as of ~february 21, 2025--i am not sure what caused this. according to jellyfin's Metadata Manager tab, Movies metadata is stored in /var/lib/jellyfin/metadataMovies, which is possibly related to this issue of jellyfin not being able to (see/find) my movie files... (for comparison, Shows metadata has been stored in /var/lib/jellyfin/root/default/Shows since february 21, 2025.)

assorted info:

• jellyfin version: 10.10.6
  
• jellyfin install method: Debian repository
  
• i am running jellyfin on a raspberry pi 3b+ that is running raspberry pi os 11 'bullseye'
  

please let me know if you need more info!! i will do my best to respond quickly...!!

[finalgirlfall]

i didn't realize the code blocks would display like that, agh! edited the post to remove them... um, so that's my problem. yeah.

[TheDreadPirate]

Is this a network share or a locally attached hard drive. If a local hard drive, did you manually mount the drive with /etc/fstab or are they auto mounted? Are there ACLs on the directories?

Code:

ls -ld  /media/violet/pi1.0  /media/violet/pi2.0

[finalgirlfall]

Is this a network share or a locally attached hard drive.  If a local hard drive, did you manually mount the drive with /etc/fstab or are they auto mounted?  Are there ACLs on the directories?

Code:

ls -ld  /media/violet/pi1.0  /media/violet/pi2.0

hi, so sorry for the delay in reply. i thought i had email notifications turned on but i guess i don't... gotta figure that out.

both of the drives are locally attached and manually mounted with /etc/fstab. i am, honestly kind of still new to linux? but i know i have done Some things to the drives involving setfacl... (< i am trying to ask for clarification. sorry ^^

output of ls -ld /media/violet/pi1.0 /media/violet/pi2.0 follows below:

Code:

drwxrwxrwx+ 1 jellyfin media 6300 Apr 14 06:34 /media/violet/pi1.0//
drwxrwxr-x+ 1 plex    media  128 Apr  9 18:18 /media/violet/pi2.0//

[TheDreadPirate]

Do you know what file system these drives use? If they are ext4, or some other native Linux file system, we can just remove the ACL, which is indicated with the + at the end of the permissions.

If they are NTFS formatted drives we would need to modify the ACL.

Code:

cat /proc/mounts | grep violet

If they are ext4 formatted drives, the following command would remove the ACL and grant Jellyfin permission to read the drives.

Code:

sudo setfacl -b /media/violet/pi1.0/
sudo setfacl -b /media/violet/pi2.0/

If they are NTFS formatted drives, this command would change the ACL to allow Jellyfin.

Code:

sudo setfacl -m user:jellyfin:rwx,group:media:rwx /media/violet/pi1.0/
sudo setfacl -m user:jellyfin:rwx,group:media:rwx /media/violet/pi2.0/

[finalgirlfall]

Do you know what file system these drives use?  If they are ext4, or some other native Linux file system, we can just remove the ACL, which is indicated with the +  at the end of the permissions.

If they are NTFS formatted drives we would need to modify the ACL.

Code:

cat /proc/mounts | grep violet

If they are ext4 formatted drives, the following command would remove the ACL and grant Jellyfin permission to read the drives.

Code:

sudo setfacl -b /media/violet/pi1.0/
sudo setfacl -b /media/violet/pi2.0/

If they are NTFS formatted drives, this command would change the ACL to allow Jellyfin.

Code:

sudo setfacl -m user:jellyfin:rwx,group:media:rwx /media/violet/pi1.0/
sudo setfacl -m user:jellyfin:rwx,group:media:rwx /media/violet/pi2.0/

both drives are formatted as BTRFS. i ran the command you mentioned for ext4 and other native Linux file systems. my Movies library is...still empty. could the invalid filepath for the Movies metadata i mentioned in my original post have something to do with this? (and how would i edit where jellyfin stores the metadata for the Movies library?)

for reference, i've attached a screenshot of the "Edit Metadata" popup for my Movies library.

[TheDreadPirate]

USUALLY, only the top level directory for the drive has an ACL. Can you check if the directories within pi1 and 2 also have ACL?

[finalgirlfall]

USUALLY, only the top level directory for the drive has an ACL.  Can you check if the directories within pi1 and 2 also have ACL?

ah, what command would i run to check that? ^^;

[KodiUser1138]

I can't offer advice but I hope you get it sorted out. Just went through something similar on Windows and @TheDreadPirate is a great help!

[TheDreadPirate]

USUALLY, only the top level directory for the drive has an ACL.  Can you check if the directories within pi1 and 2 also have ACL?

ah, what command would i run to check that? ^^;

Code:

ls -l /media/violet/pi1.0/*
ls -l /media/violet/pi2.0/*