The promise of Plex is attractive enough for me to try at least once more to get assistance on this forum and see if I can get this working reliably.
Basically, I'm continually having trouble seeing the TV shows and movies in my library. When I first install Plex, everything works fine for a while. But eventually trying to access the media files (using either the web interface, iPhones or the Xbox app), media files just disappear. Most of the time I want to access the files via the web interface and watch shows and moves on my laptop, so this is how I use Plex most often.
My server is a Mac mini (2.3 GHz i5) running OS X 10.10.5 with 4 GB of RAM. It has a 500 GB internal drive and four external drives connected to it (2 x 2 TB, a 3 TB and a 4 TB). In addition to Plex chores, the machine also runs OS X Server and FileMaker Server. OS X Server offers backup services and file server to our household. FileMaker server is generally idle. Two of the external drives are dedicated to Time Machine backups (the 3 TB drive and one of the 2 TB drives). The 4 TB drive is where all share points are located. Each of the five members of the household get a folder dedicated to them for archiving files. We also have a shared folder that everyone has access to, and this is where I've been placing the latest media files.
Our home network is served by an Adaptec WiFi router provided by Verizon (upstairs). We also have an AirPort Extreme and an AirPort Express (both downstairs). The Extreme is connected to the Adaptec by an Ethernet cable. The Express is used as a repeater to boost the signal to the back yard. The problems I'm about to describe, however, don't seem to change based on my location within the house.
Client systems include the web interface (using Chrome, Safari and Firefox, but generally Chrome), iPhones and an Xbox 360.
Yes, this is a lot of information, but I don't know what's going to be relevant to solving this.
First I just installed Plex and began moving media to that fourth external hard drive, the 2 TB drive not being used for Time Machine. But it was having constant problems (same as I'm about to describe), enough to lead me to wonder if the drive itself was the issue. So I did a complete removal of Plex, and began using the shared family folder as the media location. This second time around I still kept things simple, having a single folder for one movie library and one TV show library. But the problems resurfaced after a while, so I tried again, this time creating multiple libraries for each type of media with the hope that the problems were from too many shows and movies in each library. So I'd have Media/Movies/Comedies/, Media/Movies/Dramas, Media/TV Shows/SciFi, etc.
The problem that returns every time is, as I add more and more media to the Plex system, eventually it becomes more and more difficult to actually see the moves and shows. I'll click the home button and I won't see "On Deck" or "Recently Added". I'll select a library, such as "Comic Book Movies", and nothing shows up when it showed all those Marvel Universe and Batman Trilogy movies before. Sometimes reloading the page with Cmd-R will force the media to show up, but not always. I tried clearing the cache and I tried never even keeping a cache by working in incognito mode, but that didn't solve it. If I try to access media via the iPhone (an iPhone 6 running iOS 9), I just get a spinning orange circle.
Sometimes quitting the Plex app from the menu bar and relaunching it works. Not always. Sometimes rebooting works, but the problem always returns, even when it does work for a while. When it doesn't work, sometimes just waiting a while (5+ minutes) will allow the media to show up. Sometimes leaving it along and trying again later works, but eventually I have always run into the trouble that I can't see the media I know Plex is aware of.
Please. Help. The ideal of Plex is obviously too alluring for me to give up easily. When it does work, the entire family enjoys it. Given the popularity of Plex, I have to assume my experience isn't the norm, so there must be something I can do to get this working reliably. Any direction anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.