Suggested Plex Media Server Settings

So, what are the best Plex Media Server settings?

This is something that can't really be answered because it depends on the use case and your personal preference.

All changes need to be done on your Plex Media Server.

Settings

Remote Access

1. Make sure you have enabled advanced settings (This will be needed for all the settings)
2. Enable/Disable Remote access (if you disable it ignore the rest of these settings)
3. LAN/container IP
4. Public IP If you need to provide a screenshot always mask this IP
5. Manually specify public port if you run Docker or want a fixed port.
6. Enter the Plex port you want to use. (default: 32400)
7. Click on Apply and when everything is setup correctly, your Plex Media Server should be fully accessible outside of your network, so you can connect to your Plex server from outside. You may also need to configure port forwarding on your router. Detailed instructions are available HERE.
8. Enter your internet upload speed here and Plex can ensure it operates within this boundary.
9. Set the maximum bitrate of a remote stream from this server.

Agents

This can be ignored if you use the new Plex agents,

The new agent settings are now managed “per library”.

Library

Scan my library automatically

When a change is detected in the source location for a library’s content, the appropriate library will be scanned. This function relies on the computer’s operating system providing the “something changed” trigger. Some operating systems don’t provide this trigger and content mounted via a network will also typically not work. If your library doesn’t automatically scan, you may have to set a periodical scan or do it manually.

Run a partial scan when changes are detected

When changes to library folders are detected, only scan the folder which changed rather than scanning the entire content location. This works together with the normal Update my library automatically setting (and requires that setting to be enabled).

Include music libraries in automatic updates

I don't do music, so this choice is up to you, and I won't be covering it.

Scan my library periodically

Turning this on will cause your Plex Media Server to run scans on your libraries using the designated interval.

Empty trash automatically after every scan

With this option enabled, when an item’s file is deleted from the drive, it will be removed from the Plex library on the next scan. Disabling this option keeps the item in the library with an overlay over the item’s poster when the item is removed.

Allow media deletion

The owner of the server will be allowed to delete media files from disk.

Run scanner tasks at a lower priority

On low-powered systems (e.g. ARM-based NAS devices), it can be beneficial to run scanner tasks at a lower priority than other tasks. This can help ensure they do not interfere with regular streaming.

Generate video preview thumbnails

This option creates a series of preview thumbnails from a media item when it is analyzed. These images are used by some Plex apps when you move back and forward in an app with the timeline scrubber. They’ll also be displayed in Now Playing when someone is streaming from you so that you can see where they are in the video.

Generate intro video markers

You can choose to have TV episodes analyzed to try and detect when the “intro” occurs during playback. When detected, apps will then offer a Skip Intro button, allowing you to quickly jump over the intro.

Generate chapter thumbnails

Chapter thumbnails provide images in the chapter view on supported apps. They can take a little time to generate and consume very minor additional disk space.

Network

Enable IPv6 support

Enable IPv6 support.

Secure connections

Choose how your Plex Media Server handles secure connections.

Preferred network interface

For users with multiple network cards or systems such as NAS or Docker where there is always another network interface which Plex client applications may try to use to connect to the Plex Media Server, with this option you can ensure that your local Plex clients would only try that interface.

Strict TLS configuration

If this setting is enabled, it prevents Plex Media Server from using or accepting the deprecated TLSv1.0 and v1.1 protocols, as well as legacy weak ciphers. May prevent older clients from connecting. The vast majority of users will have no reason to enable this option (and receive no benefit from doing so).

Enable local network discovery (GDM)

Enable “G’Day Mate” discovery. This is used to allows Plex apps and servers to find each other automatically on a local network.

Remote streams allowed per user

You can set the maximum number of simultaneous streams each remote user is allowed to have.

LAN Networks

It lets you specify which IP addresses or networks will be considered to be “local” to you.

Treat WAN IP As LAN Bandwidth

Allows incoming requests from this network’s WAN IP address to be treated as LAN requests in terms of bandwidth. This often occurs when DNS rebinding protection is in place and clients on the LAN cannot contact the server directly but instead have to go through the WAN IP address.

Enable Relay

The Relay allows connections to the server through a proxy relay when the server is not accessible otherwise. Relay connections are bandwidth limited.

Custom server access URLs

A comma-separated list of URLs (either HTTP or HTTPS), which will be published to plex.tv for server discovery. This can be very useful in a few cases: if you’re using a reverse proxy in front of the media server, or if your networking configuration is otherwise unique. For instance, if you have your own custom domain with subdomain.

Webhooks

This feature can be enabled to allow your server to send events to external services. For example Notifiarr

Transcoders

Transcoder quality

This will influence the quality used when transcoding media.

Transcoder temporary directory

Directory to use when transcoding temporary files for streaming.

Enable HDR tone mapping

This feature allows Plex Media Server to maintain high visual fidelity of content, by applying tone mapping to convert it to SDR when transcoding HDR content.

Use hardware acceleration when available

To use Hardware-Accelerated Streaming in Plex Media Server.

Use hardware-accelerated video encoding

To use Hardware-Accelerated Encoding in Plex Media Server.

Manage

Libraries

Here you will find your libraries you've added to your Plex Media Server.

Movies

1. The new version of the Plex Movie agent/scanner

   Suggested: Plex Movie

   Besides being much faster at scanning and getting metadata, one of the benefits of the new agent is that all agent settings are set at the library level, so that different libraries using the same agent can have different agent settings.

1. When scanning this library, use local posters and artwork if present. (Local subtitles files will be used whether this is enabled or not)

   Suggested: Enabled

   I had this enabled because I thought it was needed for local subtitles (.srt), but after research it seems it isn't needed. If you want you could disable it, the choice is yours.

2. When scanning this library, prefer embedded tags and local files if present.

   Suggested: Disabled

   If enabled you could end up with weird movie naming you don't want, happens especially from releases from RARBG

1. Automatically create collections when there are more than the selected number of items for an available collection.

   Suggested: 2

   Only show collections when you have more than one item in your library

1. This option creates a series of preview thumbnails from a media item when it is analyzed. These images are used by some Plex apps when you move back and forward in an app with the timeline scrubber. They’ll also be displayed in Now Playing when someone is streaming from you so that you can see where they are in the video.

   ATTENTION

   Creating these images can take a considerable amount of time, CPU resources, and increase the storage space used. The images are stored in your Plex database so be careful you don’t fill the drive

   Suggested: Disabled

   Besides that, it uses a lot of disk space and high I/O, No one in my family uses FastForward/Rewind but they use the skip forward/backward.

2. This deletes the preview thumbnails it generated before you disabled this option

3. If you want to show your Collection in your library

   Suggested: Disabled

   When Disabled your movies will show up normally when you use library view, This doesn't mean it will disable the collection view.

TV

1. The new version of the Plex Movie agent/scanner

   Suggested: Plex TV Series

   Besides being much faster at scanning and getting metadata, one of the benefits of the new agent is that all agent settings are set at the library level, so that different libraries using the same agent can have different agent settings.

1. How episodes are named on disk. If your naming follows The MovieDB or TheTVDB choose that here.
2. Use season titles when available.

3. When scanning this library, use local posters and artwork if present. (Local subtitles files will be used whether this is enabled or not)

   Suggested: Enabled

   I had this enabled because I thought it was needed for local subtitles (.srt), but after research it seems it isn't needed. If you want you could disable it, the choice is yours.

1. When scanning this library, prefer embedded tags and local files if present.

   Suggested: Disabled

   If enabled you could end up with weird movie naming you don't want, happens especially from releases from RARBG

1. This option creates a series of preview thumbnails from a media item when it is analyzed. These images are used by some Plex apps when you move back and forward in an app with the timeline scrubber. They’ll also be displayed in Now Playing when someone is streaming from you so that you can see where they are in the video.

   ATTENTION

   Creating these images can take a considerable amount of time, CPU resources, and increase the storage space used. The images are stored in your Plex database so be careful you don’t fill the drive

   Suggested: Disabled

   Besides that, it uses a lot of disk space and high I/O, No one in my family uses FastForward/Rewind but they use the skip forward/backward.

2. This deletes the preview thumbnails it generated before you disabled this option

3. If you want to show your Collection in your library

   Suggested: Disabled

   When Disabled your tv show will show up normally when you use library view, This doesn't mean it will disable the collection view.

4. Generate intro detection for items in this library when enabled in server settings.

   Suggested: Enabled

   Ever watch a TV show and it starts playing that same minute and a half credits intro that you've already watched multiple times? Well, you can have your Plex Media Server analyze the TV shows to try and detect those introductions and then let you skip through them with a single click!

For the information of this guide, I made use of the following sources

• Information I gathered from Several Discord servers
• Plex Support Articles
• Extra Information gathered from a Plex employee
• Own experience