Follow symlinks on remote SFTP server

Help and Support
1

Hi,

I have a remote server mounted with rclone. There are a lot of symlinked files and directories on the server but Plex doesn’t follow them. Normally I’d mount them with SSHFS and -o follow_symlinks but my seedbox provider doesn’t allow SSHFS mounts.

I know it’s possible to follow local symlinks with Rclone when copying to a remote, but Is following remote symlinks possible in any way or will it be possible in future versions?

Thanks in advance.

2

Hmm, a quick browse of the source code for the SFTP library leads me to think that it should follow symlinks.

So I think this is probably a bug...

Can you please make a new issue on github with some more details in please.

3

Hi again. Quick update: I realised I had a fairly old version of Rclone. I upgraded to 1.39 and now there’s a difference.

I made the mount and rebooted Plex. The remote folder with the symlinks now shows up in Plex. I can add it to the Plex library and all the stuff is scanned and recognised. However, when I try to play something, I get the message:

An error occurred trying to play “**************.mp4”.
shaka1001 (Network)

Am I doing something wrong? Or should I still post an issue?

P.S. When mounting the rclone remote in the terminal, I’m getting this message (even though it does actually mount).

poll-interval is not supported by this remote

Thanks for your help.

4

Is it only the symlinked files that don't play?

That is just an INFO message, you can ignore it.

5

Yes it’s only the symlinked files. The ones in the original folder play fine. When I add the symlink, it takes a long time to scan. The files show up and are scanned correctly. But then there’s an error when it comes to playing them.

I’m doing all the symlinks on a GUI (remote desktop) and they have worked fine in the past with sshfs on a server where sshfs is allowed.

6

I think it is worth making a new issue on github about this - it sounds like rclone isn't being consistent.

Are you symlinking directories or files BTW?

7

Funny you should ask that. I was just wondering whether the problem isn’t related to symlinked directories. When I go to the remote desktop and look at the symlinked directories they’re not showing visibly as links, whereas the file contents are.
I’ll just try a few different things out and report back.

8

Stick your findings in the issue would be perfect :slight_smile:

9

OK. Will do :slight_smile: