Plex

Plex is optional. When configured, Aurral creates an Aurral music library in Plex Media Server, scans your flow downloads, and builds a regular Plex playlist for each enabled flow and shared playlist. Playlists appear in Plex and Plexamp alongside your other libraries.

Plex does not read Aurral’s .m3u files. Playlist sync uses the Plex API after Plex indexes the audio files on disk.

Setup

1. Follow Shared storage so Plex can read the same DOWNLOAD_FOLDER tree Aurral writes.
2. Open Settings → Integrations → Plex.
3. Click Connect Plex account and approve the PIN in the Plex popup.
4. Select your Plex server and confirm the server URL.
5. Save settings, then click Test connection.
6. After flows have downloaded tracks, click Sync to Plex now (or wait for the next playlist ensure cycle).

Aurral registers the library at:

<plex-visible-downloads>/aurral-weekly-flow

Track files live in flow subfolders under that path, for example aurral-weekly-flow/<flow-id>/Artist/Album/track.flac. M3U playlists for Navidrome stay in aurral-weekly-flow/_playlists/ and are not used by Plex.

Plex vs Navidrome

You can run both at the same time. They use the same download tree but different playback mechanisms.

	Navidrome	Plex
Playlist format	.m3u files on disk	Regular Plex playlists via API
Library setup	Scan folders + read M3U	Aurral creates an Aurral music library via API
Path mismatch fix	Use host paths in playlist files / M3U_PATH_MODE	Plex downloads path (optional)
Playlist names	[A] Flow name, [AS] Shared name	Bare flow or playlist name

Navidrome’s Use host paths in playlist files setting does not affect Plex. It only changes paths written inside .m3u files.

Plex downloads path (optional)

Leave this blank when Aurral and Plex share the same filesystem view (same host, or the same Docker volume mounted at the same path in both containers).

Set it when Plex runs in a different container or host and sees a different mount prefix than Aurral. Enter the downloads folder as the Plex server sees it — Aurral appends /aurral-weekly-flow when creating the library.

Aurral writes to	Plex sees	Plex downloads path
/data/downloads/aurral	/data/downloads/aurral	Leave blank
/music/Aurral (in Docker)	/data/media (Plex container)	/data/media

Browse shows folders as Aurral sees them. If Plex’s mount differs, type Plex’s path manually.

This is the Plex equivalent of aligning library roots in shared storage — not the same as Navidrome’s M3U host-path toggle.

Sync behavior

Sync to Plex now:

1. Ensures the Aurral music library exists at the configured path
2. Triggers a Plex library scan
3. Builds or updates playlists from tracks Plex has already indexed
4. Schedules background catch-up syncs while scanning continues

Plex music scans can take minutes. If sync returns immediately with zero indexed tracks, wait for the scan to finish — catch-up runs automatically, or click Sync to Plex now again.

Aurral skips no-op playlist rebuilds when the track set has not changed. Disabling a flow removes its Plex playlist on the next sync.

Mixed Docker setups

When Aurral and Plex both run in Docker with the same /data mount, leave Plex downloads path empty and mount the shared root into both services:

services:
  aurral:
    environment:
      - DOWNLOAD_FOLDER=/data/downloads/aurral
    volumes:
      - /srv/media:/data

  plex:
    volumes:
      - /srv/media:/data

In Plex, you do not need to add the folder manually — Aurral creates the Aurral library via API. Confirm Plex can read /data/downloads/aurral/aurral-weekly-flow from inside the Plex container.

If Aurral uses PATH_MAPPINGS for Lidarr reuse on Windows, that affects how Aurral reads files internally. It does not replace Plex downloads path when Plex’s library mount differs from Aurral’s.

See Shared storage and Troubleshooting — Plex.