This is very likely a permissions mismatch between the Plex container and the folder where your media is stored.
Even if the container shows it’s running as root, containers often still use an internal user (for Plex it’s usually a plex user ID). If that user doesn’t “own” the media folder on ZimaOS, Plex can read files but won’t be able to delete them.
Instead of granting root more access, the better approach is to make sure:
- The media folder on ZimaOS is owned by the same user/group ID that Plex runs as
- Or Plex is configured to match the existing ownership of that folder
This mismatch is very common with mounted folders under /DATA in ZimaOS.
Many people fix this by:
- Aligning the container’s user with the folder’s user
- Or adjusting folder ownership once, properly
A quick (but less secure) workaround is opening up the folder permissions, but the clean fix is aligning ownership.
Nothing is actually “broken”, it’s just a rights mismatch.