Option 2 Substitute Paths on the PMS

This will work for every setup, as you will change to media locations Plex points to to network paths. You will not have to physically move your media files!

Be aware that all paths are potentially case-sensitive, even when using Windows.
Make sure that all paths are exactly spelled as you created them.

Set-up the Plex Media Server using Plex Web

3. Make tripple sure that all your media is accessible to Kodi
   • Windows Server: Nothing special to consider
   • Linux/Mac Server:
     • All Plex libraries of a certain kind (movies [="Other Videos"], TV shows, music) need to be accessible under the same network root path
     • Simple example with ONE root path: smb://myNas:
       • Library My Movies (Movie library) is accessible under smb://myNas/movies
       • Library My Other Videos (Movie library) is accessible under smb://myNas/videos
       • Library Kids Movies (Movie library) is accessible under smb://myNas/kids
       • Library TV Shows (TV Shows library) is accessible under smb://myNas/shows
       • Library Music (Music library) is accessible under smb://myNas/music
4. For each of your Plex libraries, note the new network path. Our example Plex library here:
   • Windows Server:
     • Library My Movies is accessible under \\myNas\movies
   • Linux/Mac Server:
     • Library My Movies (Movie library) is accessible under smb://myNas/movies
5. Unfortunately, Plex needs your network resources mounted on Linux and Mac:
   • Windows Server: skip this step
   • Linux/Mac Server:
     • Mount your SMB network resources above permanently. For Mac, Plex offers a guide. For Ubuntu, follow this tutorial.
       • Mount all Plex libraries of a certain kind to the same path!
       • In our example, simply mount smb://myNas/ directly to e.g. /media/myNas and you're done
6. For each Plex library, start following the Moving Content to a new Location guide by Plex to the letter.
   • Skip the step Copy Content to the New Location
7. In step Edit Your Libraries, use the following new path for the library:
   • Windows Server:
     • \\myNas\movies
   • Linux/Mac Server:
     • /media/myNas/movies
8. Do this for every Plex library accordingly

Set-up PKC

9. In the PKC Settings under Sync Options, switch the Playback Mode to Native (Direct Paths)

10. Under Customize Paths, set the following options:

    • Windows Server:

      • Enable Plex UNC paths...
      • Disable Replace Plex paths...

    • Linux/Mac Server:

      • Disable Plex UNC paths...
      • Enable Replace Plex paths... and plug-in the original mount points to be replaced by the SMB paths. In our example:
        • Original Plex MOVIE path to replace: /media/myNas/ (!!)
        • Replace Plex MOVIE with: smb://myNas/ (!!)
      • Thus, /media/myNas/<whatever> will be turned into smb://myNas/<whatever> for ALL your libraries of a certain kind

    • Windows Server / Linux clients (Shield TV etc.):

      • Double check your case sensitive paths everywhere
      • For scenarios where libraries are located on different servers/endpoints, please follow This guide step 1-6 , to add credentials for each location.

11. Restart Kodi to enable the new settings!

12. Under Advanced, reset the Kodi databases with the red Partial or full reset of Database and PKC

13. Restart Kodi just to be on the safe side

You're done! If you messed up, Kodi playback will fail with an error message that is unfortunately unrelated to PKC.