Disable Balancing Completely

[jamesbk11218]

Is there a way to turn this feature totally off? I have my files organized the way I want them. I'm tired of TV Shows for example being moved from their show and season folder to other random drives in the pool, especially when none are even at 90%. I'm more than capable of balancing and organizing my files on my own and only want drive pool for the drive pool feature.  I have unchecked the balancing options in settings and even changed the slider to 100%, unchecked the balancing plug ins and it still keeps messing with my files. 

[VapechiK]

 

hello

i feel your pain.  i too use DP just for the 'pool' feature.  my pool has zero duplication.  i add completed and sorted folders/files by accessing the underlying drives themselves and never just drag/drop directly onto the pool.  i have only the 'ordered file placement' at the top of the plugin list (all others disabled/unchecked) and have it set so that when i do drag files to the pool, they ALWAYS go to just one particular drive that is used primarily for temporary backups of recently completed torrent files (downloaded on a drive that is NOT in the pool), which then get deleted eventually.  in settings, 'do not balance automatically' and 'balancing plugins respect file placement rules' are the only options checked.  this setup serves me well and i NEVER have issues with my highly organized folders/files unless i am not paying attention, and even then it is easy to fix.

IMHO the biggest annoyance with DP is the default aggressive balancing and all the useless and annoying plugins that are loaded by default.  but the developer is obviously shooting for a 'set and forget' scenario and assumes the end user is responsible for their own backups.  so i had to get crafty in my 'micromanagy' DP setup and just deal with it.  once folders/files are added to the underlying drives, remember to 'Manage Pool' ^ Remeasure... > Re-measure' and all should be good.

hope this helps.  if not perhaps someone else can add some better explained guidance.  good luck.

[jamesbk11218]

25 minutes ago, VapechiK said:

 

hello

i feel your pain.  i too use DP just for the 'pool' feature.  my pool has zero duplication.  i add completed and sorted folders/files by accessing the underlying drives themselves and never just drag/drop directly onto the pool.  i have only the 'ordered file placement' at the top of the plugin list (all others disabled/unchecked) and have it set so that when i do drag files to the pool, they ALWAYS go to just one particular drive that is used primarily for temporary backups of recently completed torrent files (downloaded on a drive that is NOT in the pool), which then get deleted eventually.  in settings, 'do not balance automatically' and 'balancing plugins respect file placement rules' are the only options checked.  this setup serves me well and i NEVER have issues with my highly organized folders/files unless i am not paying attention, and even then it is easy to fix.

IMHO the biggest annoyance with DP is the default aggressive balancing and all the useless and annoying plugins that are loaded by default.  but the developer is obviously shooting for a 'set and forget' scenario and assumes the end user is responsible for their own backups.  so i had to get crafty in my 'micromanagy' DP setup and just deal with it.  once folders/files are added to the underlying drives, remember to 'Manage Pool' ^ Remeasure... > Re-measure' and all should be good.

hope this helps.  if not perhaps someone else can add some better explained guidance.  good luck.

I noticed it doesn't mess with them if I move the files directly to the drive paths versus the drive pool drives. I would just do that and be fine but with Plex it doesn't automatically add my files if I move them to the actual drives and have to manually scan for them to be added. When I add them to the drive pool paths it does automatically add them, which I'd prefer. I don't want to have to tax my drives by doing full scans when it should just be detecting changes. Hence my dilemma 

[Shane]

 

9 hours ago, jamesbk11218 said:

I'm tired of TV Shows for example being moved from their show and season folder to other random drives in the pool, especially when none are even at 90%

Manage Pool -> Balancing -> Settings:

• Automatic balancing -> however often you want it to check that files are where they should be or even "Do not balance automatically".
• Automatic balancing - Triggers -> slider at default 90% and tick "Or if at least this much data needs to be moved" and set your preference.
• Optionally, tick "Allow balancing plug-ins to force immediate balancing" (mainly relevant if you want to use Scanner)
• Optionally, tick "File placement rules respect real-time file placement limits set by the balancing plug-ins" (mainly relevant for Scanner, SSD Optimizer, Drive Usage Limiter and Ordered File Placement plug-ins).
• Tick "Balancing plug-ins respect file placement rules" (very important) and optionally tick "Unless the drive is being emptied" (important if using Scanner or SSD Optimizer).
• (note: the above ticks are the defaults)

Manage Pool -> Balancing -> Balancers:

• Un-tick everything except (optionally) Scanner and/or SSD Optimizer if you use them. Make sure you didn't miss anything at the bottom of the scroll.
• If you're using SSD Optimizer, make sure its Ordered placement tabs are both un-ticked.
• Note: if all plug-ins in the Balancers section are un-ticked then the only thing that should be affecting the location of existing files are the File Placement rules, regardless of what's ticked or un-ticked in Settings.

Manage Pool -> Balancing -> File Placement:

• Folders: organise according to your preferences.
• Rules: if you add additional rules here keep in mind their order affects priority (e.g. any custom rule placed above the Folders-generated rules will supercede the latter).
• if files are still being moved to excluded drives, try selecting "Never allow files to be placed on any other disks".
  • if files are still being moved to excluded drives (and not being moved back), try removing all rules, saving, then recreating them (clicking on Save again when done).

[jamesbk11218]

16 hours ago, Shane said:

 

Manage Pool -> Balancing -> Settings:

• Automatic balancing -> however often you want it to check that files are where they should be or even "Do not balance automatically".
• Automatic balancing - Triggers -> slider at default 90% and tick "Or if at least this much data needs to be moved" and set your preference.
• Optionally, tick "Allow balancing plug-ins to force immediate balancing" (mainly relevant if you want to use Scanner)
• Optionally, tick "File placement rules respect real-time file placement limits set by the balancing plug-ins" (mainly relevant for Scanner, SSD Optimizer, Drive Usage Limiter and Ordered File Placement plug-ins).
• Tick "Balancing plug-ins respect file placement rules" (very important) and optionally tick "Unless the drive is being emptied" (important if using Scanner or SSD Optimizer).
• (note: the above ticks are the defaults)

Manage Pool -> Balancing -> Balancers:

• Un-tick everything except (optionally) Scanner and/or SSD Optimizer if you use them. Make sure you didn't miss anything at the bottom of the scroll.
• If you're using SSD Optimizer, make sure its Ordered placement tabs are both un-ticked.
• Note: if all plug-ins in the Balancers section are un-ticked then the only thing that should be affecting the location of existing files are the File Placement rules, regardless of what's ticked or un-ticked in Settings.

Manage Pool -> Balancing -> File Placement:

• Folders: organise according to your preferences.
• Rules: if you add additional rules here keep in mind their order affects priority (e.g. any custom rule placed above the Folders-generated rules will supercede the latter).
• if files are still being moved to excluded drives, try selecting "Never allow files to be placed on any other disks".
  • if files are still being moved to excluded drives (and not being moved back), try removing all rules, saving, then recreating them (clicking on Save again when done).

thank you. I will try these steps after the weekend and report back.

[jamesbk11218]

On 12/14/2024 at 8:22 PM, Shane said:

 

Manage Pool -> Balancing -> Settings:

• Automatic balancing -> however often you want it to check that files are where they should be or even "Do not balance automatically".
• Automatic balancing - Triggers -> slider at default 90% and tick "Or if at least this much data needs to be moved" and set your preference.
• Optionally, tick "Allow balancing plug-ins to force immediate balancing" (mainly relevant if you want to use Scanner)
• Optionally, tick "File placement rules respect real-time file placement limits set by the balancing plug-ins" (mainly relevant for Scanner, SSD Optimizer, Drive Usage Limiter and Ordered File Placement plug-ins).
• Tick "Balancing plug-ins respect file placement rules" (very important) and optionally tick "Unless the drive is being emptied" (important if using Scanner or SSD Optimizer).
• (note: the above ticks are the defaults)

Manage Pool -> Balancing -> Balancers:

• Un-tick everything except (optionally) Scanner and/or SSD Optimizer if you use them. Make sure you didn't miss anything at the bottom of the scroll.
• If you're using SSD Optimizer, make sure its Ordered placement tabs are both un-ticked.
• Note: if all plug-ins in the Balancers section are un-ticked then the only thing that should be affecting the location of existing files are the File Placement rules, regardless of what's ticked or un-ticked in Settings.

Manage Pool -> Balancing -> File Placement:

• Folders: organise according to your preferences.
• Rules: if you add additional rules here keep in mind their order affects priority (e.g. any custom rule placed above the Folders-generated rules will supercede the latter).
• if files are still being moved to excluded drives, try selecting "Never allow files to be placed on any other disks".
  • if files are still being moved to excluded drives (and not being moved back), try removing all rules, saving, then recreating them (clicking on Save again when done).

Well I gave it a try and thought it was working. Took the additional step of going to each drive in the file placement rules and selecting only that drive in the placement rules for each drive. Figuring if only that drive was selected it would only stay on the drive intended. Well I added another drive to the pool, applied the same rules and its now moved about 300Gb of files to the newest drive despite them both being new drives with tons of capacity. The drive it moved the files from has 14.7TB of free space and is only 19% full. I'm getting extremely frustrated. I don't understand why there is not a blanket option to LEAVE MY FILES ALONE.  Not to mention the wear and tear on drives by constantly moving files that don't need to be moved and then me having to move them back to where they were in the first place. It's ridiculous 

[Shane]

 With the settings as above it shouldn't be moving existing files to new drives at all.