Preliminaries first. Skip down 3 paragraphs for the issue. Any help for this exasperating problem will be greatly appreciated.

Linux Newbie (a few weeks into it). I'm on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. It's updated several times in the last day so I'm assuming it's fully up-to-date.

I have a large (20,000+ files) music collection ripped from CDs that I've cultivated over many years in iTunes for macOS. With my recent move to Linux, I'm using Clementine because it's the only app I've tried that offers smart playlists, access to AAC files, and the "grouping" tag, which I use for styles (classic rock, outlaw country, etc.) and themes (summer, instrumental, etc.) that are a critical component for building my smart playlists.

The Issue

I was using Clementine 1.3.1 for a few days without incident using a limited set of music (1077 songs) copied off my flash drive. In the past couple of days, however, I'm getting the error "Failed to watch /MUSICFILEFOLDER . . . this may be due to the inotify max_user_watches limit." The only way I can stop the error is to stop the app from seeking updates to my music library on startup. That's not ideal since I'm rebuilding a lot of the tags data lost in the transition so my library is constantly changing.

The major recent changes have been:

1. The aforementioned Ubuntu updates
2. Clementine updated to 1.4.0rc1 through the Ubuntu Software store
3. Sync.com Windows app and WineHQ installed to download my cloud files (Sync doesn't have a native Linux app)
4. I used the Sync/Wine combo to downloaded my larger music library

This leaves my questions:

1. The only two Clementine versions available in the Ubuntu Software store are both 1.4.0rc1 variations. Anyone know a reliable place to download the 1.3.1 version to see if that's the issue? The Ubuntu .DEB downloads at clementine-player.org just open the Ubuntu Software store.
2. Is the inotify error related to the dramatic increase in the size of my music library? Is there a way to modify that? What are the ramifications if I do?
3. I've quit the WineHQ/Sync apps and restarted but still get the error. Is there a chance that these could still be causing this error?

The default I believe is 8192 and I can see that happening if you have 20,000+ files.

You can increase the number watches by using the command:
sudo sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288

That changes the value in the running system. To make it permanent add/change fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 in the /etc/sysctl.conf file.

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Thanks @michaelk. If I increase that watches number permanently, is that going to cause any systemic problems like slowing down the system, crashing processes, etc? I currently have 8MB memory (planning to upgrade to at least 16 but haven't yet)?

I don't know. I've never watched that many files. It should not crash the system.

Why do you care ?. If the system is only/primarily for the music collection, suck it up - if the system is used for other (more) important things, read on.
For round numbers, work on 1k per watched entity (file/directory). This will be in kernel cache - but the kernel will generally look after itself. That may cause system slowdown, but would be unusual I would think, and would be next to impossible to predict. Just find a number that works for you and the pain level isn't too high.

Edit: I too haven't ever watched large numbers of files.

My system already has that value, and I do not remember ever changing it, nor is it changed in /etc/sysctl*, so I guess this distro's maintainers compiled that into the kernel.

I never experienced systemic problems with that.

The number itself isn't an issue, but allocating the inotify structures (by setting watches) might be if there are large numbers.
Or might not - experience will tell.

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The problem seems to have gone away without my doing any of the suggested fixes. My best guess is that my new cloud service app was the problem. It was downloading my 600+ GB file library at the time. I noticed the error did not return after the app's initial sync.

FWIW, the app – Mega – seems to be an incredible resource hog all around. I can barely do anything on my laptop when it's syncing and during that initial sync their website would freeze when I tried to access it. This is apparently (from what their tech said) because I had too many files. Nice of them to sell me a 2TB service that fails at <1/3 capacity.

Thanks all for the help even though I didn't use any of your suggestions!