Any way to read/view database backups to compare differences?

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.18.1.1973 (latest)
Player Version#: n/a

Greetings! I woke up to a dead 3TB hard drive in my Windows Plex server. Windows restarted and attempted to fix the drive. This resulted (after many hours) in a drive with a corrupt file structure that is essentially erased. Since this is 1 of 4 drives in my server, and the oldest one, I’m not positive what exactly was on it. I located the database files and see Plex updated the database early morning (presumably after Windows finished butchering the drive and the OS came back online). I need a way to view or read the database files so I can do a comparison between the new one from this morning (with the 3TB files removed) and one from a week ago (with the 3TB files included) so I know what files I need to reacquire when I install a new drive.

How do I view the database files? I can only find info on creating them and restoring them. I want to actually read them. Plus, is there some comparison program I can run that will spit out a report of what’s different between the 2 files. If I have to do it the old fashioned way, so be it. But I’ve seen programs that list differences before so I assume there is something similar in the database world (not my most knowledgeable topic).

Thanks in advance!
-AngryHog

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First thing you do: disable
Settings - Server - Library - “Empty trash automatically after every scan”

You then restore the backup database

and then let ExportTools perform an accessibility check. It will spit out a report of what is missing.

Another tool you can use is WebTools (in case you have it already installed)

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Thanks! I have ExportTools installed and configured. Problem is I can’t actually run it. I know plugins have been gimped/removed recently so I’m not sure exactly how to go about running the query I need. I can only click on the gear icon to configure ExportTools (or any other plugin) or delete it. That’s it. How do I now run this thing?

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Please read the Wiki of Export Tools carefully. It explains how to configure it on first run.
Settings - Server - Manage - Plugins (last item at the bottom, on the left side)

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I got it figured out. For anyone finding this later, you actually run it FROM the settings by selecting which library you want in the drop-down and hitting SAVE at the bottom. I also didn’t catch at first that I need to export Movie level 3 or higher (I originally chose level 1 to keep the file size down) to get the “file present” column in my spreadsheet. This gave me exactly what I needed. Thanks!

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