When I created the new libraries in Jellyfin and Emby, that was one of the issues I had. Embedded metadata in the actual video file does not get pulled into the new library. If you setup the library creation dialog correctly, you can get your poster out of the original video file. Custom genres did not get added to my new libraries in either jellyfin or emby. I was a little disappointed by that as I was adding custom metadata to my video files before I was adding them to Plex.
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All of the Plex info is in the Plex DB and won’t transfer. Here’s an article from Emby about transferring that kinda mentions it: How to Migrate from Plex to Emby: A Step-by-Step Guide - Emby Blog - Emby Community
There’s a trick mentioned there you can do to try and transfer watch history but if your media\metadata is in Plex DB (which was kinda the whole point of Plex) then you’ll have a lot of work if you did a lot of customizing. That’s part of the boat I’m in as well that makes switching a chore because I curated a lot of posters but I used the Plex system instead of local assets (including managing artwork via TMDB\TVDB at the source) because I invested in Plex’s “we’ll do it for you” system which they are kinda reverting in a way by how they handle artwork\metadata now and in the future moving to NFO support (that’s a different discussion).
So - options. Since Emby\Jellyfin do support NFO files and local assets you could take the time now to setup NFO files and local assets for your current Plex movie details and posters. If you already used local files for that artwork you’ll probably be fine (maybe have to check the naming) but otherwise you’ll need to get those files and set them up but luckily naming system works pretty much the same across all three. FileBot and tinymediamanager are two popular file\asset management softwares that can help do a lot of this for you - pull assets and build nfo files and rename files to match correctly.
Jellyfin is more particular in art naming than Emby (at least according to their docs - sometimes docs only say what’s “right” not what also works) so you might want to follow Jellyfin local asset naming and it’ll work for both Jellyfin and Emby. For example, Jellyfin uses “cover.jpg” but Emby\Plex can use “poster.jpg” or “cover.jpg” (among others).
Jellyfin naming: Movies | Jellyfin
Emby naming: Movie Naming | Emby Documentation
I’m sure someone could probably write a script to pull from PlexDB but I think that’d be pretty involved; but as more people leave Plex someone might have the same situation as you and be motivated to write such a script and share it (more likely find it at Emby\Jellyfin forums rather than here - Jellyfin more than Emby would be my guess just because of the nature of the community).
Collections don’t work even remotely the same so yeah - those will be gone; and no smart\dynamic collections supported yet and that’s one of my friction points too. Emby v5 is supposed to have them when that gets released in the near-ish future.
Overall switching away from Plex is essentially gonna be starting over if you customized a lot using Plex’s built in services - which was one of the main features of Plex over the other options in the past so it makes sense there’s lots of us with additional friction to leaving Plex (which they are counting on - it’s an aspect of enshittification). I was extra lazy about my setup - which Plex let me do because of it’s features and functionality - so switching will be even extra work for me so I’ve been keeping an eye on it for my own efforts is all. You might check around the Emby\Jellyfin forums for folks who already transferred and get their input as well - a few folks here have done it and had good systems but I don’t want to call them out on it but if you search these forums for local asset naming and filebot you’ll probably find some of those threads. 
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I’m not switching to jelly fin, but I, however, am petitioning to switch back to Plex classic. Let management at Plex know, we want to go back!
Yeah… I’ll keep Plex for PlexAmp for sure even if I switch to something else for movie\tv.
I just had my support thread taken down for concluding that switching to Jellyfin was the only proper conclusion to my technical issue. Tired of Plex’s non-intuitive interface, lack of basic functionality without massive paywalls. Literally switch right now and glad I’ve never given a cent to Plex. Just an awful experience all around. FIX YOUR BROKEN UI!!!
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I also had a comment I posted about Jellyfin’s user interface taken down, even though it didn’t violate any “community guidelines” in the slightest.
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Because of this Roku update I have installed it on my media server now and I’m working to transfer my meta-data. Their UI isn’t quite as nice as Plex was but it is much more usable than the new Roku release. There are even several things that are better. Not too concerned about abandoning my Plex pass. Just want something that works well for my 2000+ movie / show self curated libraries.
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So what makes a comment get removed (off topic) about Plex (this forum) and my opinion to not switch to jellyfin (in the title) and liking the new app? Because you don’t agree with it? Proof of why people think the majority hate the change.
A little follow up on my switch from Plex to Emby.
As I stated before I chose Emby over Jellyfin mostly based the wife’s preference of the appearance of Emby in our Roku player.
I was able to import over 2000 movies and 24000 tv show episodes into emby with very little issue. There were a few movies that did not import correctly and while working with a very responsive support team at Emby I started seeing details in my movies start to disappear from the details. All my actors in the Cast & Crew section of a movie detail started to disappear and we tried a lot of things to refresh the metadata to add the actors back. I was asked if I had embedded metadata in my movies and I do. Long story short, I was not able to get the actors back into my movies details. It was suggested that I remove the embedded metadata from my media. Not ready to do that yet. I am not sure why the actors started disappearing as they were all there after my first library import.
You may not have the same thing happen to you. I originally set up two different test beds to import my movies, one for Emby and one for Jellyfin. After my issue with actors I used the 2nd test bed to re-import a fresh library of my movies and once again everything imported correctly and even after refreshing the metadata in that setup several times, everything looks good.
I have added a feature request to emby to use or ignore embedded metadata in their library settings. After a little more research on the Emby support site, I found several other discussions where users had embedded metadata and we seeing strange things occur within their library.
Overall Emby is a solid contender but if you have embedded metadata in your media you might experience some problems. Playing any media has not been an issue. It was all in the appearance of the details of my media.
That’s what’s keeping me from either Jellyfin or Emby, the lack of AppleTV clients. I reorganized all of the extras so they work across the different servers (use folders). I’ve been disappointed with the lack of development on those platforms too over the past year. But I’m at least ready for when the VCs decide to sell this to whomever owns AOL and this all really goes to sh*t.
I’m certainly happy with Infuse, and ChannelsDVR is also very interesting as well (though the UI isn’t great). I like seeing continued growth in those products.
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I completely agree with this post. In a previous status update, I shared my experience transitioning to Emby. While Emby is a powerful media solution, it is not an entirely plug-and-play replacement. Depending on your media format and metadata, some database adjustments may be required. Fortunately, I maintain a highly generic media organization: all movies are stored in a folder named “Movies,” all TV shows in a folder aptly named “TV Shows,” and so forth. My files follow a straightforward naming convention: TV episodes are labeled as “TV Show S01E01.mp4,” movies are named “Movie (1999),” and music tracks are formatted as “01 Song.flac.” I adhere strictly to the KISS principle, which has proven invaluable. In the past, when my media was subjected to Microsoft’s attempt at a media application, I discovered that maintaining a clean, simple structure made all the difference.
Emby achieves a commendable balance between its server and the Roku app. While some competitors may excel in one area over the other, Emby’s combined performance positions it ahead of the pack. Although the Roku app is not the most polished, it functions effectively once familiarized. The support experience is exceptional; when I encountered an issue with the DVR functionality—likely due to my lingering familiarity with Plex—a dedicated employee guided me through the necessary steps, ensuring I understood the system. This level of service stands in stark contrast to my unresolved requests for DVR and HDHomeRun integration with Plex from years ago. While Plex was once a dominant media player, I remain open to exploring new options. That said, I plan to revisit Plex when its Roku app successfully locates my server.
Good luck renaming your ENTIRE media library as jellyfin does not support the Plex naming conventions for movies and tv-shows - especially when it comes to editions and extras/bonus content.
For some reason the jellyfin devs don’t care about making switching easier as this has been a highly requested “feature” for several years now.
I don’t know about “ENTIRE” media library, I’ve been running my Jellyfin Server along side my Plex for 4 years and only a couple handful of times have I run into JF not reading the same file as my Plex Server does and that’s more to do with Music than anything.
I can see JF Devs not making it a priority to make their “system more like someone else’s” just for those people wanting to jump ship later. I’ve been supporting both for years and even did some nightly pull testing for the Jellyfin Roku Devs people. They may both be forks from an idea back in the day, but they are not the same product so why bash them for making it their own and free?
If this absurd failure is corrected before my subscription expires, I’ll be switching to JellyFin. I already have it installed and collections set up. I just need to figure out the issue with the poor audio.
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Yes. After 10 years of Plex and Plex Pass… and as a direct result of this latest “update” to Plex’s Roku app… I now have Emby and Jellyfin up and running on the same Windows PC alongside Plex. That part was very straightforward and all three now coexist on the same PC without issue. I also now have a reverse proxy (Caddy) running with auto-renewing certs for remote secure access to both Jellyfin and Emby. Additionally, I now have Docker for Windows running with Watchstate in a Docker container doing ongoing 3-way sync of the watched/unwatched/in-progress states of all three media servers. Roku apps are installed for both new media servers now. Local and remote access via Roku is confirmed for both. All for free (except for the lifetime Emby Premiere I paid for, but that’s optional depending on your needs).
I’m now going through each one in my spare time and tidying up things I’ve customized to my liking over the past 10 years in Plex (posters, titles, DVD order for a few TV shows, etc.). Installing either one is super easy, as is adding your libraries and letting them find your media and add all the metadata/posters. Configuring things like secure remote access and synchronizing watch states is admittedly a bit more involved (depending on your level of IT background), but there are tutorials aplenty out there and no shortage of options available to accomplish whatever you need (bonus time-saving Caddy tip I wish I’d figured out WAY sooner than I did: TURN OFF uPnP if you have an Asus router before you try to get port-forwarding for 80/443 working).
It was a good tech exercise for me and setting up both and getting them running alongside Plex has been on my to-do list for years, really since the last time Plex botched their UX update on Roku (for everyone who remembers the “Plex Classic” Roku app they were pressured into bringing back for a time while they worked out all the beta bugs of the newly released app).
In my opinion, the writing is now very clearly on the wall at Plex. Those customers who wish to host their own media are not the customers Plex is interested in having or supporting. I believe it’s only a matter of time before we get some announcement from Plex along the lines of, “It’s been a fun ride, you self-hosting users, but we’re sad to say we have to part ways, as we move on to ad-supported content, streaming media provider aggregation, etc., etc.”
My advice… EVEN IF you want to continue with Plex for now as your primary media server… is to get an alternative you can pivot to in-place and working NOW, while you can continue to work on it and tweak it at your own pace and in your own time.
It’s better than waiting until Plex forces you to move to something (likely with little notice), whether that’s via some corporate change of direction or through some UX redesign that’s even worse than the one that just got dumped on Roku users. Another bonus: If Plex changes their mind about server support or their servers go down for some unknown reason tomorrow, the ability to authenticate to your server for remote use (and, in relatively short order, even local access) goes with it. I’m delighted to finally have that doom-monkey off my back… and have user authentication (for both Emby and Jellyfin) happening locally, on my own server and under my own control.
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if you’re still looking for migration tools to help you here is one:
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No need to be that defensive - I would have switched to Jellyfin long ago if I would not have to go through my entire media library changing foldernames and structure.
This is not only an incredible hurdle to fully switch to Jellyfin it is also one that prevents people from just testing it out seriously as fixing the media library means that if you are not happy with Jellyfin, going back is painful again as you need to change the foldernames and structure again for plex.
I am not making this up, there are so many posts about this on their official forums as well as on reddit.
If Jellyfin devs would want more people to move from plex to jellyfin then supporting the Plex naming conventions OR having an importer script that renames the media library to the Jellyfin naming convention would be the way.
The only reason why I have not moved to Emby is because it doesn’t encrypt the video streams outta the box to remote clients like Plex.. You have to set up a cert or reverse proxy, blah blah blah… that’s the ONE area where plex does well.. otherwise this last update of plex is a total POS.. I HAVE noticed that remote connections are being lost, whereas before the update all connections were solid. The big issue is, like everyone else has pointed out, the new interface for Roku.. Plex has become a $hitty company. People pay for this (I’m a plex pass holder) and no matter how much people complain, they’re not restoring the old interface.. Even Microsoft rolled its interface back after everyone thought the win8 interface was a disaster. Plex is resting on it’s laurels.. Hopefully Emby will seize the opportunity and crush plex.
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As a plex pass annual payer……I don’t want the hassle of changing but the current situations are making me look elsewhere. I have reduced my plex usage to films and TV shows. It is of no use for photos, none, my Synology server does a massively better job than plex. For music…..I have thousands of mp3 but they no longer matter in an age of Spotify etc. What I want is for plex to do well what they used to do, look after my local media without the distractions of streaming services. I understand the business cases etc, and I readily acknowledge the goodwill of opensource but I would rather pay for/donate to a product that works as plex used to. I would prefer to have one app that provides ready access to my local media, film/tv/photos…..plex used to do that but the recent plethora of apps means that plex is no longer that one app solution. If they are going down the different apps for different media then why should anyone stay with plex? If plex are heading to different apps for different media then we may as well abandon plex
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They (Plex) have stated that they are going to re-integrate the apps into one app, at least for TV players, but first they need to work out all of the “new experience” bugs and make it actually usable.
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