Hi Im trying to move my plex media server (hosted on a Windows Home Server) to a new server (hosted on Windows 11)
The approach Im taking is to copy the Plex registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server\ and import the settings on the new server and also I’ve copied across the Plex Data folder which I had previously already moved to a hard drive that is different to the Plex application files
What I’m seeing is that when I start Plex on the Windows 11 device I get a “Corrupt Database: Plex Media Server was unable to open its Media database.” error
The key changes Im making in the migration process are:
The Plex version on the Windows 11 environment is 1.40.4.8679 vs 1.31.3.6868 on the source environment
The Plex Data folder drive letter is different on the Windows 11 environment. I’ve updated the LocalAppDataPath key in the registry ,so that its pointing to the right location
Ive also checked that the account that Plex is installed under has access to the Plex data folder.
My next step was to install Plex Media Server 1.31.3.6868 to see if the version difference is the issue, but I cant find anywhere to download it. I’m unable to update the Plex version on the Windows Home Server version because the later versions aren’t supported.
Generally, my advice for moving Plex server to a different Windows machine is this:
Keep everything the same, regarding the storage locations of your media.
i.e. all media items should be accessible under the same drive letter, folder path and file names as they were on the old server.
I do not recommend doing a complete reorganization of your media files during the move.
Most importantly: assign the same drive letters to the same hard drives. The same applies to network file shares, if they are mounted to a drive letter.
I have done a server move three times now in this manner, and never lost any data due to the move.
With that out of the way:
This usually means either:
you have copied the data while either the source and/or the target plex server were still running. If you do that, you’ll end up with a damaged primary database file in the copy.
the source machine (and thus plex server, too) was not cleanly shut down, leading to the damage of the primary database file.
The cure for case 1) is to copy the database folder again, this time making sure that both source and target have no Plex running.
