After all my testing, this seems to work as it should. I tested both to external USB storage as well as internal (User Accessible storage). I imported 100 Artist/250 or so albums and make sure all the Artist at least had cover art so I could tell after the restore, they were all there. In my last test, here are the steps.
Got my database/Metadata all updated for the test.
We into Plex and set my storage location to Internal (User Accessible Storage)
Shut down my Plex server.
Now that I can get to my data by windows explorer, I copied out my com.plex.app.mediaserver.smb folder a backup location.
Reset Plex by going into system apps and clearing all data and cache.
Go into the plex client and set up your new plex server and then right away change the location back to Internal (User Accessible Storage)
Shut down the Plex server and copy in your backup data to storage location.
Restart the server and once you connect to the new server, all your metadata should be there.
Note: I wasnāt sure if I needed the Plex server running to get to the windows share. However, it seems like if you just go into the shield and click on the sharing part (even when itās already checked) it starts to work and you get get to your share.
Also Note that even tho you use the same server name, it will show up as a new server in the Plex website which should be fine unless it messed up with your Syncāed contentā¦ but like I saidā¦ small price to pay if you have made a lot of metadata changes over the months and years.
I finally did my Pro and it took about 30 Min to make 50GB+ (database/Metadata) to get moved to the Internal (UAS). I am running a cloned SSD drive. I am not going to try to restore this as a test because it just takes too long. I also have more to do to get my database/metadata up to date but this should work for others as well.
I still wish Plex could do something with a backup/restore option that would actually ZIP this data up. It takes over 3 hours to copy out over 350K small files! I know they can zip stuff cause they already ZIP up the database.
Hey ASiDie - Iām in the process of moving Plex data from an old 2017 Shield Pro to the new 2019 Pro. Itās not as straight forward as you would expect.
I was under the impression if you choose to format an external SSD as internal storage (but accessible), the drive would then be encrypted to only that Shield. Do you know if thatās true?
Iām unclear to which format option I should go for.
You can, but the area where the data is stored initially is still in the inaccessible area. You would still need to move the appdata to the accessible area.
Weird. So if I understand this correctly, even though you choose PMS data storage location to Internal (user accessible storage location) or External SSD, you still donāt have access to the important Plex library data?
Maybe I wasnāt clear. If you reformat the external as internal. The external basically replaces your regular internal drive. Just like before, this is still separated into an inaccessible and accessible area. The default for PMS is still to use the inaccessible area. So you still need to go into the PMS settings and change the location to the accessible area.
If you leave the external drive as external and move the PMS data to external, you can access it fine.
If you format it as internal, like I said, it replaces the internal in your device. This is for that device only. You canāt then take this to another machine and make it work.
If you are trying to migrate, leave it as external.
I did run into something weird. I set storage location to External SSD yesterday. After running through the process for almost 16 hours it completed this morning but still says its Internal - I verified thereās no data on the SSD.
Me againā¦ wanted to make a point that sometimes when I right click on com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb folder and do a properties, sometimes I donāt get back all the files (In windows) I donāt know if itās SMB times out or what. I decided to set up FreeFileSync (Open source free app) and pull from that folder into my backup folder. It is now showing 50+ GB of data which is what I thought I had.
I suggest when you back up this folder, you use an application like that to make sure it grabs all of the files and then when you run it again, it compare the existing files as well as copy over any new ones. This is going to take a good 4 to 5 hours to copy over all those little files.
This way I know I have everything and I donāt need to download everything every time I want to make a backup.
I know this has been an issue for people before now but I really think itās going to get worse. I know that we, for one, are screwed in this area because my husband gave me the Shield
TV 2019 for Christmas to replace the one we have in the living room.
Now, while I can handle a fair number of I.T. tasks with minimal or no assistance, over the years I have gone through the painful process of learning when I should and when I shouldnāt attempt certain tasks. Our first experience with implementing Plex on the Nvidia Shield TV device to add external storage specifically to be used only by Plex was one of those lessons. After spending a very frustrating couple of days doing what I read in the instructions and rebuilding the databases quite a few times, thatās when it dawned on me: I had learned my lesson in that no matter how good it may be, there are certain situations Plex can be very unforgiving, and since the topic of storage is one of them there is no way Iām going to even attempt to follow those instructions to move the database on that device to the new one.
It seems the only option available to me is to rename the server on that device, disconnect it from the network, install the new one, configure it and add the MicroSD card we bought for it, then start from scratch rebuilding it and then spend between 6 to 10 hours cleaning up all the things Plex did wrong. (That device holds our music library and Plex has to do work on 40,260 tracks being put into 2,921 folders. It gets about 80% right but the remaining 20 is still a lot of files to deal with and takes a lot of time to first figure out what it did wrong and then correct it properly.) I configured the database to use the metadata already in the files but sometimes it forgets.)
The thing is, Plex is not newā¦itās been around for 13 years and it got what it asked forā¦growth in popularity. All you have to do is read the many reviews out there done by various publications or web sites and youāll, more likely than not, sing itās praises. Having the ability and process for moving a database from one device to another is, in my opinion, something that the folks developing the Plex software should tackle because they are more familiar with their product than any of us are and would be a lot easier for them to automate the process. I should mention this the instructions at the top of this thread isnāt the only oneā¦there are others out there.and while I really appreciate the time, effort, and thought that went into what they post, I did notice that not one of them says āthis is the definite process to followāā¦but they are doing the best they can to fill an obvious gap not being addressed by the right people.
We really love our Nvidia Shield TV devices (now we have 4) and what Plex does and can do is absolutely amazingā¦but how many more times am I going to have to rebuild my databases from scratch because Plex didnāt develop a process for moving a Plex database from one device to another?
Iāve attempted this in the last few days and agree it should be easier. Not sure if I should create a new thread, but here is my current situationā¦
Iāve been using Plex for years and just tried to follow the various steps to move from Windows to a Nvidia Shield. It wasnāt as simple as I thought and I canāt see to get everything working as expected. I see the com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb folder in Android/ data, but I also have a Plex Media Server folder in the main sdcard folder (added the USB drive as internal storage). Which folder should all of my recordings go into? Does it matter?
More importantly, my initial testing for recording items off my HDHomeRun is giving me all sorts of errors. Originally, the errors were āThe destination library or location doesnāt existā, but then I realized all of my recordings were set to record to the windows share. After switching to the Nvidia folders, I now get āAn error occurred while postprocessing the recordingā. I get this error immediately whenever something is attempted to be recorded.
Please let me know if I should split this out to a new topic or if someone can help me correct this.
