I believe I’ve done everything correctly, but I’m not getting the expected behavior. All of the media I had before is still there, but I can’t add anything new. I’ve added media to the folders, and scans have not picked that up. I’ve forced scans and no results. I tried editing the folder locations (just as a troubleshooting measure, to kick the tires if you will) and it won’t accept the changed locations. If I had to guess, it’s behaving like I don’t have the right permissions to make the changes; there’s a green “lock” icon next to the name of my server in Account Settings.
The server shows that it’s been claimed by my Plex account.
are all the folder paths the same as the new old computer? does the new computer have have same account username? have you checked permissions on files like the database file in the plex data folder ?
that just means your server connection is secure. Like the lock icon you see in the URL bar when visiting a secure website like a bank.
Yes, all folder paths are the same. In addition, per the instruction at the link I shared, I added the libraries anew. It didn’t look like it accepted the add (based on the instructions I expected to see two folder paths, one of which I’d delete after processing the change, but since the folder path didn’t change, I figure maybe it just seamlessly replaced the “old” library instead). I followed the steps detailed at that link and proceeded as if it worked, because I really don’t know what working or not working actually looks like. Existing media files in those libraries play as expected, so I figured that step worked.
Yes, the user account on the new computer has the same name. The name of the computer itself is different, but the user account has the same name.
How do I check permissions on the database file, and what permission settings am I looking for? (Edit: I just checked in that folder, and I don’t see anything that I would describe as a database file. Is it in a subfolder; if so, which one? What is the filename and/or filetype? I’d assume *.db, but I don’t see that.)
The database file is in the PMS folder at ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Sever/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins.library.db
When you “get info” on the file in the finder at the bottom are the permissions. I doubt this is the issue but does not hurt to check. It should just say your computer accounts username has read write permissions and the others have read only.
if the folder paths were the same then you don’t need to do anything. That is mostly geared towards windows users because on a new computer, drives may not have the same drive letter
Do you still have the PMS folder (with all it’s contents) and the plist file backups from the old mac unaltered in some place? Meaning they were not altered by you changing the library folder locations
If so and assuming your Media Files have the same folder path from volumes as you mentioned then all you need to is put the PMS folder and the plist file in their default locations on new computer and start up the server.
It is possible the DB is corrupted which maybe why it would not save the folder location. in which case I would use restore a database backup rather than trying to do a database repair
The database restore from backup appears to have worked! Thanks so much
It will take a bit to confirm for-real-for-real (the dead computer died over 3 months ago and I’ve added a lot of media since then, so there’s a lot for the scan to add), but it sure looks like it’s adding media to the library again!
