Carrying over Descriptions, etc. for new PC (External Hard-drive)

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
1

My PC is falling apart, mainly due to all of the desktop icons and the start button not doing anything no matter how much I click on them, forcing me to turn my PC off and back on again. Because of this, I’ve been thinking about getting another PC for Plex.

All of my TV Shows & Films are stored on an External Hard-drive, basically meaning that I can just take it out of my PC and stick into another one. Unfortunately, I keep on feeling like a potential problem is bugging me: refilling all of the Descriptions and Details of my content.

Is there a way to make my Media Server instantly recognize and load all of the files on my External Hard-drive once it’s in another PC? I’m not really talking about copying or backing up files, since they’re not stored as part of the PC itself, more a part of an extension inside the PC. I have spent over 4 hours researching and translating my content and I don’t want to end up doing it all again once my old PC finally breaks.

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There’s a guide on what information to move and how to ensure Plex will pick it up on your new setup

3

I already read that, but I really don’t think that Copying Files are needed at all. In fact, I’m not even sure the guide you linked me talks about External Hard Drives.

4

Plex is storing its database and media assets on the system that runs the server (e.g. posters, background images, thumbs…). Therefore that’ll be lost if you simply install a new Plex Media Server on the new system and connect it to your media (on the same external HDD).

If you want to keep the descriptions / view states / ratings / manually edited metadata… you’ll need to migrate that data. Otherwise you’re simply starting from scratch.

That’s what the support article is describing.

5

Migrate? All right. In that case, I’ll try and see how that works. If I can’t find out how, I’ll just copy the Descriptions to a Text Document and paste it when needed.

6

There’s no mystery to it… just follow the procedure laid out in the support article linked above. Just make sure to go through all the steps and follow the instructions for your Windows setup:

  1. Preparation
  2. Copy Server Data From the Source System
  3. Copy Additional Server Settings From the Source System
  4. Place on the Destination System
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