Change media path (new router/IP) without reindexing entire library and loosing meta infos

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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Server Version#: 1.25.3.5409
Player Version#: 1.39.1.2763-300bb607

I’ve just changed my main router and my DHCP class so I had to change all my network devices local IP at home, such as my NAS and my PLEX server (SSF mini PC) and when I gone into my PLEX SERVER settings and simply updated the network path (\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\movies) for the new path, it reindexed my entire library and it lost several precious META data such as “ADDED DATE” and few relevant information… so now my huge library is kinda messed up.

I have VEEAM backup running on the Plesk Server PC, so I can revert my DB to yesterday before messing with the settings. However I still have to find a way to update the network path for the media, without reindexing them as “new media” and lost precious metadata.

Any suggestions??

EDIT : IP address is already reserved in DHCP, this is always been like that, however I had changed DHCP class from 192.168.2.xx to 192.168.68.xx, so IP address changed, no matter what, on the NAS shares.*

2

Why not just go into the router and set reserved addresses for the key devices? Far better practice than relying on DHCP

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As others has said, a reserved address is better, but for the record:

If Old path is \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\movies and new path is \\yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy\movies then edit library and add both path

Make sure in the Settings/Library that the setting named Empty trash automatically after every scan is NOT selected.

Then Scan Library Files and verify on a media, that there’s now two path to it, and one is marked unavailable

If above, then follow with an Empty trash

Edit library, and remove old path

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4

I tend to agree, as I have had in the past Android devices steal LAN IP’s. Not anymore, Static Leases solved that problem for good.

5

Thank you sir! I’m gonna try that way as soon as my DB backup are restored! I never thought my DB was 55 GB large, so it’s gonna take like 3 hours to restore on a 1 GBPS network share. I’m gonna keep you posted after trying the steps you provided. Thx again.

6

I assume you mean the entire Library directory?

And if not, that’s a database size way beyond anything I’ve even seen :wink:

7

Yes that’s right, the entire library folder. Sorry for the typo.

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8

You might be able to only restore the database before this happened, unless you ran a “Clean bundles”

Ref: Restore a Database Backed Up via 'Scheduled Tasks' | Plex Support

With above, your restore should takes minutes, since it’s a single file

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Thank you for the suggestion, but since I messed up in the DB because my “Automatically Empty Trash” where enabled, I already started a full restore with overwrite in Veeam backup from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server to be sure to “un-mess” everything. Anyway it’s not a big deal, I am not in a hurry to get my Plesk back in a minute! :wink:

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Good morning sir! I would like to thank you for your detailed instructions because after waiting 4.5 hours to restore my Plex Server folder (55 GB) backup, I was able to update my library path without reindexing and loosing relevant metadata. Thanks a lot!

1 Like
11

Maybe use a domain name next time, which makes it resistant to IP changes.
You can choose among

.intranet .internal .private .corp .home .lan

as your top-level-domain.
so you could use an address like e.g. \\mediafiles.intranet\media\movies for your plex library.

If you don’t operate your own DNS server, you can simply add the domain and the matching IP to the hosts file of your Plex server machine.
If the IP of your NAS/file server changes, simply edit the hosts file.

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