Changing Plex file location, prevent thumbnail regeneration

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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Hi All,

I have quite a large database of files. Currently, I am using mergerfs filesystem to show the files all within one directory. However, it is quite slow and limiting.

As such I want to point plex directly to the individual drive locations.

I understand I can follow Move Media Content to a New Location | Plex Support however doing this will trigger plex to regenerate the thumbnails for all media which will take weeks or months. I want to avoid this.

I am thinking of writing a script that will do the following

  1. Update plex db directories table to reflect the updated locations
  2. Update plex db media_parts to reflect the new location.

However, I don’t understand

  1. how plex detects if a file has changed which triggers regeneration of thumbnails.
  2. how plex stores/grab the thumbnails for a file and if there is anything i need to change
  3. if this will even work.

NOTE, I understand the risks of editing the DB directly, I just can’t see any alt method.

Appreciate the guidance on the above.

Thanks!

2

Wrote a quick script to update media_parts table directly, worked well. plex didn’t regenerate thumbnails.

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