Server Version#: 1.43.1.10611
Hello! I’ve been thinking of moving my PLEX server from Windows to Linux. It’s one of those small NUC mini PC boxes that has Win11 on it literally just for PLEX to run. I’ve used Linux at work for years and my peers often speak of how much better it is for server style services so it seems overall like Linux would be a better choice than the entire overhead of Win11 just for PLEX to run.
I’ve been looking online and saw some info on how to do this (linked below) but before I do all the work in an OS I only somewhat know I just wanted to ask out loud, would it really be worth it? I have a massive library and not having the overhead of Win11 and all the MS junk seems beneficial. I assume Intel GPU based transcoding will work the same way as before and I’ll need to adjust the drive paths, import the data, all that but is it really going to be worth it. Also, there’s so many Linux OSes out there, any recommendations on which one would be best for a PLEX box?
https://forums.plex.tv/t/porting-database-from-windows-linux/740577
https://spwoodcock.dev/blog/2025-02-plex-windows-migrate/
Linux is far superior for running plex imo. I switched to Ubuntu years ago and never looked back. Intel transcoding will be perfect (if not better). I have an Iris based micro pc that cooks everything else I’ve had before. I would recommend Ubuntu, it seems to be the distro they (plex) favor the most. Other distros I have seen on here have more issues lately especially with the changes in repo updates. Starting from scratch today you won’t see any of those issues, but when they change stuff in the future I can almost guarantee they will favor Ubuntu first.
Best thing I ever did was switch from Windows to Linux (Ubuntu), along with Docker. Everything just works, at least for me.
I’m still a heavy Windows user for work and personal, but for my self-hosted stuff it’s all Docker in Linux nowadays…
I switched from Win to Linux/Ubuntu years ago and have never regretted it. I wanted to have a headless server and stop mucking about with VNC and GUI control over server start/stop/update rituals. Linux headless operation is much smoother than wonky windows server stuff.
On the docker note, would there be a performance difference between installing Ubuntu on the mini PC and then PLEX directly on the OS vs making the mini PC a docker host and having PLEX run in the docker container?
My Synology disk arrays have a Docker installation and I use it for pi-hole so I’m somewhat familiar with that model
I think there might be a tiny performance difference, but not even sure you’d see it in real life. I’m running on a Lenovo ThinkCentre M920q tiny PC, released in early 2019. It has an Intel i5-8500T CPU and I don’t notice any performance issues running it in Docker. I’m also running a number of other containers. It handles transcoding fine, although I don’t have a ton of remote users.
Are you reusing the same NUC or will you have access to two hosts (Windows and Linux)? If you have the ability to have both running at the same that would be the ideal scenario. Is your media store somewhere else like a NAS?
I’ll be reusing it. So backup PLEX library data, backup reg keys, wipe the drive, install Ubuntu Server, install drivers?, install PLEX, convert library over to Linux as per the link below, drop all the data onto server via USB or winscp somehow, start plex, pray/wish/hope/don’t breath and wait until the server starts and all our data is there.
Looks like a good guide to follow. Good luck.
Make sure to keep a copy of your existing DB (without any of the recommended changes) around somewhere just in case. Glad to see they called out XXXMachineIdentifer values in the registry. This is what any users you’ve granted access to your server will use to continue their access. Not a huge deal if you use a new MachineID, but you will need to grant access again if you don’t reuse this MachineID.
Obviously, reach out if you get stuck. 
Starting the backup and migration this morning… I’ll report back how it goes… a little nervous but I can always slap it back to Win11 if it all goes horrible
I’ve got Ubuntu install, the Intel Drivers install, I can SSH into the server and the data ready to do.
What I can’t sort out at all is how to make Ubuntu talk to my Synology Diskstations and their network shares of data. The guides online say you need the mount the shares on local directories and nothing I try is working. When I try to test mount over SSH it says the server denied it and when I do it from the server’s actual desktop it says the mount isn’t in fstab.
I don’t have a NAS but now that you are on Ubuntu, you will most likely want to NFS mount the drives. You probably had them exported as SMB for Windows. So I expect if you haven’t exported them from the NAS for NFS mounting you’ll have to do that first
I ended up installing the SMB CIFS support stuff and mounting the drives that way. Just waiting for all the metadata and stuff to copy into the right folders and then start PLEX up to see what happens…
Do I have to do anything to make PLEX auto start/run when the server reboots?
It may already be enable to start on boot. Here’s some commands you might want to keep handy.
Enable on boot: sudo systemctl enable plexmediaserver.service
Start the service: sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver.service
Check status: sudo systemctl status plexmediaserver.service
Restart: sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver
plex.gz (316 Bytes)
I source this from root’s .bashrc cuz I’m too lazy to remember those commands. I can just enter “plex stop” “plex start”, etc.
Thank you!
So far it’s still coping in the metadata and media folders to the right location from the USB backup drive.
So far… total failure. After HOURS of coping the data into the right folders I am trying to start up the service and it 1st hated the prefences.XML file and now just won’t start…
Are you sure that all the permissions and file/directory ownerships are correct?
And I’m more specifically talking about /var/lib/plexmediaserver/ and below
THIS! Thank you! I made all of the plexserver folder have 777 permissions and it’s up, it has the last 10 years worth of data, and I can play stuff again! It’s finally working!!!
It’s fast too… guess we’ll see how long term if it was worth it…
EDIT: Seeing an issue with Transcoding: Client gets an error saying the Transcoder failed to start up. This device has a Intel TigerLeke-LP GT2 Iris XE chip so it should be fine, it worked under windows. I also manually installed the Intel GPU drivers already.
