Copy Content and Settings to Another Server and Run Original and New Servers at Same Time

[highlan]

Server Version#: 1.25.5.5492 (for both Synology and Docker)

BLUF: I copied the content and settings of one Plex server to another, and trying to run both at the same time results in original server only showing up in Plex account.

I’m in the process of creating a new Plex server and copied the content and settings of my original Plex server which is running on a Synology NAS to an Unraid server, using a Plex docker, following the original support article as well as this reddit post:

Move an Install to Another System | Plex Support

r/synology - How to migrate Plex from a DSM Package installation to Docker

Everything copied ok, and the new docker based Plex server runs well, however I want to run them both at the same time, until I’m ready to turn off the Synology based Plex server.

When I first installed the docker based Plex server, but before I copied the content and settings, my account showed both servers just fine (lets call them Synology and Docker) side by side. I shut down bother servers, copied the contents and settings, and made the necessary changes per the above article/post and when I brought up the Docker Plex Server, everything worked well, including showing the name correctly.

And then I turned on the Synology Plex server.

When both the Synology Plex server and the Docker Plex server are running, only the Synology Plex server shows in my account. If I shutdown the Synology Plex server and the Docker Plex server continues to run, then the Docker Plex server shows up.

I’m not sure how Plex identifies servers, but given I copied the contents and settings from Synology Plex server to Docker Plex server, this makes sense.

Really, I’m only interested in maintaining the following settings:

Custom movie collections and art work
Custom connections between movies and tv shows
User watch status for movies and tv shows

Everything else, I really don’t care about. I can reconnect users to the new Docker Plex server, if needed.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

I still have the original settings from the Docker Plex server (I renamed the original Docker Plex server “Library” folder, and copied over the Synology Plex server “Library” folder).

I guess, the real question is, are there changes I can make to the files I copied from the Synology Plex server, or should I go back to the original Docker Plex server files, and only copy certain aspects (i.e. folders and files) of the Synology Plex server files to the original Docker Plex server files?

Lastly, I made sure the servers are named differently in Account > Settings > General > Friendly name and set different ports in Account > Settings > Remote Access > Manual specify public port (and opened corresponding firewall ports).

Clear as mud?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

[tom80H]

IIRC the trick is to delete certain parameters from the preferences.xml of your cloned server. There should be approx. 4 items with the term machineidentifier or GUID in their name… those make Plex consider both systems to be the same server.

Make sure to stop the server when editing your preferences.xml

[highlan]

Awesome! Thanks, @tom80H!

I’ll try that tonight and let you know how it goes.

Just so I understand correctly, once I delete the 4 items, will Plex recreate them when I start the server back up?

[highlan]

Ok, so I couldn’t wait until tonight…

I found the following entries:
MachineIdentifier=
ProcessedMachineIdentifier=
AnonymousMachineIdentifier=
CertificateUUID=

I didn’t find a GUID, but I did find the above (“UUID”).

Delete these 4, correct?

[tom80H]

Only the MachineIdentifier ones – I might have been mistaken with the GUID/UUID one.

[highlan]

Awesome, thanks.

I’ll delete them this evening and boot up the server.

I’ll let you know how it goes! Thanks again!

[highlan]

Ok, well…I deleted the three MachineIdentifier entries and values, and got a weird result.

When I started the server, my account said the libraries couldn’t be found and didn’t detect the Docker based Plex server, nor the Synology based Plex server. I shutdown the Docker server, and my account still couldn’t detect my Synology Plex server either. I had to shut down the Synology based server as well. Once I restarted the Synology Plex server, my account detected it ok.

So, I did some troubleshooting. Luckily, I had made a back up of the Preferences.xml. This time, I left the MachineIdentifier entries, but deleted the values in between the " ". Unfortunately, this resulted in the same outcome.

So I figured what the heck. I then used the Preferences.xml that was created by the Docker, when I ran it for the first time. (I had backed this version up as well). This seems to be working. I can now see both servers.

@tom80H, thank you for your input, it was invaluable and pointed me at the Preferences.xml as the file that needed to be focused on! I’m more than willing to continue troubleshooting and trying other actions, if you so wish and think it would help the community in the future.

If not, my advice for others, is create the Plex Docker and run it for the first time. Then stop the docker, rename the Library folder to something like Library-old, and copy the contents of the Library folder from the old Plex server to the new Docker based Plex server (after stopping the old Plex server, of course.) Then, take the Preferences.xml file from the Library-old folder and copy it into the Library folder you had just copied over from the old Plex server. Then boot both servers up, and you should be able to see both. Of course, make sure they are communicating on different network ports and open those ports in your firewall, if you want them to have external access.

One thing I have noticed though, the settings of the Docker based Plex server show that my users (not the admin account, but other users with Plex accounts) of the old Plex server have access to my Docker based Plex server, but that is not the case. When you sign in with one of the users, they cannot access the new Docker based Plex. I think I need to delete and re-invite/add the users to the Docker based Plex server, but that is an issue for tomorrow…

[highlan]

Ok, last entry I believe.

I was unaware, but when you have two or more Plex servers, user access can be controlled without having to invite people to the new server. You just have to modify their access under Users & Sharing.

As such, please disregard my above post regarding user access!

Hope my information helps others!