Copy part of a database to a separate server?

[ckronengold]

I have 2 plex servers. One “main” one, running on Ubuntu, and a separate on in my media room, running on a nVidia Shield. Both of them access content stored on my NAS.

I have copying full instances of Plex before, but only to rebuild the server it came from.

I had to factory reset my Shield and didn’t back up its PMS. Is there any way to copy the database from the Ubuntu “Movies” library to repopulate all the metadata and posters on the Shield “Movies” library?

[ckronengold]

Looks like I’m doing this manually. Bummer.

[ChuckPa]

Copying the metadata from system to system is painful via the android shell.
The pathnames can’t be wrangled around in the shield like Linux.

It’s definitely a one-off custom manual job.

[ckronengold]

Thanks, Chuck.

Last question on this. What would happen if I copied the full backup of my “main” PMS over to my Shield PMS, and then re-ran “Scan Library”? Would it just remove all of the titles that it couldn’t find?

Since my PMS instances are nearly identical, rather than trying to add one library, I could add all the libraries and then remove the ones I don’t want.

[ChuckPa]

If you copied a full backup, without editing “Preferences.xml”,

1. You’d have cloned the main which confuses the heck out of Plex.tv (two machines with the same ID)
2. Pathnames won’t match so you’ll likely lose all the existing metadata.

You would need to merge the operations:

1. Disable automatic updating & trash management
2. Clone - but edit preferences.
3. Move media to a new location while keeping existing metadata.

If you walk through the sequence on paper first, it’ll make sense and from there you’ll have a checklist of the tasks.

It’s detail rich but not overly complex.

Back up/ Restore /clone your PMS metadata

Backing up your PMS data involves the same steps you’ll need if you were to clone your PMS and take to a new computer, reinstall the operating system, or just want a backup for safe keeping. Stop PMS Invoke the root shell Create the backup image [chuck@lizum ~.74]$ sudo sh sh-4.4# cd /var/lib/plexmediaserver sh-4.4# tar cfz /nas/tmp/PlexBackup.tar.gz ./Library sh-4.4# ls -la /nas/tmp/PlexBackup.tar.gz -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 864050144 Oct 29 15:29 /nas/tmp/PlexBackup.tar.gz sh-4.4# Copy …

Moving your media and keeping the metadata - The TL;DR

Moving your media and keeping the metadata - The TL;DR This Tip / How-To, while tagged for Linux, is applicable to all PMS platforms. Preparation Turn off “Empty Trash after Library Scan” Turn off “Automatically Update my Library” Make all the moves Move your media Make any configuration changes or physical media file moving you need to. When you are done, proceed with the actual PMS configuration change Updating your PMS configruation Edit each library section - Folders - ADD the new l…

[ckronengold]

Thanks, @ChuckPa.

Doesn’t look to bad. And since both PMS instances are accessing content from the same NAS, I’d guess the pathnames might actually be the same. smb://myNAS/Movies/Movie (year)/Movie (year).mp4

Guess we’ll see!

Thanks so much for the guidance!

[thekiefs]

@ckronengold

Doesn’t look to bad. And since both PMS instances are accessing content from the same NAS, I’d guess the pathnames might actually be the same. smb://myNAS/Movies/Movie (year)/Movie (year).mp4

Any idea how to backup metadata and restore it for the NVIDIA Shield? That guide seems exclusive to Linux.