Created new Window suser account -- library missing

[adecaria]

This is the closest thread I’ve seen to the issue I’m having–maybe not exactly the same but it has to do with a missing server. Not sure if I should start a new thread on this or not. Let me know if I should. For now, I’m just going to describe my issue:

I bought a new mini-pc a couple weeks ago as my old desktop had an unrecoverable hard drive fail. Had to do full new install of a Plex server running on Windows 11 Pro:

I set it all up using the computer name “806SER6” and realized that Windows was mirroring my wife’s laptop (she and I were using a shared Microsoft account) and I didn’t want to mess anything up on her end, so I created a new local account on my mini-pc that I could use. Not long after – and I’m guessing that local account is a factor here – Plex couldn’t find my library. I was stumped and didn’t know what to do, so I looked and noticed that Plex was trying to locate a server called “DESKTOP-CI6JOPN” something or other.

To fix, I re-re-named my desktop as 806SER6, thinking that might allow Plex to see the desktop (note: I thought I had already renamed the desktop as soon as I set it up, prior to setting up Plex server but now I’m not so sure).

OK all that said… here’s the problem. Now I have a Plex server running and two instances of 806SER6. It can’t find the first instance (which has all my media on it, file metadata edited and just like I want it), and a second instance (which is the quick version of my media without any edits yet b/c it takes a while to manually edit and I’d rather just get my old instance back.

After reading this thread, I logged into the shared Windows account, closed the Plex server instance and logged out, and came back and logged in/out and back into the local account. But still the problem persists:

Attached are my server logs.
Plex Media Server Logs_2024-09-27_08-11-29.zip (4.6 MB)

Any help here would be hot. Thank you!

[OttoKerner]

By creating a new Windows user account, and then starting Plex server under this account, you moved all your server’s data out from under it.

Shut down Plex server (important!) using its task tray icon.
Then identify the user data folder of your previous user account (the one with the MS account).
They are all under C:\Users (where Users is a hidden folder, so you must enable the display of hidden files and folders in Windows file explorer).
All Plex data are by default under
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server
now you need to copy (not move) all the contents of the Plex Media Server folder of the old account to the same location of the new account.
It is best to clear out the target folder before doing so, ensuring that only the copied contents remain.

Now you can start plex server again and see if you have your old libraries back.
(careful: if your libraries were pointed at network file shares, which were previously connected to a drive letter, you need to recreate these drive letters just as they were before!)