Server Version#: will be latest but haven’t installed it yet
Player Version#: MS Windows 10 Home Version 1903
PROBLEM
A few weeks ago, my C drive went and I got a new one installed, and installed the latest version of Windows. Before I try to restore Plex, I read some things online and I just want to ensure that my process will (or at least should) work.
BACKGROUND
I have a Windows system
originally installed the database in the default directory, which would be C drive
media is stored on an external disk drive which seems to have connected as originally was (it happens to be connected to my network if that matters)
was able to get my saved database files back (i.e. the ones in the Plug-in Support directory)
don’t have a backup of the registry
SHOULD I
download and install the latest version of windows plex server
follow the directions for “restore a database via scheduled task” which I found on this forum, which has 5 steps
THAT’S IT?
is that all I have to do exactly?
I read somewhere in the forum that I would need to set up my managed users again?
any other thoughts?
I would appreciate any help ahead of time as I’ve spent countless hours over the years setting up my Plex Server and I would like to do this correctly
However, you will only get your libraries back that way. Custom posters and cover art won’t get restored.
In fact, no posters will get restored, since these are not in the dabase file.
You’ll have to Refresh Metadata on all of your items afterwards.
The users as such will be retained, since they live in your account on plex.tv.
However, after setting up the new server, you’ll have to go to https://app.plex.tv/desktop#!/settings/users-sharing
and edit each of those users and grant them access to your new server.
If you could have saved the whole Plex data folder from the old hard disk, more of your metadata could have been easily restored.
Thanks. I actually have more restored Plex folders and files but other ones weren’t mentioned in the Restore A Database Via Scheduled Task document, so I didn’t mention them. The computer tech was able to restore (although at this point, just to a temp space) the Plex Media Server folder from the AppData folder. It contains 12 folders starting with Cache and Codecs and ending with Thumbnails and Updates. How would any of these other folders and files help? I haven’t read about any other restore processes yet.
Now, can this folder continue to live in its current place?
Is it on a drive that’s formatted with the NTFS file system? (important!) Is there some free space on the drive, so it can keep on growing a bit?
Or would you rather have all the plex data back in its default location? Plex data folder
If it can stay where it is now, all you need is to put the path to it into this input field:
Settings - Server - General - ‘Show Advanced’ - “The path where local application data is stored”
But make sure that it does not have Plex Media Server at its end.
e.g. if you have the restored Plex Media Server folder now sitting on drive D: , only put D:\ into the input field. If you have it sitting inside another folder, then put the drive letter and the name of this folder in, e.g. D:\olddata
Afterwards, Save and then stop and restart Plex server.
If you however want this old Plex data to go into its default location, move the whole restored Plex Media Server folder to your user data folder, precisely inside C:\Users\<YourWindowsUserName>\AppData\Local\
Do this while plex server is not running at all!
I believe the old hard drive was NTFS and the new one is NTFS. I currently have about 1 TB of space available. I don’t know if I want it to be placed in the default location or in another one. What’s the difference? Any pros and cons? I wasn’t even backing up the AppData directory before because I thought those files were related to running the actual programs and didn’t realize that they actually contain the database and it’s related data. I’m a little uneducated about those files. I was backing up mainly the MS library directories. After reading about restores on the forums, that’s when I realized that I should ask my computer tech about trying to get back the AppData directory for Plex. Luckily he was able. If I use my own directory, I would move the folder to a different place because right now, the folder is called Recovered Data. What do most people do? Another question: After I install a new version of the database, won’t it create all of those folders and files? If I choose the default directory method, would all of the same folders and files already be there before I move mine there because I would think that by installing the server, it would create all of those. Related Question: If my install creates those folders and files and I chose a different location, would the original defaulted folders and files still remain? Maybe I’m over complicating this but I’m trying to think ahead about possible problems or questions.
If you only have one hard drive, there is n’t that big of a difference. Except you can navigate to it it a bit faster, for backing it up.
If you however have a second hard drive, you can leave it there. It will then survive without any special precautions, in case your C: drive has to get formatted or Windows reinstalled etc.
Yes, if you want to move the restored data back to the default location, they should replace the data which are already there.
In the other case, if you simply tell Plex to use the folder with the restored data outside of the default place, you can then empty out this default folder afterwards, to save some hard drive space.
I’m ready to do this now. I went to the Plex website and downloaded and installed the latest windows version. Now onto the 5 steps in the Restore A Database Via Scheduled Task. The first step says to Stop/Quit Your Plex Media Server. Before I did that, I decided to check something in the Task Manager > Service screen and I noticed a service called PlexUpdateService and it was Running.
Question 1: How exactly should I Stop/Quit the Server? What I did was to go to the system tray and look for the Plex program and I clicked on Exit. I went back into Task Manager > Service and noticed that the PlexUpdateService is still running. Perhaps I should have stopped the Server by going to Task Manager and looking in the Processes and clicking on Plex Media Server and stopping that task?
Question 2: Should the PlexUpdateService be running while I restore the database? I think not.
I have not done anything else at this point. What should I do next?
You’re right. I do have the whole directory. I mistyped.
You mentioned “You use the Windows control panel to stop services”. If I should use that instead of the Task Manager, please remind me how to get to that.
If I stop the PlexUpdateService before I move the old data over, do I have to start it again or will it start again when I restart Plex
Step 3 says “duplicate the database backup file into the correct directory…”. What is the correct directory?
Does the real database (i.e. the .db version) reside in the same directory as the backed up ones?
I currently don’t even see the .db file, so I don’t know where to put the restored one
Maybe I don’t see one because I only installed the Plex Server but didn’t actually load anything yet. Maybe it would have created the .db version later.
I’m assuming I need to do the following:
copy the latest (or whichever version I want) backup database to the .db version but keep it in the same directory
if the above line is correct, then could step 3 just say to copy into the same directory?
It’s weird. My restored data has 5 .library.db files. 3 of them have a date included in the filename so they are the backed up ones. The other 2 are the shm and the wal. I don’t have one with a .db. There is one that ends with plugins.library but that may be something different entirely.
Is it possible that the database was just not restored along with the rest, which would be strange, because my tech guy likely would have restored the whole directory.
Is it possible that the database was just in the process of backing up itself to another backup version.
Is it possible that I don’t need it now and just go with the copy process that will produce a .db
Delete the .wal and the .shm, just like the article says.
Delete the defective .db as well
Then simply remove the date from the end of the file name from the freshest of the backup files and start your server.
Plex opened finally. I realized the issue of not seeing the .db file and it was because my file extensions were not being shown. The database file didn’t show the .db. As soon as I showed extensions, I could see it.
Now I see my music and videos but most of them have blank cover art. You mentioned to refresh the metadata. I’m assuming I would do that inside of each library?
Thanks soooooo much for helping me with my data restore. I have to break for a bit and I’ll come back and finish setting things up.
