Drobo 5D died, 14 years of media at risk. I need help with a substitute

General Discussions Hardware
21

Oh man, thanks a lot. I am not an advanced user, but have been a user client of Plex since 12 years ago. 1 of the best decisions in my life. Sadly I have to rebuild those 12 years. Will be expensive, time consuming, but I am not leaving Plex out of my life.

Cheers mate.

22

I can give you the basic commands to extract the filenames from the database if you have the file.

You only need sqlite3 to access it in read-only mode for this.

This is how you do it

[chuck@glockner Databases.2012]$ echo 'select file from media_parts;' | sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db | sort > MyFiles.txt
[chuck@glockner Databases.2013]$ wc -l MyFiles.txt 
800532 MyFiles.txt
[chuck@glockner Databases.2014]$

The wc command counts lines (pathnames). This allows me to confirm I’ve extracted all 800,532 filenames from the DB

You’ll find the file is in sorted order

23

Awesome. First thing I will try when I wake up in my hidden jungle.

Thanks and cheers mate!

24

Thanks mate. I tried to get my hands on a used drobo in ebay but the only one that was available and still was for sale, it would end up costing 1.500$ with transport to spain and 1.5 months to deliver…
Thanks for the info!

25

First hit when you google ‘drobo file recovery’ : How to recover files from Drobo

That search also finds several other utilities that are claimed to be able to recover files from Drobo hard drives.

26

I am not sure I am doing this ok. Got Sqlite 3, opened it (i dont know how to do read only mode, just opened it), then on the exce box I typed this:ç

Connected to a transient in-memory database.
Use “.open FILENAME” to reopen on a persistent database.
sqlite> a_parts;’ | sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db | sort > MyFiles.txt
…> wc -l MyFiles.txt
…> 800532 MyFiles.txt
…> $
…>
I also placed a copy of the file com.plexapp.plugins.library.db on the same directory where i have sqlite3, but nothing happens. i must be doing something wrong.

27

:open_mouth:

28

your output is showing me you started (opened) sqlite3 first

Everything I’ve posted is started from the shell command line.

  echo 'select file from media_parts;' | sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db | sort > MyFiles.txt

Open a terminal window
cd to where the com.plexapp.plugins.library.db file is
PASTE the command :point_up: on your command line and hit ENTER.

29

I am so sorry ChuckPa, this I think is way above my pay grade. Do you know who I can hire to do this as to have a file with my database if I provide them with the com.plexapp.plugins.library.db file? I have tried many times and I dont get any response… I think I am too old and stupid to be able to do this… THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

30

ChuckPa, after a lot of try and error, the command on Terminal did “cd Downloads” and it worked, and now that i am in the directory:Mac-mini-de-Javier:Downloads javieriturraldelind$ , and that there previously i pasted a copy of “com.plexapp.plugins.library.db” and in Downloads also exist squilite3.
So, in terminal I do: echo ‘select file from media_parts;’
there Terminal says:
select file from media_parts;
Mac-mini-de-Javier:Downloads javieriturraldelind$

Now I type in the Terminal: sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db

Then Terminal says:
SQLite version 3.28.0 2019-04-15 14:49:49
Enter “.help” for usage hints.
sqlite>

There I enter: sort > MyFiles.txt and Terminal now says:
…>

There I am stuck

31

that is odd, now I managed to reach the Downloads directory where I pasted the com.plexapp.plugins.library.db file and squilite3, copied that sentence you gave me: echo ‘select file from media_parts;’ | sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db | sort > MyFiles.txt and now I see a File “Myfiles.txt” … BINGO!!!

THANKS MATE!!