# Having trouble moving Plex Media Server data
**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204
**Category:** Plex Media Server
**Tags:** server-windows
**Created:** [July 16, 2021, 2:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204 "2021-07-16T14:06:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Silkyy](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Silkyy)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2021, 2:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204/1 "2021-07-16T14:06:00Z")
I’m trying to move all of my metadata out of it’s default location on the C: drive. My problem is every time I start to transfer all of the data, it gets stuck on either the databases, or thumbnails. I let it sit over night and nothing, anyone else experience this?
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### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2021, 2:22pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204/2 "2021-07-16T14:22:56Z")
Your Plex server has to be shut down during the copy process.
Check your hard disk for damage [chkdsk | Microsoft Docs](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/chkdsk)
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### Author:  [@Silkyy](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Silkyy)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204/3 "2021-07-16T14:34:57Z")
Hey!
Yeah, I was actually following your guide to moving my metadata to another drive. Shut down the server, stopped update service, It seems like when I try to do the entire folder as a whole It gets stuck for some reason. Here I am literally copying folder by folder, so far so good.
Thanks for the reply mate.
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### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204/4 "2021-07-16T14:38:55Z")
You might wanna try robocopy [robocopy | Microsoft Learn](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/robocopy)
e.g. `robocopy /MIR "c:\users\\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server" "e:\plexdata\Plex Media Server"`
will copy only the differences from the source folder to the new location. Which means you can abort and restart as often as you need, it won’t repeat items which are already there.
> In my example “source folder” is the default location of the [plex data folder](https://support.plex.tv/articles/202915258-where-is-the-plex-media-server-data-directory-located/) on C:
> target is the folder `plexdata` on drive E:
> _Don’t_ put the plex data and your media files into the same folder!
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### Author:  [@Silkyy](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Silkyy)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204/5 "2021-07-16T14:39:50Z")
That’s pretty awesome, I’ll give it a try if the metadata folder transfer that I just started halts again.
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### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204/6 "2021-07-16T14:41:04Z")
You might also wanna temporarily disable your anti virus, so it doesn’t feel compelled to check every file that’s being copied.
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### Author:  [@Silkyy](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Silkyy)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2021, 2:45pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204/7 "2021-07-16T14:45:01Z")
gotcha, think I might try robocopy.
this happens every time.
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### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2021, 2:53pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204/8 "2021-07-16T14:53:11Z")
Once you’re done and are ready to edit the registry, remove the `Preferences.xml` file from the sorce folder.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 2:53pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/having-trouble-moving-plex-media-server-data/729204/9 "2021-10-14T14:53:20Z")
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