I couldn’t find a better location for this question, so hopefully here is OK
I have been running PMS on an Ubuntu VM for a while and am migrating it to a new docker in UnRAID (using the official Plex docker). All is fine, except (as expected) all the users watched history is reset. Whilst this isn’t the end of the world it would be nice to migrate this to the new docker.
The new docker has recreated all the movies metadata, but I was wondering whether anyone can offer advice on how to migrate the watched history for each user from the retired Ubuntu server?
I have located the data directory (/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/ - but dont know what to copy and where to put it in the new docker?
“The watched/unwatched, view progress, and ratings are stored in an install-independent fashion that makes them easy to move between installations or servers.”
For the average Plex admin, who does not want/is unable to deal with SQLite, this is not exactly “easy”. With more and more users trying to migrate servers, either within the same OS or going from one to another, it would be fantastic if what is described in the article could be included as a simple export/import feature. And if that ever happens, please make sure that whatever a user has in their “Continue Watching” section will also carry over. Thanks in advance!
Strangely, as far as I understand, I have added the new docker and pointed it to the same set of folders on my media store. So temporarily I have both servers live.
Unexpectedly last night I went to watch a series using the new server and it seems to have adopted the series viewing history from the old server - I dont know whether this is expected, but certainly I wasnt expecting this. I havent deleted the old Plex VM (yet), so dont know whether this history is now attached to the new server and will disappear when the old server is deleted - but it does look promising as on the new server we watched an episode of a series and on the new server it shows as played, but on the old server it shows as unwatched… so it looks as though both servers have their own viewing history - but somehow the new server adopted the history from the old server!
So, for me (hopefully) this problem is solved - even though I am not sure why/how.
However if this works for me then it may help someone in future trying to create a new server
I just checked the original Ubuntu VM as I didnt remember enabling it and it shows as Inactive, so I dont think this is the reason - but I will be enabling it as this would fix this on any other replacement servers I create in future - thanks
