Hello
I have a QNAP TS451A, latest OS (4.3.4) running the latest version of Plex Server. All is going fine (at the moment) but I have lost Plex in the past, and had to reinstall. I keep backups, of course, but I’ve never been able to figure out how to restore Plex from its backups. There is no simple way to do that. Can anyone help me? I can see the BLOB and DB files from my MacBook, or in the file browser because I redirected the backup folder from the default, but I cannot see the current files (they are hidden by the QNAP OS).
Thanks
Larry
You can make the interesting files visible by installing this package. This creates a new Plex shared folder in QNAP pointing to those files. It will be visible in File Station and other tools (WINSCP, FTP, etc). You can update it when PMS is stopped.
The other files used by Plex remain hidden, but they are basically the files distributed / updated with each new version, that users can’t change.
Brilliant, thank you. That will solve the problem. Only one more question - how do I STOP the Plex server in QNAP when the time comes to restore?
When I ran the backup, I got the following warning. Do I need to worry about it?
[2018/02/26 14:02:50] Sync statistic: Total number of the folders: 161287. Total number of the files: 213514. Total updated size: 11.42 GB. Average updating speed: 4.86 (MB/sec). Time elapsed: 40 minutes 9 seconds
[2018/02/26 14:02:50] Not all files,folders and their attributes are synchronized.
[2018/02/26 14:02:50] Skipped 0 files and 0 folders because of unsupported filename or file size. Skipped 47112 symbolic links because symbolic links are not supported.
[2018/02/26 14:02:52] Job finished with warning. (Not all files/folders and their attributes are copied.)
@LarryLion said:
When I ran the backup, I got the following warning. Do I need to worry about it?
What are you trying to backup ? The whole Plex folder ? To do it you need to stop PMS previously. In fact, you only need to backup plexmediaserver.pid and Preferences.xml, and as you are a plex pass user, PMS will backup the database every 3 days.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/202197488-scheduled-server-maintenance/
moody_blue
Thanks for answering my two key questions. Not sure if you missed the question I posed above regarding the QNAP error message?
Yes, I am backing up the entire folder, but stopping PMS on a regular (unattended basis) is not possible with the QNAP tool, I think?
I am a Plex Pass user, I see the two files produced by the PMS backup (“blob” and “db”), but how do I unpack those, and where would the contents go in the Plex folder structure? That was my original question.
What you have outlined allows me to backup the entire folder structure, and I’m assuming that if I ever need to reinstall Plex, I can do the install, stop PMS, then simply copy from my backup, overwriting everything, then restart PMS, and I’ll be up and running without having to recreate my libraries. Is that correct, or is there something else I need to do?
Thanks, Larry
I have an external usb disk connected to my qnap and Plex creates the backups there. I also use HyperBackup to backup the entire Plex folder to that usb disk, even with PMS up. If I ever have to restore PMS from scratch, I will use the Plex folder backup (which may have a corrupt db and blob because PMS was not stopped), and will override that with db/blob from the PMS backup following https://support.plex.tv/articles/202485658-restore-a-database-backed-up-via-scheduled-tasks/
Moody_Blue
I don’t see a blob or db file in the Plex file structure, now shared. Where are they? Do I simply overwrite those files with the ones generated by the internal Plex backup process?
As luck would have it, I can no longer see my Plex server remotely, so I’m going to try restoring Plex remotely from my QNAP web interface. I can see all the files, have stopped the Plex server, and am copying back the 12 or so gigabytes of data. Holding thumbs that this works and I can see my server after the restore.
I still don’t understand the BLOB and DB file restore process. The article you linked to talks about the DB file, not the blob file, in addition.
Thanks for your help.
Larry
Moddy_blue
Success! I restored the backup, all is working fine - using the procedures you spelled out. I did NOT use the Plex blob/db files at all.
Thanks for your assistance.
Regards
Good. Thanks for reporting back.
Moody
I have another issue now. I am using the HybridBackupSync app on QTS to run my periodic (weekly) backup. But there is no way I can see to stop the PMS prior to backing up and restarting again. Some kind of script needed? By simply backing up without stopping I seem to be damaging PMS, because I’ve had to rebuild twice.
Also, I’m trying to add a large music library to PMS, and it’s causing PMS to go off-line. I never had that issue before, but even with a fresh build, I get about halfway, and Plex goes offline. A restore of a backup fixes that, but this is frustrating.
Any help would be useful
Larry
This is getting tedious! Just wiped PMS off my server, gonna restore ANOTHER backup. I’m beginning to think Plex is shaky.
I don’t think that HybridBackupSync can damage PMS. It’s not necessary to backup the Plex folder weekly. It’s Ok to backup after libraries are populated, and when PMS is stopped. I backup mine every 6 months. What is critical is that PMS does the backup also to the external USB disk.
Music and photo libraries tend to overload the server when they are created. Pls do not add more than 10.000 music tracks (or 1.000 CD’s) per “batch”. Define a library with that quantity, let it stabilize, then add 10.000 more tracks and scan, wait to stabilize, and so on. It’s also critical to respect the plex standards, if you have more than 1000 tracks in a single folder you are asking for trouble (when PMS detects that a folder is changed all files are rescanned). So pls add new subfolders, put new tracks on them and avoid having more than 20-30 music tracks per subfolder. Also never include media in the root folder (this rule applies to any type of media).
