[HowTo] An extended guide on how to move the Plex data folder on Windows

[OttoKerner]

By default, Plex server stores all its own data on the system drive, in the AppData path of the Windows user.
You might want to change that location, if your system drive is a small SSD or you are simply having capacity issues.

Moving Plex data to a dedicated drive also makes it easier to retain your Plex server data when changing machines or re-installing Windows from scratch.
For larger servers/collections, I recommend a dedicated, internal SSD drive.

1. Exit/End/Quit/Close plex, using the task tray icon
   
2. go to the ‘Services’ control panel (services.msc) of Windows and Stop the ‘Plex Update Service’
   (CTRL+Shift+Esc - tab ‘Services’)
3. copy this folder and all its content to the new location
   C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server
   The new location must not be inside a folder which has been added to a Plex library!
   The copy process can take several hours if you have a fairly big library.
4. open the registry editor regedit.exe
   go to the branch HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server
   and create a new string (right-click) (“String Value”) and name it LocalAppDataPath
5. Edit the newly created string and type in the new location
   Beware! The path you type in must not include ‘Plex Media Server’ as last part.
   So if now your plex data reside in E:\plex\Plex Media Server\, you type only
   E:\plex\ into the input field.

Always use a folder. Don’t point Plex to “naked” drive letters. That applies to Plex media libraries as well!
(Keep in mind that E: must use the NTFS file system, not ReFS which gets used with Windows Storage Spaces. It must also not be a networked drive. exFat is also not usable.)

6. close Regedit
7. restart computer

See also
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201539237

Once you verified, that everything is working (including fetching metadata for new items!) you can delete the old plex data directory.

Addendum:

If you experience difficulties installing Plex server updates after moving the data folder, you might have to redirect the ‘Plex Updater Service’ to the new data folder location as well:

1. stop the ‘Plex Update Service’ (services.msc)
2. open the registry editor regedit.exe with Administrator privileges (“Run as…”)
3. go to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server\
   and change any drive letter references in there as well.
4. reboot the server machine.

Addendum 2:

If you need to identify the plex data folder “manually”, here is how it looks like:

Addendum 3:

Here is a quick way to revert the above change:
copy this text and paste it into notepad.exe

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server]
"LocalAppDataPath"=-

Save it as a regular text file. Don’t change its content in any way!
Change the filename extension of that saved file from .txt to .reg
Double-click the file and confirm that you want it to make changes to the registry.

[DERWOLFAUSKOELN]

This Article is unclear in one thing to me. You mention specifically in 2. that you stop the Plex Update Service, but not when you turn it on again, or is that only when it automatically starts again after the reboot ? Just want to make sure I dont make any mistake.

Would appreciate any reply on that as soon as possible.
Thank you.

Wolf

P.S: I am sorry if its maybe a stupid question, but i am new to Plex. Thats why I wanna make sure.

[OttoKerner]

@DERWOLFAUSKOELN

You mention specifically in 2. that you stop the Plex Update Service, but not when you turn it on again

It is a “Windows Service”, which is set to automatically start at bootup. So no need to start it manually, it will get started eventually at the next reboot. And it is only used for Plex’ auto-update anyway, so it’s not exactly necessary for regular Plex operation.

[ThR1Ce]

I am going through the steps to transfer my metadata. Hung up on one thing.

In regedit (step 4), when creating the new string value, there is already a string value of the same name (LocalAppDataPath) which prevents that step . Are we supposed to delete that old string value prior to making a new one? Or, would it work just to edit the path to our new location for the metadata?

[OttoKerner]

@ThR1Ce

would it work just to edit the path to our new location for the metadata?

If the key is already existing, it means that you have moved the path already before.
It also means that you have to copy the Plex data from the folder location which is mentioned in the LocalAppDataPath key.
When you are done with copying, simply edit this key to point to the new location. Caveat from point 5) above remains.

[ThR1Ce]

Perfect. Thanks for the quick reply!

[kpfleming]

Would you mind adding the server-windows tag to this post, so that it can be filtered like other Windows-related posts? Thanks.

[OttoKerner]

Right you are. Done!

[skylinetturbo]

How would we do this on a Mac?

[OttoKerner]

I don’t know for certain. It might be similar to the method used on Linux.
Or it might involve directory junctions/symlinks or something like that.

[dickvangelder_gmail_com]

To avoid the Update problem, I would like to have your opinion on this solution;

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/278262-mklink-create-use-links-windows.html

[OttoKerner]

This is no solution, because it won’t magically move all your existing data to the other drive.
Follow the procedure above.

[friscostu]

I moved my data folder, edited the registry plus the updater registry, restarted the computer, and now newly-added movies won’t pull default posters or allow me to choose one of the generated ones. All I get in the edit box are blank frames.

My old movies show the proper art.

[OttoKerner]

Did you point it to a drive that is not formatted with the NTFS file system?

[friscostu]

Yeah, I think Drivepool was the culprit here. What’s the reason why it doesn’t work for the metadata folder?

[Xhaka]

Drivepool with default settings tries to balance out disc usage across the pool.
Doing that with tiny metadata files that are part of the database is not gonna be a plan. Unless the plan is to corrupt that database.

Drivepool for the media files themselves however is fine.

[OttoKerner]

Drivepool doesn’t support symlinks/hardlinks, so it is not a true NTFS file system.
There is a help article linked in the HowTo above.

The selection which poster to use is stored in a symlink, in order to not duplicate the artwork file.

[TheMovieContinuum]

Where is that “HowTo above”? I don’t see anything about symlinks in this thread beyond your comment. Please let me know, I would like to fix this callous oversight by Plex on where data is stored without giving an option to put elsewhere.

I appears that DriveBender also doesn’t work with moving the location of the Plex datastore. (But I think it is a true NTFS file system as I can pull a drive out and access content in another machine… but it’s using sym magic or something to enable “pooling” of drives which isn’t compatible with plex metadata. I see no difference between the media files and metadata files as far as the OS is concerned… why does it have an issue with non-media files? My media files are spread across all the drives, so what is so different about the metadata?)

I definitely would like to see if I can use symlinks to fix this problem. Plex should allow users of media server to specify WHERE they would like to store plex data… I finally figured out why my C drive was running out of space all the time

((Not pertinent to plex media location, but pertinent to bad/inefficient software design and gobbling up space unnecessarily which is what storing metadata in C will do, and people coming here are trying to reclaim space that PLEX steals… : the dev teams need to CLEAN UP all the update files. I’ve had Plex on this server for what, 10 years now, and ALL the old update files that get pushed out to installations in the background (i.e. not the ones I downloaded to kick off the updates) as these are stored in some plex directory when the app updates itself. I deleted them all and recovered yet another 3 gigs of valuable space :())

[OttoKerner]

@TheMovieContinuum

Where is that “HowTo above”? I don’t see anything about symlinks in this thread beyond your comment.

What I meant was: use the above how-to to move the Plex data folder location.
There is no known way of using symlinks on Windows for that.

Please move your other concerns out of this How-to thread.