For backup reasons I need to move my TV Shows library to another dir in the same NAS.
The problem is that moving the files will trigger Intro detection and as I have quite a lot of episodes, it’s gonna take a long time and will tax the CPU while the intro detection is running.
So instead of doing the path change in the Web UI I thought it could be done by editing the database.
I came across this post which seems pretty reasonable. Obviously changing the paths to be replaced with my own paths.
Now, this post is about 5 years old and I’m sure some – perhaps a lot – has changed since then. So my questions are:
Is this approach still valid?
Are there any other places where the path should be changed?
I guess the best would be to use the Plex own SQLite command line interpreter, right?
editing the database is a headache, a simpler solution is to disable the emptying of the trash, and then just move the files. It should auto detect the moved files and re-asssocate with them. (if I am mistaken someone else please chime in)
Moving the files is not a problem. It’s a very fast operation. Plex will detect that the file is the same and it has “only” moved Part rename detected but it will trigger intro detection nonetheless. Even though the media parts have the intro markers in the XML.
I’ve tried with a couple of episodes. Wouldn’t dare to try it with about 4000 episodes
Those SQL commands are quite easy. I would just like to know if there are more places that need editing or if there are some things to be avoided.
That may retain your added date and not put it back in the recently added row but it will rescan for intros. I assume the same is true for credit detection
If you do that keep in mind you have to refresh the metadata for the current library. If it was matched with an old agent it will be counted as a new addition
There is no need to refresh the metadata for duplicate files in another folder. Just a standard library scan will pick them up and should use the existing metadata already associated with the movie or tv episode.
You might be right about rescanning for intros though. I don’t know how Plex stores or attaches that data.
Moved about 3500 episodes with srt subs and posters, background and themes for shows and seasons from TVShows to Disk1/TVShows1. With WinSCP it took under 1 minute.
Everything is fine. All the files are referenced correctly by Plex and no strange warns in the logs.
Intro Detection was not triggered and the previous Intro Markers are there