I have avoided doing this “Library Upgrade” for 2 years now, as everytime I apply it to any one of my libraries when it scan’s the files in the library it will crash the server. I have to restart the server and soon as it scans again it will crash. I looked into this a year ago with no resolve and well now with PLEX in the big red text telling me to upgrade I tried it again on 2 different libraries and same issue.
I am running this on windows 10 pro machine. this machine is only for plex and all it has ran for many years now.
What can I do to upgrade my libraries and keep PLEX from crashing on scans?
The conversion requires a lot of drive space, and will put a higher than average load on the server machine (at least while it’s running). Which means, before attempting the conversion, you should:
ensure there is plenty of free space on drive C: (if you have moved the Plex data folder to another drive, then verify the free space of that drive instead)
check the cooling system of your computer. Ensure it’s still able to keep the temperatures below the point where the CPU would throttle itself. There is software which can monitor the temperatures inside, while you produce a high load with another app. Fluff and dust will inevitably clog up in the cooling fins of every computer. The older the device, the more likely it is that the cooling is no longer as effective. The smaller the device’s case and fans, the sooner it may deteriorate. Same applies if there are furry pets in the house.
perform an in-depth rebuild of your server database files. It could be damaged, which prevents the conversion from running through.
The .bat or the .ps1 file from here PlexDBRepair/Windows at master · ChuckPa/PlexDBRepair · GitHub are the easiest way to do that.
I have 225gig free on the C drive, that is more than enough right?
My PLEX server is a Lenovo dual cpu XEON server running windows 10 pro and being I live in the SW it is kept in check on temp, that is a good point you raised.
This sounds like a plan!!! couple questions:
do I just need to upgrade the database folder under my appdata location for plex in the event this fails and I need to revert back? or is there other folders I should also back up in the event of having to revert back?
will this just repair the data or do a repair and also upgrade all the libraries.
Did you mean “backup”?
If so, I’d backup at least the Databases folder. before starting the library upgrade.
But the conversion will cause a lot of the metadata to get refreshed, so other folder of the plex data folder will also be affected. If you want to cover all bases, backup the whole plex data folder. (do the backup while Plex server is NOT running!)
It will only perform the repair, in order for subsequent database operations (like the library conversion) to finish successfully.
The repair is not that long winded. It all depends on the speed of the storage system and also a bit on the size of the system RAM and the CPU speed.
When I repair my own database files of 600 and 800 MB respectively, it takes under 5 minutes. (my plex data folder is residing on an NVMe drive)
Backing up your plex data folder can take several hours.
The actual conversion of a library can also take quite a while, all depending on the number of items to process.
Mine is also on a NVMe drive, I just looked and the database folder alone is 14.3GB and the whole plex server folder under appdata/local is 41.9gb. so most definetly I will back up that whole folder up and with plex disabled like you suggested. After the back will try the .ps1 file from the github you refered and I will report back. not sure when if today or in a few days but I will.
@OttoKerner
Well I completed your 3rd option using the powershell script, it did the check, repair/optimize and reindex no issue. then when I started the server back up and went into one of my libraries and upgraded it as soon as the file scan started it killed plex again. I had to ultimatly go back to that paticuluar library and change the Agent back to the old one to keep plex from crashing when scans started.
Looking at my logs, this looks like the server log when i upgraded the library of “Documentary Serise” and it then began the scan and crashed, as it just cuts off at the end.
Thank you, I am keeping backups of the logs safe for just that. I hope they can offer some help.
My only other thought is I start all over with a fresh windows install and plex install and rebuild all the libraries over. Just want to avoid all that.
