Lost all access to plex libraries after "downgrade" reinstall

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

ISSUE: Newly installed v1.12 does not show any libraries or metadata that was previously on my Plex (also, plug-ins appear but do not run).

BACKGROUND: Version 1.13.5.5332 constantly skipped through my media so I reinstalled v1.12.1.4885 and everything worked great. When v1.13.8.5395 came out I hoped the error had been fixed do I ungraded. It also kept skipping forward though my shows (2sec jumps every ~30sec) so I tried downgrading again to v1.12.1.4885, but this time I received an error saying there is a version installed and it couldn’t continue.

To fix the problem:

  1. I moved all Plex folders to a “backup” folder outside Plex
  2. uninstalled v1.13 (from the empty file).
  3. installed v1.12
  4. copied folders and non-exe files from “backup” to new install folder 150GB of metadata with more than 30,000 folders.
  5. ran Plex clicked update library files and nothing happened, opened the browser and no libraries are showing. All metadata, files and folders are there but the setting were all lost!

QUESTION: how can I hack the settings to access my metadata vise spending the next six months relabeling everything.

Thank you for reading this and I appreciate any help you can give.

2

You can try your luck with this procedure:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201100678-repair-a-corrupt-database/

3

Almost Fixed! Thank you Otto.

I found four files:
/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins.library.db
/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db
/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-2018-10-04
/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db-2018-10-04
and deleted the first two and removed the dates from the two backups made a few days ago. WOW all libraries are restored.

1 problem still. No pictures/thumbnails on anything. I found all pics in:
/Plex Media Server/Cache/PhotoTranscoder/
But it can’t seam to find them. I assume there is another db file that points to this?

Any suggestions.

4

Your copying procedure of the Plex data folder might have made all symbolic links invalid.

What this means is that the pictures are still present, but Plex doesn’t remember the ‘choice’ anymore which one to actually display (there are usually several candidates per library item).

You will need a library-wide ‘Refresh Metadata’. (Try this with a few items first!)

5

FIXED!!!

I found these folders and swapped each with there counterpart, now all is fixed.
\Plex Media Server\Media
\Plex Media Server\Metadata
\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Server\Media
\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Server\Metadata

Thank you for your help

6

You may want to give this a read:

7

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