I suggest a simple solution to moving your library to a new machine. I don’t understand why it has to be so difficult. Plex needs an option for users to easily bundle their necessary files and then install them on the new machine.
I’ve tried multiple times with multiple machines and never had any luck moving my server to a new machine without having to build my metadata back up from scratch. I’ve read the instructions but it never works. Instructions are unclear or incomplete. Would it be so hard to at least put together a video if you’re going to insist on it remaining so difficult? 3rd party videos are outdated and unhelpful as well.
What do I even pay for with a plex pass? Apparently not user-friendliness.
I agree, work can definitely be done here, but it’s not always that simple. What if you’re moving to/from Windows/Linux/Mac? What if your files are residing on a new drive letter on the new machine? What if you’ve changed to a new NAS? There are many variables involved in moving to a new machine. Perhaps the process is straightfoward in your use case, but not others. That being said, I still think the transfer process could be easier.
Hardware acceleration, Live TV/DVR with guide, upgraded music libraries, not having to pay for the individual app. Stuff like that. It’s also generally user-friendly when considering what it’s doing.
Sure there are variables, Windows, Linux, NAS, but why not start with probably the most common, Windows?
I mean, its Windows… we maintain, keep it clean, keep it running as best it can but at the end of the day there are viruses, Windows corruption, have to upgrade, a hundred reasons why we would need to reload Windows or transfer our Plex to a new computer.
Tons of programs have built in export / import to be able to transfer to a different machine so this is not unusual and would be extremely welcome and helpful.
Re: the link I put above:
I’m trying to get the number of use case scenarios. I’d assume people who worry about data migration simplification must also have backup drives of their actual media files too, no? A Plex server data backup is of little use if a drive failure wipes out your collection. I figured, if I have a data backup, I may as well hook it up to another Plex server so I have TWO chances of working around the ‘insecure connections’ setting that seems always needing reassurance.
So regardless of OS differences, having multiple servers on your dash that Plex can access, one server should simply ‘scrape’ posters and metadata from another server by adding the option under:
Match/Search Options/Agent
We have The TVDB (or Plex Movie), The Movie Database, heck even one is already called 'Personal Media Shows" or “Personal Media” - shouldn’t the bold mentioned options already do this? If they do, I’ve never got the options working nor found any function of them yet.
So right now each viewing I choose between the faster more powerful shield server with many errors, or the weaker old desktop PC with accurate posters and labeling (no mismatched films), etc.
This seems to be a common issue that a lot of people are running into when upgrading their plex server. Currently there is no way to sync your watched status between different plex servers without using a plugin. If using these plugins they only provide the ability to sync at a user level and not system level or are complicated to setup for people without coding knowledge. When upgrading to a new server I had a look at the options for moving the watched status of videos from the old to the new to sync mine and users I share the library with watched status of the videos. I was only able to find ways of copying the status between server’s setup on the same operating system. When I moved from a QNAP NAS running plex to a new Server running TrueNAS Core with plex running as a plugin container I was unable to move the backup files including this data as they are different operating systems. Maybe the implementation of a button with a quick wizard which takes you through an “upgrade process” which allows to you pick and choose what gets migrated to the new server. For example in my case it would be
Obviously, this could be built on to make it better and to allow more customisation but this seems to be a general consensus of what I have seen most users want. @OttoKerner
yeah, I’ve never been able to restore from a backup. My plex folder is about 1tb in size (my media is not in my plex folder, my media is hosted on an NAS where it is safe). When 1 file goes corrupt, the whole thing goes down. Days worth of work creating playlists/collections, adding meta data, unmatching and rematching files from the agent, fixing the poster from a non-english poster to an english poster, etc.
Every time I try to restore, I end up with some error that prevents plex from even starting and my only recourse is to start over. Had to re-do my setup twice in the last 6 months due to the backups not being restorable.
What would be nice is if they allow you to backup just the custom meta data, playlists, collections, preferences, etc, then leave out ALL the bundle stuff that can easily be re-downloaded; I’m sure my 1tb backup would be trimmed down to less than 50 megs this way and would likely be a lot easier to restore.
Yea I wish this was easier, also if my Windows PC blows up I’ll need to do a bunch of things to get everything running again. I had this happen in March and starting over even with the DB’s and other files correctly backed up was a pain.
So this is not just to move to a new server but could also make it easier to recover from a disaster.
Wish Plex just had a one click export option that exported EVERYTHING unique to your plex server into like a RAR file and then when setting up a new install you would just import that file and be done
All of the “what abouts” in this thread simply boil down to the path to the media content as seen from the old server vs the new server. The OS of the server shouldn’t matter, the internal Plex data structures should be the same.
Honestly, this functionality should come not only for migrating from one server to another, but for migrating from one content storage path to another. If I need to move my library content from one path to another, if you don’t duplicate your content into the new path and let Plex find it all there first, your library is basically being rebuilt on the new path.
It would be really simple for Plex to implement a feature that fully suspends library content/metadata management so that no automatic processes are editing metadata. Then give you an option to update the path for that libraries content. And then have Plex verify that the content is reachable at that path before re-enabling content/metadata management.
Those 2 options alone would solve the problem of migrating to new servers or migrating your library to new storage, with minimal interruption or rebuilding of metadata. Most importantly it would preserve unrecoverable metadata like user watch statuses, user ratings, etc.
Now you are asking them to produce something users want rather than what they think you want, I wouldn’t hold your breath. We have been asking for something like this for years. The amount of times users have had the need to move to a new server whether it be upgrade or hardware failure (I have done it about 10 times in all the time I have been with plex and its always a pita) you think they would have started to listen by now and provide a more streamlined solution. Yes you can seemingly back up some sort of data library etc but as we all know it never ever works properly and in the end we just do a clean install. When I need to do it, I just set aside a whole day and lots of coffee (or wine) and get on with it.
this would be amazing, I’m trying to setup a new windows plex server and move my library from an old mac mini, but after reading the “support” suggestions, I can do it as I would lose about 6 years of watched status for multiple users. cannot risk that. I’m amazed this isn’t already a feature, as the tasks already backup the database?
It’s perfectly possible to migrate a server across platforms – although it’s tricky / requires more manual steps than migrating between similar platforms (hence the suggestion, I suppose).
At the very least you can migrate the ratings / view states of your media.
For a full migration you’ll need to (1) configure the old server not to automatically empty its trash and refresh the library metadata, (2) stop the old server, (3) install PMS on the new machine, (4) run the setup wizard, (5) stop the server, (6) copy the relevant data from the old to the new server data directory – most likely paths will no longer match, so you’ll probably end up adding the steps of the “migrate media to a new location” procedure (edit the libraries to add the “new” locations, scan the libraries for Plex to pick up the perceived new files as duplicates of the existing ones and wait for it to finish, remote the old library folders, rescan the library and finally empty the library’s trash).
Contrary to a same-platform migration, this will give you a new server so you’ll have to reestablish all shares. However your libraries, their metadata and other configuration should remain the same.
Thanks for the guide, so to clarify this means I would have to reshare my library to my external users? (My folks and my brother?) would they then lose all their view states etc? and would the “view states migration” link resolve this?
Yes, this. Please can we get this. As a long time user of Home Assistant, I can’t tell you home many times their simple backup and recover function has been useful. I believe a similar function in Plex would be super useful.
I think it is a shame, that such “expensive” piece of software (i am a lifetime Plex Pass buyer) doesn’t have any export/import/migrate function, like any other free software.
It could not be so difficult as it is database driven. Even my Wordpress or Joomla installation could be exported and migrated.
The Plex Server just have to read the corresponding database entries and insert it in the new database. couldn’t be a magical mystery thing - but i am not a programmer so perhaps it is?!
The importing of metadata isn’t the big problem - for me - it is much more important to have the option to migrate movie playlists and collections as that is the real work which sometimes is put in over a long time and recreating all playlists with sometimes 100 or more movies in it is the real problem (for me)
