Server Version#: 1.24.5
Player Version#: 4.63.0
Hi all, I’ve been using and praising Plex for years but now I’m having a major crisis, and i just can’t get an answer from anyone. I think my question is simple, but here’s what happened: My old computer crashed and I dusted off another old imac to be able to stream my movies. I brought in a backup of my old Plex Media Server folder into my new computer’s Application Support folder. But i find that I’ve lost ALLL my customized data and posters and sorting stats for over 5000 movies. So ok, i have to redo it, i’m resigned to that. But in order to stick with Plex, which I very much want to do, I need to know where all that data really lives so I can prevent this in the future. I even read here in a post that every time you change your drive where your media is stored you will lose all that metadata, and there’s nothing you can do!!!
I’ve never had to use it, but here’s the procedure for moving Plex to a new system.
There are some additional steps besides just copying the Plex data folder to a new location.
A person who followed the procedure notes that their customizations were kept when moving to a new system.
Its a matter of how you move the data. If you keep the mount paths (windows drive letter, and path) the same plex will keep the data. If stuff ends up being moved around plex sees that the old stuff is gone, deletes it, and sees new stuff and re-adds it, not realizing they are the same thing
Thanks a lot, i tried but this didnt work for me. It might be because my old computer crashed instead of it being a simple move. But to be clear, it is NOT true then, that I will always lose metadata when changing locations? I’m thinking of moving from my 14T external to a NAS soon and dont want to even think this will happen again!!! Did I mention 5000 files??? 
Thanks dbirch, no names changed at all, still lost everything. I just do NOT want to change away from Plex, I love it, but man this is a big deal!
does not have to do with just file names. the entire paths need to match. If your files were in /Volumes/SomeHD/Movies on old computer they need to have the same path on new computer. Else it will think they are totally new files and you need to go through the process in that article.
Yes sorry i guess i didnt phrase it well, but i meant the path is unchanged. Thank you.
The database and all metadata is in ~/Library/Application support/Plex Media Server.
I’ve moved my server to a new computer many times. From a mac to mac all you really need to do is this, and as far as Plex is concerned will think it is the same server install. (You may have to redo remote access stuff due to new IP) (Skip step 3 and you will need to reclaim as a new server and go through initial set up; but can skip the create libraries part of set up.)
- Copy the PMS folder from old computer to new one and put it in same location
~/Library/Application support/Plex Media Server(there are multiple library folders on a mac so make sure right one) - Make sure media files are stored in same path on new computer
- optional- copy preference file from old to new, location mentioned here
- Install PMS on new computer and launch it.
Assuming all that was done . If your computer crashed then possibly the database got corrupt. In the PMS folder check if you have the database backups ~/Library/Application support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases. Then you can restore a database backup
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