With Synology’s recent annoucements showing new models with the same old AMD processors, the writing is on the wall for me to eventually move on from Synology.
I’d like to migrate PMS to a Mac, while keeping the libraries on the Synology which I’ll mount on the Mac over SMB.
Reading Plex’s documentation on migration, it states “it is generally possible to move between different operating systems, but that’s more complicated and requires mapping the additional server settings from how they’re stored in one operating system to the other (e.g. mapping Windows registry values to the OS X plist file). That is not officially supported and not covered here.”
So with that in mind, does anyone know the proper steps for moving from DSM to macOS? Any particular gotchas or other things to know beforehand?
Skip the Copy Additional Server Settings From the Source System section (copying from preferences.xml to plist).
You can then run Plex Media Server on both systems at the same time, migrating users to the Mac when you are comfortable the system is stable and working as desired.
If you share with others, you will not have to re-invite them. You will have to share libraries from the new server (PMS/Mac). They will need to un-pin libraries from the old server and pin libraries from the new server.
Bonus: You can keep PMS running on the Synology after you migrate to the Mac. It will let you test new PMS releases/features before deploying to PMS/Mac. It can also serve as an emergency backup in case something happens to the Mac.
This is an account, not server, setting. Enable it for your account and have anyone you share with enable it as well. It will keep the information in sync as you migrate from the old to new server.
Yes. That information is stored in the Plex database.
It contains the machine ID and other settings that uniquely identify your server to hosts at plex.tv.
If you copy the information to the new server, it clones the server - same name, same ID, etc.
The upside is that it exactly replaces the old server. No re-pinning of libraries, no re-sharing required, etc.
The downside is that you cannot run both servers at the same time, as they have the exact same ID.
Note 1: As mentioned in the Plex support document, PMS/Synology keeps the information in the preferences.xml file and PMS/Mac keeps it in a plist file. If you do want to copy the information, you will need to manually edit the plist file on the Mac. There is no “universal translator” to translate the settings between Mac/Linux/Windows systems.
Note 2: The file also contains other server specific settings, such as the remote access port, the transcoder temporary directory, etc. The information is in text (at least on the Syno). You can use a text editor to see it. See Advanced, Hidden Server Settings for additional info/settings.
I will likely want to copy over the add’l server settings because I have every intention of replacing PMS on the Synology. Can I simple convert the XML file to plist, or is there additional steps to make the two file types play nice?
Also, I’ve read of others needing to reclaim their PMS when migrating. I have done a PMS migration from one Synology to another, and didn’t have to do this. Will I need to reclaim when moving from Synology to Mac?
