Move a plex server without access to source server

General Discussions
1

So my computer hosting plex ended up needing to be reformatted. I have my plex server folder on a separate drive so I thought it’d be no big deal. Well, all the instructions I’ve found seem to indicate that you have to make changes to the source server before the transfer. Is there any way to get around this? Is there any way to run PMS in portable mode?

Thanks

2

If you lost access to the first server then you basically just setup a new server as if it’s the first time doing this. You’ll need to setup everything from scratch and rescan all your libraries.

When you setup the new server to get started use a different server name.

3

It depends on what you call “plex server folder”.
If you mean with that just the folder with your media files, then no. You’ll have to set up a fresh installation.

If you actually mean with “plex server folder” the Plex data folder, then yes, you can use this and it will keep all your metadata, libraries, ‘played’ info etc.

Which is it? And which operating system is your server running on?

4

Windows 10. Yes I do have the folder that is normally stored in AppData that contains all of the PMS data.

I just don’t know how to use it to get the server restored since the original pc has been reformatted. All of the articles I’ve seen about migrating all mention steps that require access to the original server.

Is it possible to just restore from a backup of my PMS folder?

Thanks

5

I’m glad Otto caught that you still had the add data folders as I took your post as it was “all gone”.

Now that we know you have this info. This can be set and pointed to by a new install. In order for use to give you explicit directions what to set, let us ask you this:

What is the EXACT path on your current computer of this app data directory?

6

S:\Program Files\Plex\Plex Media Server

7

Technically, the Plex data are not ‘program’ files.
If your folder S:\Program Files has similar restrictions like the folder C:\Program Files, it won’t work.
But I’m assuming that is not the case here.
But just to be 100% sure, verify that your currently used Windows user account has full access permissions (read, write, create, delete) to the folder S:\Program Files\Plex

Install Plex server in the regular way.
You might even try and create a (small!) library to test functionality.
If all is working, go to
Settings - Server - General - ‘Show Advanced’
and put into the field ‘The path where local application data is stored’
the path S:\Program Files\Plex
Save, log out of your Windows user account, then reboot Windows.

Careful! You must not put S:\Program Files\Plex\Plex Media Server into it!

1 Like
8

Correct, it’s just named that way, it has the same r/w permissions as any other folder. (My actual Program Files folder is still on C:)

Am I going to have an issue with the “Empty Trash Automatically” setting not being set? (from here: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/)

9

You can disable it as a precautionary measure before doing the switchover, yes
(Just in case the media sources are not available or have switched drive letters or folder names.)

10

So, before I set the path inside PMS to S:\Program Files\Plex, what should I have in that folder? Should I leave all the data in it? Should I make that folder empty, change the path, log out of plex/stop server and THEN copy my old data over?

11

STOP.

Didn’t you say that S:\Program Files\Plex\Plex Media Server still has the data from your old Plex server installation in it?
If that is the case, then you should not change anything (and of course not delete anything!)
Otherwise you’d lose all your old data.
Leave everything as it is.

12

Yup, that folder still has the data in it. I’m currently making a backup of that folder before I do anything.

I was thinking that if I change the “data location” from within PMS to “S:\Program Files\Plex”. Would that not move the data that is currently in AppData and overwrite my existing data?

Thanks

13

No, that doesn’t happen. It really just changes where Plex is looking for its data.

14

Success! Thanks for your assistance!

For future reference, would you happen to know where plex stores its server settings? My libraries appear to be intact but lost all configuration of the server.

Thanks!

15

In the registry. That is actually also covered by the above linked ‘moving’ guide.

16

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.