Move PMS from Win7 to Win10 with Plex Media Server folder on external drive

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.18.6.2368 (usually latest version) on Windows 7
Player Version#: not relevant, but eg. Plex for LG 4.23.1 with webOS 3.8.0 and several others

I’ve been running a Plex server for many years and need to move it from Win7 to Win10 on a new computer. I’ve read the support articles and the process seems fairly straightforward. What I’m really looking for here is any Protips on making the process smoother and minimizing downtime. I have backups of everything and am not worried about making it work eventually or losing anything. My goal is to avoid texts/calls from daughters, girlfriend, etc. saying, “Hey! Plex is down! Can you fix it?”

My Win7 system differs from those in the support articles in two main ways: the Plex Media Server folder is on an external USB3 drive (T:\Plex Media Server, about 35GB) and the 7TB of media in seven libraries is on a NAS mapped to N:, ie. N:\TV Shows, N:\Ended TV Shows, etc.

I’m not worried about the Win10 install having problems with the media on the NAS; my concern is more about the Plex Media Server folder on the external drive, and whether the Win10 install might not like using the folder from the Win7 machine.

The Win10 system already has access to the media as N: I’m thinking to install Plex, shut it down and set service to manual on Win10, shut it down on Win7, copy Plex registry settings from Win7 to Win10, move USB drive (T:\Plex Media Server) to Win10, punt the Win10 machine, make sure N: and T: are accessible and start Plex, then finally log out and back in. After it is working locally, I’ll probably move the Win7 IP to the Win10 machine (easier than tweaking routers and firewalls) but I’m not concerned about getting remote access to work as this is fairly straightforward in my experience.

Anyone have any suggestions to make this go more smoothly and minimize service downtime?

Thanks for any comments!

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Your registry settings is where the location where your PMS folder is saved and gives it’s identity to plex.tv. so copy that over first before installing PMS on the Win 10 machine.

As long as everything has same paths including drive letter then it should just use the PMS folder and registry setting and behave like it is the exact same server

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I’ve already installed Plex on the Win10 machine, though removing it to copy the registry settings first is simple enough if anyone thinks this matters.

Thanks for your comments.

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You could just exit/quit server, replace that stuff with the backups from other machine, and then restart.

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So…

Moving Plex was about the least painful part of switching from Win7 to Win10… I followed the steps I listed above and everything just worked. It was down for less than two hours and only one user even noticed.

Anyways, my thanks to the Plex devs and user community for making it such a useful thing.

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