I was doing a complete backup of my Drobo5N2 and near the end of the days long process it died. Luckily, I was able to copy the Plex folder under DroboApps in its entirety.
I am in the process of building a custom TrueNAS server and once I am done setting it up I will install Plex on it using the official TrueNAS app catalog. I will then follow the steps in this guide and copy the Plex folder I backed up from Drobo on to the TrueNAS server in the ix-apps dataset.
Unfortunately I read this guide only after the Drobo had already died and missed the first step (Disable Emptying of Trash). Is there a way to enable this setting by modifying one of the config files or something like that in the Plex folder that I backed up from Drobo?
I am attaching the log file from RoboCopy from when I backed up the Plex folder which lists all the files that were in there.
I assume that the Drobo is using a Preferences.xml file to store the basic server prefs.
So you need to edit that file in an editor which is aware of UNIX-style line breaks (nowadays, even notepad.exe can do that) and either find and edit, or add that preference (if itâs not in there).
Keep in mind that due to the differences between the two systems, your move will not go without hickups.
robocopy will very likely miss the symbolic links on the unix file system of the drobo. That means any manual poster selections you have made are very likely lost and will revert to the default poster upon the next metadata refresh. And that refresh will be necessary, because you may see no posters at all, initially.
your media will be accessible under a different path on the new server. All media which was not matched to an external metadata source, can lose their metadata or may even be treated as newly added upon next library scan. The only solution to that would be a direct database file edit. [HowTo] Plex database modification - Moving media the right/wrong way - #10 by jelwell
all items which were previously matched to a legacy/custom metadata agent may also encounter the same fate
Thank you very much for the detailed reply and also including gotchas that I didnât know about!
Apologies if this is a dumb question, but can I directly edit the database file in this backup folder without first copying it on the new system and running it in Plex Media Server there? I only ask because the post by jelwell that you linked to mentions dropping triggers that prevent editing the database. That makes it sound like because Plex Media Server is running it is preventing edits to the database.
If I use a tool like DB Browser for SQLite to work with the db in the backup folder without loading it into the new Plex Media Server installation, do I still need to drop triggers? Apologies again if this is a dumb question but I am not a developer/expert. I just manage to get by thanks to Google and helpful people like you
Theoretically yes.
However, without installing it first, it may be difficult to determine exactly how the folder paths to the media files will look like on the new server.
That being said, a test installation using the same jail parameters, but with only a small set of test media might serve the same purpose.
I think yes. Those triggers are in the database itself, not in Plex server. I am not certain about the exact working principle here, but itâs best to stick to the guide.
Side note: while DB Browser for SQLite may work for looking at certain tables, it may refuse to open other tables. Reason is that the Plex version of SQLite has some extensions compiled in, which are missing in DB Browser for SQLite.
If you donât know how to execute shell commands on TrueNAS, you can install Plex server on e.g. Windows and use its SQLite executable instead.
Just an update on how the process went. Might help someone else migrating from Drobo after Plex announced end of support.
The move went flawlessly, many thanks to @OttoKerner for his guidance. The only hiccup was that manual poster selections were reset to the defaults.
Instead of doing a direct database edit I went the lazy route. When installing Plex on TrueNAS you can name the mount path for your media directory. I chose to name it exactly like how it was on Drobo. After it was setup I did not have to change the folders in any of the libraries, everything was working already!
The only challenging part was copying the Plex Media Server files on to the hidden ix-apps dataset and dealing with permissions. This Plex support article was very helpful. This is the exact rsync command I used to ensure that the ownership (apps user 568) and the permissions (mode 755 for directories and 644 for files) of the copied files was correctly set:
