I moved my install of Plex from one NAS to another (newer and larger one). I networked the new NAS to the old NAS at first and this worked perfectly (server on new machine, files on old NAS). Now it is time to move the actual files. I copied them over to the new NAS. However, when I go to add them to the library (in addition to the current file paths), it shows duplicate movies.
I have seen that this is due to the guid being different, and confirmed that by looking at the XML. I have moved the order of the agents, hoping that might help. It did not.
I have a large library and have been running Plex since about 2015, so I have a lot of watched history I’d like to keep. I don’t really care about the other metadata matching so much, but watch history is important to me. I think the new guid issue is because of the new agent change. I did a full metadata refresh and then added the new file paths again, and same result.
Please tell me there is something I am missing! Thanks in advance.
New NAS - DSM 6.2.4-25556. PMS version 1.24.3.5033-6000.
Old NAS - DSM 6.2.4-25556 Update 2. PMS version 1.24.3.5033-6000.
I literally moved the data in the same folders to the new NAS. When I add the new file paths to libraries, though, it is assigning different guid to the files, thus creating duplicate thumbnails and viewed history.
Also confirm please: You changed the ownership of everything in the Plex shared folder to be owned by user Plex on the new system before starting Plex ?
Did the server identity cross over to the new system ?
Yes, I added permissions to the Plex user to the new locations - it couldn’t even see the files without these settings (granted full read and all of the write privileges except delete).
I believe the server identity was copied over as part of the server move process. I recall finding IDs and changing those, but forget where to check to confirm.
If the full COPY occurred – nothing would change as it would be ‘cloning a live system’.
Let’s do this again.
On the new system
Stop Plex
File Station → Plex shared folder
Rename Library to Library.broken
On the old system
Again stop Plex
File Station → Plex shared folder
Right-click “Library” → Compress to Library.zip
This will take time to do but will guarantee everything is pristine
When it finishes - COPY it to the new system
Back on the new system
Right-click Library.zip → Unzip here
It will now write all the files in the same structure with all the same date/time stamps
When complete,
Right-Click Library → Properties
Set the owner to user Plex for This folder, sub-folders, and files
When finished,
Start Plex.
You cannot start the old system again without changing the Preferences.xml
The new system has now fully assumed the identity of the old.
EDIT: The reason copy doesn’t work is because symbolic links, which are used for metadata, are not preserved when copying. You end up with two copies instead of the original and a link to it (which is what PMS is looking for).
It is taking forever to compress, but I am following your instructions. Can this folder just be copied uncompressed - my network is faster than the old NAS CPU.
In reviewing the preferences.xml - they are different - Oldest Previous Version, Machine identifiers, Processed Machine Identifiers, Plex Online Tokens, etc.
You mention the old system cannot start again without changing the Preferences.xml - will this be done automatically on start or something I have to manipulate? Are there instructions for that?
Yes, you can COPY the file (as I wrote) to the new system. All the needed information is maintained therein.
It will again take time to unzip.
There is no “quick and easy” way to take a long-standing server from host to host unless you’re very skilled at the command line. Even then, it can still take a few hours to do.
One user needed 2 weeks of non-stop processing to upgrade from DSM 6 to DSM 7 because of the amount of data .
This is the problem we all face with NAS CPUs . They just don’t have the CPU power to hammer the HDDs and “get it done”
I just recently moved my Plex off of Synology NAS, and simply ZIPPING up the files took 2 hours to do so. compressed 250GB of data to a 150GB zip. Moving the zip took about an hour. Unzipping the file 2 hours. Moving the files over to the destination system took 4 hours.
I know I didn’t really do things in the right order, but I was putting these files onto a linux system that I had no idea how to unzip, so I unzipped it locally on a windows box then moved them to the linux system using a share owned by the server. Worked fine, but oh man, moving 700,000 files took way longer than just moving the zip file around.
But if you want to direct copy, you CAN. The problem is that modern files systems are really bad at moving thousands of small files. Think of it like moving around boxes in real life. You are forced to only hold one box at a time, no matter the weight. Heavier boxes make you move somewhat slow, but a box that weighs 1 ounce you can still walk to the destination only so fast. If you could combine a hundred boxes together and move one 100lb box, it’d take less time than to move 10000 one ounce boxes.
On older PMS installations, those with the old agents, the metadata was managed using symbolic links.
Those links , most of which where absolute links, don’t migrate in a ‘copy’ operation.
That’s why DSM 6 → DSM 7 conversion has a ‘Symbolic Links’ phase of the migration where I do all the necessary conversions from absolute to directory relative addressing.
I finished the tasks. When I start the Plex server, the settings look good, but the interface displays ALL media as unwatched. Any ideas on how to fix that?
Ok, thanks. The media themselves have the same dates in both the old and new NAS (timestamps on the actual file). The new root folder, though, does have a more recent date. I can delete the new files and COPY them back via NFS if needed,
