Moving Metadata on Windows

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

The Plex database / metadata data is increasing on my Windows 7 workstation. I need to move it from its current location on the system partition to another drive.

 

What is the correct procedure for moving the data?

2

Anybody?

3

This post is no longer up-to-date.

Please go here for the current version of the instructions: [HowTo] An extended guide on how to move the Plex data folder on Windows

  1. End plex

  2. go to the ‘Services’ control panel of Windows and Stop the ‘Plex Update Service’

  3. copy this folder and all its content to the new location
    C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server
    The copy process can take several hours if you have a fairly big library.

  4. start plex

  5. go to Settings - Server - General - Show Advanced - ‘The path where local application data is stored’

  6. type in the new location
    Beware! The path you type in must not include ‘Plex Media Server’ as last part.
    So if now your plex data reside in G:\plexdata\Plex Media Server\, you type only
    G:\plexdata into the input field.
    I recommend you to always use a folder and not to point Plex to the root folder of a drive (i.e. a “naked” drive letter).
    (Keep in mind that G: must use the NTFS file system, not ReFS which gets used with Windows Storage Spaces. It must also not be a networked drive. exFat is also not usable.)

  7. save changes

  8. end plex

  9. restart computer

See also

Once you verified, that everything is working (including fetching metadata for new items!) you can delete the old plex data directory.

[edit for PMS versions above 1.0: added shutdown of the update service ]
[edit mention exFat as unsuitable as well]

10 Likes
4

Otto, I just had to do that exact thing.  I actually following the instructions to a T... I lost ALL of my metadata!  I am now updating the database and the metadata is coming back but not getting a single image!  Any ideas what could be preventing the images from appearing?  Firewall, router, etc are not preventing the images from appearing.

Thanks

Larry

5

Some of the things that can cause problems with metadata scrapping:

Moving app data folder to a ReFS drive or a drive pool - getting textual info, but not getting posters seemed to be typical.
Security related products - anit-virus, firewall settings, adblocking, web filtering software etc.

6

Some of the things that can cause problems with metadata scrapping:

Moving app data folder to a ReFS drive or a drive pool - getting textual info, but not getting posters seemed to be typical.
Security related products - anit-virus, firewall settings, adblocking, web filtering software etc.

Drive pool would be my issue then.  I moved my data to a pool.  Why would that have any bearing on things?  My data was on a RAID previously without any issues and now it's on StableBit Drivepool on my server.  I had to move it off my RAID because it was my primary drive and ran out of space.  Am i better off adding a dedicated drive just for the Plex database?

7

Drive pool would be my issue then.  I moved my data to a pool.  Why would that have any bearing on things?

Symlink support is missing from many drive pool solutions. And this is what makes Plex tick.

Am i better off adding a dedicated drive just for the Plex database?

I'd say yes. Give it a standard NTFS partition, (up to 1 TB, depending on whether you activate media indexes) and you're good.

8

So, I just copied the Media and Thumbnails folders to another location and then made a symbolic link to them and all along I could have just copied everything over and told Plex to do it (rather than figure it out on my own)?

Would it be best to move everything else over and do it in Plex setup?

9

I did the move from my SSD drive to an HDD with large storage on the same PC. All worked fine except Plex Server seemed to be writing data due the folder every few seconds and prevented it spinning down. All other settings are default except “Enable Plex Media Server debug logging” is turned off. Why was it doing this?

10

@fireblade45 said:
I did the move from my SSD drive to an HDD with large storage on the same PC. All worked fine except Plex Server seemed to be writing data due the folder every few seconds and prevented it spinning down. All other settings are default except “Enable Plex Media Server debug logging” is turned off. Why was it doing this?

Turn off the settings for scan on detected changes…
Settings - Server - Library - Uncheck “Update my library automatically” and “Run a partial scan when changes are detected”

You can leave the update Library periodically and set the interval. If you add a movie you want to see right away you can just run a manual scan.

That activity you are seeing is probably Plex looking to see if there are changes on the drive.

11

I’m unsure why this seems to be complicated. On Windows I simply created a Plex folder on an empty SSD drive, copied the “Plex Media Server” folder to it, changed the path in the Settings to (in my case) F:\Plex, exited Plex, stopped the update service, then rebooted. Everything worked perfectly, so I deleted the original folder from my boot drive and “Voila!” - I gained 19Gb* of disk space.

*Yes, my media library is huge (and constantly growing) but the media files reside on a 25Tb NAS.

12

Thanks a ton, Otto. Followed your steps exactly and it worked perfectly for me.

13

Thanks for the detailed walk through Otto. Completed my data files move.

14

Sorry for the very late reply…

I’ve had to do this again being that I had to reformat my Windows drive.
This is in plain English where anyone can understand it, which I highly appreciate.
Thanks a lot !

@OttoKerner said:

  1. End plex
  2. go to the ‘Services’ control panel of Windows and Stop the ‘Plex Update Service’
  3. copy this folder and all its content to the new location
    C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server
    The copy process can take several hours if you have a fairly big library.
  4. start plex
  5. go to Settings - Server - General - Show Advanced - ‘The path where local application data is stored’
  6. type in the new location
    Beware! The path you type in must not include ‘Plex Media Server’ as last part.

So if now your plex data reside in G:\plexdata\Plex Media Server\ you type in only
G:\plexdata
into the input field. (Keep in mind that G: must use the NTFS file system, not ReFS which gets used with Windows Storage Spaces. It must also not be a networked drive. exFat is also not a viable option.)
7) save changes
8) end plex
9) restart computer

See also
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201539237

Once you verified, that everything is working (including fetching metadata for new items!) you can delete the old plex data directory.

[edit for PMS versions above 1.0: added shutdown of the update service ]
[edit mention exFat as unsuitable as well]

15

@OttoKerner said:

  1. End plex
  2. go to the ‘Services’ control panel of Windows and Stop the ‘Plex Update Service’
  3. copy this folder and all its content to the new location
    C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server
    The copy process can take several hours if you have a fairly big library.
  4. start plex
  5. go to Settings - Server - General - Show Advanced - ‘The path where local application data is stored’
  6. type in the new location
    Beware! The path you type in must not include ‘Plex Media Server’ as last part.

So if now your plex data reside in G:\plexdata\Plex Media Server\ you type in only
G:\plexdata
into the input field. (Keep in mind that G: must use the NTFS file system, not ReFS which gets used with Windows Storage Spaces. It must also not be a networked drive. exFat is also not a viable option.)
7) save changes
8) end plex
9) restart computer

See also
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201539237

Once you verified, that everything is working (including fetching metadata for new items!) you can delete the old plex data directory.

[edit for PMS versions above 1.0: added shutdown of the update service ]
[edit mention exFat as unsuitable as well]

For some reason PMS is kicking my a**. I’ve done everything exactly step by step and every time Plex comes back with an empty library. As soon as I direct it back to the original folder it works. But PMS refuses to work off my USB connected NTFS RAID HDD.

  1. I am changing the directory to D:\plexdata within the Plex web interface
  2. The Plex Media directory is D:\plexdata\Plex Media Server
  3. The above is done while I am following the instructions

I don’t know what I am doing wrong but I’ve tried at least 4 times with the end result that Plex has no media, no library and is a blank slate. Any ideas? Maybe I am missing something obvious?

16

@JDubbedN said:

@OttoKerner said:

  1. End plex
  2. go to the ‘Services’ control panel of Windows and Stop the ‘Plex Update Service’
  3. copy this folder and all its content to the new location
    C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server
    The copy process can take several hours if you have a fairly big library.
  4. start plex
  5. go to Settings - Server - General - Show Advanced - ‘The path where local application data is stored’
  6. type in the new location
    Beware! The path you type in must not include ‘Plex Media Server’ as last part.

So if now your plex data reside in G:\plexdata\Plex Media Server\ you type in only
G:\plexdata
into the input field. (Keep in mind that G: must use the NTFS file system, not ReFS which gets used with Windows Storage Spaces. It must also not be a networked drive. exFat is also not a viable option.)
7) save changes
8) end plex
9) restart computer

See also
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201539237

Once you verified, that everything is working (including fetching metadata for new items!) you can delete the old plex data directory.

[edit for PMS versions above 1.0: added shutdown of the update service ]
[edit mention exFat as unsuitable as well]

For some reason PMS is kicking my a**. I’ve done everything exactly step by step and every time Plex comes back with an empty library. As soon as I direct it back to the original folder it works. But PMS refuses to work off my USB connected NTFS RAID HDD.

  1. I am changing the directory to D:\plexdata within the Plex web interface
  2. The Plex Media directory is D:\plexdata\Plex Media Server
  3. The above is done while I am following the instructions

I don’t know what I am doing wrong but I’ve tried at least 4 times with the end result that Plex has no media, no library and is a blank slate. Any ideas? Maybe I am missing something obvious?

I guess 5th times a charm. I ended up deleting the copy of the Plex Media Server folder and recopying everything over again to the external drive. I guess the first copy was bad. Problem solved! Now a question…

  1. Even after deleting the original Plex Media Server folder in …appdata\local Plex is still making a PMS folder and is creating a Logs and Plug-in Support folder. Is this to be expected or is there another place in PMS I need to change the directory to D drive?
17

@JDubbedN said:

  1. Even after deleting the original Plex Media Server folder in …appdata\local Plex is still making a PMS folder and is creating a Logs and Plug-in Support folder. Is this to be expected or is there another place in PMS I need to change the directory to D drive?

This might be a side effect of the new-ish ‘Plex Updater Service’

Just monitor it over the course of the following weeks.
I don’t expect much movement in there.

18

I spoke too soon. This morning I checked the Plex server and now Plex is empty again. No library no nothing. I don’t understand it. Any suggestions? My brain is fried. X.x

19

@JDubbedN said:
I spoke too soon. This morning I checked the Plex server and now Plex is empty again. No library no nothing. I don’t understand it. Any suggestions? My brain is fried. X.x

Please take this over here:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1473994/#Comment_1473994

20

Greetings
I just went through this process - Otto’s steps are spot on; Plex’s instructions [AFAIK] didn’t include stopping the service - step 2.

However, for a spell things were not going well and I felt added feedback to this thread would be helpful – seeing as Ajasys said “I’m unsure why this seems to be complicated. On Windows …”. In principle I agree with his comment - it should be a piece of cake. But …

I turned on the feature to see the program preview thumbnails and wanted to expand that to other libraries - my SSD getting smaller I felt a good option was to move it to a dedicated ex-PS4 500GB 2.5" drive. I used an external USB Type-C Orico 3.5/2.5" drive bay and formatted [full not quick] the drive as NTFS / Default allocation before installing as a permanent drive inside the PC. I followed the Plex steps (killing/not stopping the updater service) and used Beyond Compare 3 to sync the directory over (using binary compare). I started Plex and it came up with a corrupt DB. Using the sqlite3 tool suggested the DB was malformed. Puzzling - I know the BC3 app sync is spot on - what is the problem? I went into the registry and changed it back to C: (appdata/local) and all was fine. Tried it again - just changing the folder and again Plex said the DB was corrupt.

Before reverting back to C: I had copied the folder to another internal drive. I had a brain wave - why not point to the other drive I copied to? I then made a second backup of that folder - (so that I have a pristine version in case C: was corrupted or something) and then once done, made the necessary changes and Plex came up. I then deduced it had to have something to do with the drive (ex-PS4) I installed. I then decided to re-format the drive again - this time as it is connected to the PC - and once I did that I was able to make the Plex changes and all is functioning perfectly.

The security settings at the drive/directly level LOOKED fine AFAIK - but I have had problems in the past with security and USB drives. I’ve had to change inheritance and update complete trees. I believe firmly that the format via USB was the factor and formatting when it was permanent was the solution.

That said - my step of formatting the drive via USB connection is unique to me - I doubt anyone would replicate that step. But what is important - that Windows security can be a factor (as can Linux security when doing things). And just perhaps - security wrt SQLITE …

Cheers!

FWIW - Ex-PS4 - is literally the 500GB drive the PS4’s come with. Unlike XBOX, they are user replaceable - you can slide off the side panel - there is no warranty tape (there is tape to prevent opening the core system). Their website provides the tool necessary to prepare a new drive. I ended up installing a Samsung Seagate M9T 2TB drive - part HDD with memory to make the most used items run faster. Unlike XBOX, PS4 does not allow you to connect an external drive via USB.