Moving music library drive/folder while maintaining manual metadata edits

Plex Media Server
1

Hi there,

Can someone help me? Have to move my whole library. I found an article but it’s pretty old.

If I can’t maintain my edits, then I’ll have to do something else :frowning:

2

mklink /D “C:\path\to\old\location” “M:\path\to\new\location to the rescue. thank f*cking god

3

Not the best method. See the FAQ https://support.plex.tv/articles/201154537-move-media-content-to-a-new-location/

4

Only problem is that when I start doing this method, a lot of music that already exists in my library starts creating what appears to be duplicates, as they appear in my recently added.

What causes this, and how do I fix this? Both folders are literally referencing the same file directory, just one is a link to it using my `mklink /D “C:\path\to\old\location” “M:\path\to\new\location method from F:\ drive instead of M:\ drive.

5

The server isn’t matching the new files as being the same as the old ones. if you manually Fix Match on the “new” files, they will vanish. This is why you want to do the move operation with the “Automatically Empty Trash” option turned OFF. So the record of the old files remain on the server.

6
  1. Check if you can solve the conundrum by changing drive letters around in such a way that the media files are still addressed after the move by the same drive letter (and file path and file names). Usually the best way, if you want to replace an existing media drive with a larger one.
  2. if you run out of storage space, and are forced to distribute media, which were previously stored on one drive, onto several different drives for more storage space, consider the usage of “drive pooling”, which creates one big virtual drive out of several physical drives. So afterwards all your media are still accessible under the same, single drive letter.
  3. if 1) and 2) are not viable, you might want to make direct edits to the Plex server database: [HowTo] Plex database modification - Moving media the right/wrong way - #10 by jelwell

All of the above of course while Plex server is completely stopped.

7

For the record I did have “Automatically Empty Trash” off, and generally keep it off at all times.

@OttoKerner - I will try the steps you laid out when I have a moment this weekend. Thanks! :slight_smile: