My computer was getting a minor repair when they fried it, so now the manufacturer is sending me a new rig. When it arrives I’ll obviously rebuild my media server on the new computer, but I’ve spent a year organizing and managing my metadata (movies, old tv series, home movies, etc.). Before the new computer arrives, is there any way I’ll be able to salvage all that organizational work, or best practices I can read up on to prepare? The original drives are okay, but want to prepare what I can before I start moving all that data and setting up my new server.
Thanks, I saw that. Unfortunately these tips require the current server being operational first so I can prepare my library for the move. Instead I’ll have a new computer to set up as a new server, and only access to the drives from the old one.
If on your old computer you had your TV media files in D:/Media/TV then that is where they should be on your new computer as that is where Plex Media Server is expecting the to be from your existing database. Don’t put them in E:/some/random/folder/path/to/media/TV
Copy the PMS folder from appdata from your old computer and put in in the same relative place on your new computer. If you can copy the registry settings from old to new.
The key is making them the exact same as far as Plex is concerned. Then just install PMS like you would normally. The PMS folder will already be there so it won’t make a new one. The files will be in the same place as well.
Do you have a backup of the Plex data directory from the old computer? That is where your metadata was stored… see this article. Effectively you are migrating to a new server.
That sounds perfect, as I was careful where I set everything up originally. Then I can get the data from my PMS folder and have it handy for when I can install, and if I need to change my location for the new configuration at least I’ll have it salvaged first.
