Moving Plex Install?

[raevengel]

Hello,

I’m a little confused and can’t quite figure out what’s wrong. I’m in the process of moving my install across Linux distros (specifically from Mint to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, if that matters). I’ve finally got Plex installed, I moved over all the files from the locations specified - REPLACING all files/folders already in existence (as stated in the Moving Plex Installs Wiki). I rebooted, I logged in - and there was no data yet in any of my Libraries. Not sure if this is what was supposed to happen (I thought that the data from the previous install would have shown up). I went ahead and added my first library (the instructions said to do this) but it also said it leave the locations that would already be showing up in there. There were no locations already showing up.

Basically, Plex is now scanning my first library, which is good, but I’m honestly not seeing any evidence that it’s reading any of the data that was moved over. How do I check this? What’s the point of moving over 36gb of data if it’s not going to use it anyway? I’m a little flummoxed. I don’t know what I could have done differently and I don’t know how to “connect” the previous data to the new install, at this point. Any info would incredibly helpful and really brilliant. Thanks so much in advance!

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[pshanew]

@raevengel

I went ahead and added my first library (the instructions said to do this)

Are you using this guide?

https://support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/

If so, you won’t be adding libraries, you’ll be editing your existing libraries. If you have no existing libraries after the move, some step was missed or was performed incorrectly. Likely the Plex database didn’t make it over properly. And if the database didn’t, you can be reasonably sure other stuff didn’t either.

The default location of Plex data is /var/lib/plexmediaserver/ on Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, and Fedora, at least), so make sure you’ve moved that entire directory over to your new installation. If you were using a custom Plex data location on your old install, you’ll need to account for that on your new install.

You may also want to double check the permissions on the directory after the move and ensure that user ‘plex’ has full (read, write, execute) access.