Moving plex library to a new drive without losing watched and metadata info

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Hi,

Can anyone tell me how to not loose the watched status and library metadata as I have to move the library to another drive.

Thanks

Bjarni Sig

2

the  watched status and metadata is not kept in the library, it's kept here

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201539237-Backing-Up-Plex-Media-Server-Data

3

Hi and many thanks for your answer Monsieur Latte,.

As there are over 2 GB in the plex media server directory I would very much like to know in what file or files exactly the watched status is and can that file be copied over the same file to restore that watched status?

Thanks

Bjarni Sig

4

That link covers everything.

5
Hi,
 
I also want to move my movie a library folder to a new disk on the same Mac. I have followed the steps to copy (not move) the library first, following this process recommended on the Windows forum:
  1. copy (NOT move) files to destination
  2. add the new folder to the old library settings 
  3. update library
  4. posters of the movies in question should now show the little '2' on them
  5. delete source files
  6. update library
  7. empty trash.
Steps 1 and 2 work fine.
 
I do step 3 but while the update appears to run, I do not see a small '2' on the posters. I have double-checked that the new folder is included for the library. The number of movies in the library has also not changed (I assumed it would double).
 
Does anybody have any ideas what is happening or what I can do to fix this? My library is over 4,000 movies with a lot of custom metadata/posters that I would hate to lose!
 
Some Further Information
 
I also did a minor software update to the latest version of Plex Media Server Version 0.9.11.13.874-dd72b17. So I repeated step 3, but still can't see any changes to the movie posters.
 
This is the first time I have ever tried to move a library.
 
The 'old' library is on a Drobo RAID. The media folder is 7.2TB in size and I have copied it to a new Drobo 5D on the same late 2013 Mac Pro, 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5 with 12 GB RAM running OS X 10.9.5 (13F34) and AMD FirePro D300 with 2048 MB.
 
I also tried adding the same copied folder of 4,000 movies to a second existing Plex library and I can see (and run) the movies from their new location - except they have no poster or metadata. 'Force Refresh' appears to run (and it takes a few hours to run) but nothing is changed regarding posters or metadata.
 
The library I am moving is very strictly following the naming conventions specified by Plex. I have spent months making sure this was all setup correctly and a large number of posters have been manually chosen.
 
The original library is still in place and the posters and metadata is as was - still fine. I don't care about the recently added flag. Retaining the posters and metadata is what is important to me!
 
 
Thanks,
 
Steve
1 Like
6

the  watched status and metadata is not kept in the library, it's kept here
 
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201539237-Backing-Up-Plex-Media-Server-Data


Read the link. Yet another reason Plex is a complete fail for the average computer literate person. Not saying you're wrong as I've become accustomed to this kind of stuff with Plex, but there has to be a simpler way.

Another result of geeks designing software instead of users. 

7

Read the link. Yet another reason Plex is a complete fail for the average computer literate person. Not saying you're wrong as I've become accustomed to this kind of stuff with Plex, but there has to be a simpler way.

Another result of geeks designing software instead of users. 

Thanks for the positive feedback to this users issues!

Bjarni, that really sounds like a permissions issue if plex isnt seeing all the new media.  Is it on a different share on the Drobo or is it in the same share but a different folder?  Can you provide screen shots?

8

Unfortunately it seems like no one can help me fix my problems so I'll try to blow away Plex and do a complete re-install. It that doesn't work then goodbye Plex and hello any other media manager I can find.

Anyone have any suggestions as an alternative to Plex?

Thanks,

Steve

9

Unfortunately it seems like no one can help me fix my problems so I'll try to blow away Plex and do a complete re-install. It that doesn't work then goodbye Plex and hello any other media manager I can find.

Anyone have any suggestions as an alternative to Plex?

Thanks,

Steve

I am sorry you feel Plex is not working for you and that you did not get the support you were looking for.  If you are still trying to figure this out, check your PMS settings => server => library => Empty trash automatically after every scan.  If that is enabled, it removes the old entry when it scans the new one, which would explain why you do not get the 2.  You needed to disable this first before step 1 even.

10

I am sorry you feel Plex is not working for you and that you did not get the support you were looking for.  If you are still trying to figure this out, check your PMS settings => server => library => Empty trash automatically after every scan.  If that is enabled, it removes the old entry when it scans the new one, which would explain why you do not get the 2.  You needed to disable this first before step 1 even.

Thanks MovieFan. I'll give it a go and get back to you.

11

@Tartufo said:
Monsieur Latte wrote on March 2 2015, 7:27 PM: »

the  watched status and metadata is not kept in the library, it’s kept here
 
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201539237-Backing-Up-Plex-Media-Server-Data

Read the link. Yet another reason Plex is a complete fail for the average computer literate person. Not saying you’re wrong as I’ve become accustomed to this kind of stuff with Plex, but there has to be a simpler way.

Another result of geeks designing software instead of users.

I take umbrage to that. I am a software geek that designs good software. IMHO the plex database was designed by a crazy person, a community, or perhaps a crazy community.

1 Like
12

@mischievous.demon said:
I take umbrage to that. I am a software geek that designs good software. IMHO the plex database was designed by a crazy person, a community, or perhaps a crazy community.

Care to elaborate on the problem with Plex’s database design?

13

Honestly the internet has been around long enough now. People know what Google is and they know how to use it to look up funny dog memes. No reason people can’t use it to solve Plex issues. The average person is used to the want it get it lifestyle. Its everywhere. Plex is great, it’s amazing! It simply works, and I have used it on almost every platform available today. I just got finished building a new rackmount with a seperate zpool storage for my media. This thing is amazing. I will say this, I have one of the largest libraries I have ever seen on the internet today, and I’ve actually paid to be on some people’s servers. Their library didn’t come close to mine.

There is nothing this software won’t do if you know how to do it. That plus the Sonarr stuff, Couchpotato, and now Docker to make all our lives easier…Plex is here to stay. Getting a powered antenna tomorrow so I can take advantage of the DVR functions of Plex too. Thanks for listening everyone. This post is merely to encourage people when they seem discouraged. My Plex journey has been a long one, and I often Teamviewer into people’s setups to help them further along their media center dreams. I am here to help if anyone needs it.

1 Like
14

It doesn’t seem like it’s possible to move ONE library to another server though, gonna be a pain to retag all those files.

15

Is this other server new or an existing one. If i’ts going to be brand new, you can copy your current setup then delete the other libraries you don’t want anymore. If it’s an existing server and you just want to move things from 1 server to another, there isn’t a way within Plex to do this, but it may be possible with some manual database editing.

16

@MovieFan.Plex said:
Is this other server new or an existing one. If i’ts going to be brand new, you can copy your current setup then delete the other libraries you don’t want anymore. If it’s an existing server and you just want to move things from 1 server to another, there isn’t a way within Plex to do this, but it may be possible with some manual database editing.

If you’re referring to me, yes the new server is new so to speak, the thing is that i don’t want it to be named the same or keep unique id’s and whatnot, i just want the library metadata and the watched data to transfer.

17

@mrbrax - Sorry, yes. I was responding to your post.

You can follow the steps in https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201370363-Move-an-Install-to-Another-System to create a copy of your server’s data. Skip the part about the Windows registry, Mac com.plexapp.plexmediaserver.plist file, or Linux preferences.xml file, which ever OS you are running. That’s the part that identifies the server. This will copy all your libraries, custom metadata and posters, and watched status.

18

@MovieFan.Plex said:
@mrbrax - Sorry, yes. I was responding to your post.

You can follow the steps in https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201370363-Move-an-Install-to-Another-System to create a copy of your server’s data. Skip the part about the Windows registry, Mac com.plexapp.plexmediaserver.plist file, or Linux preferences.xml file, which ever OS you are running. That’s the part that identifies the server. This will copy all your libraries, custom metadata and posters, and watched status.

I think it’s my 3rd or 4th Plex migration on Windows 7/10 so my setup get’s optimal and was procrastinating doing it not to loose all metadata/watched/tags of all my users since I’ve never been able to migrate to another system without ending up installing from scratch.

In my case reimporting the REGISTRY into my destination server had the impact of corrupting Plex Media Server somehow. PMS ended up running but the web portal was unresponsive so, not a good sign.

I’ve followed your recommendation MovieFan.Plex, ignoring the import of REGISTRY and attempted to run the initial setup wizard… flawless. First step, name the server, the second step suggested… we’ve found existing libraries… VICTORY!!

The path to the medias were all broken since the new server assigned a new letter to my media files, I’ve changed it back using Windows Computer Management tool, rebooted… everything got fixed at that point.

My recommendation to anyone owning a somehow serious Plex Media Server is to install Plex and all medias on it’s own machine. Any other software to complement your installation rather be in installed on a different machine (CouchPotato, Sickbeard, SABNZDB, PlexPy), so no external process impacts it’s primary purpose.

Investigating issues on a simpler installation is easy so no users are impacted by inconsistant streaming, transcoding, bandwidth availabilities, CPU and RAM availability.

19

@jmcgeejr said:
the  watched status and metadata is not kept in the library, it’s kept here

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201539237-Backing-Up-Plex-Media-Server-Data

Does this backup all data or just the library? I’m wanting to do a fresh install of Plex with the default settings, but I don’t want to have to retag all of my videos.

20

Yes, that will back up all of PMS. Make sure when restoring that you use the same version of PMS to avoid issues. Or update PMS before you do the backup.