I’m moving my Plex Media Server from my old Win10 PC to a Mac Studio machine. I Installed Plex Media Server on my Mac but didnt launch it. I then copied my Plex Media Server folder from my PC to my Mac and placed it in ~/Library/Application Support/. When I launch Plex Media Server, none of my libraries are showing up and it looks like it created a new server named after my Mac. The official Plex support article for moving Plex to another system does not touch on this specific use case so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
I’m pretty sure that you cannot expect to successfully transfer Plex DB from one system type (Win) to another type (Mac). It is my understanding that the main culprit has to do with how different systems deal with directory paths. Windoze uses the “/” whereas Mac uses a “:”, so you wouldn’t be able simply transport one to another.
I do however, feel that Plex should come up with a solution to overcome that because there are many times users need/want to switch server types.
You cannot easily clone your existing server - make it appear as exactly the same with same name/ID/etc.
You can copy the Plex data folder (database, metadata, etc.) from the PC to the Mac. This should keep your collections, etc. the same.
PMS on the Mac will be a new server. You will have to re-pin libraries on your clients. If you share with others, you will have to re-share the libraries (but not re-invite them).
The reason is that the items that identify your server to Plex are stored in the Windows Registry on PCs and in a .plist file on Macs (and in preferences.xml on Linux). There is no easy way to transfer the information between the different platforms.
Install PMS on the Mac. Use the same version that is installed on the PC. Do not give it the same name as the PC server. Claim the server. Do not create any libraries.
Important: In Settings → Library, disable Empty trash automatically after every scan.
Stop PMS on the Mac.
In Finder’s Go menu, select Go To Folder and enter ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/. This will place you in the Plex Data Folder.
Delete the contents of the Plex Data Folder (but not the folder itself).
On the PC
Stop Plex Media Server (PMS must be stopped so the database files will be closed).
This is when you copy the entire contents of the Plex Data Folder to the Mac. Do it however, is most convenient - zip the entire folder, copy it to an external drive, etc.
Login to PMS on the Mac using localhost or the Mac’s IP address: http://localhost:32400/web or http://mac_ip_address:32400/web.
If you see the “503 Maintenance” message, then wait a few minutes for PMS to fully start.
Since the server is already claimed, you should be able to reach the server settings.
Go to Settings → Libraries (in the Manage section). You should see your libraries listed.
Edit a library (mouse over the library name, “Edit Library” will appear to the right). Do not remove the old Windows path(s). Add the new path(s) to access media on the Mac.
Scan the library to pick up the new paths (click on three vertical dots to the right of “Edit Library”).
Now navigate to the library in Plex Web. You should see the movies/shows in that library. Look at the Plex Media Info for a movie/episode. You should see two entries - the old PC entry (which no longer exists) and the new entry for the Mac (which you just added).
Empty the trash for the library (not the entire server) to delete the old PC entries.
