Server Version#:1.41.9 (from App Icon in Finder)
Player Version#:
I bought a new Mac Mini to replace my aging iMac, which has been my Plex Server for about 10 years. In that time I’ve added about 11,000 movies to the library, all stored on external drives. I didn’t realize the the base model of Mac Mini’s hard drive is so small that it only has about 100GB free (again, I tend to keep data on external drives, so I figure that wouldn’t be a problem) and my metadata library, zipped is 208GB. Mac Minis are notorious for not being able to enlarge the hard drive after sale. Is there a way to put the Plex Media Server metadata and other settings , currently set to Users//Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server to a location on an external hard drive, and if I do this, will I see constant problems with it reverting to the standard location? Is the answer a UNIX Symlink (not native to Mac OS, but I think it is supports it from the Terminal). Or is it a setting deep within the
com.plexapp.plexmediaserver.plist file?
Yep, for Mac it’s just copying the metadata folder and making a symlink to it.
I would highly suggest that you use an external SSD for the library rather than a hard drive. The performance difference is noticeable. The media files are fine for hard drives though.
I know that symlinks exist but don’t know how to create one. I assume you start up terminal, get it in the right directory (in this case, the users/Library/Application Support directory) and then issue some command. Is there a tutorial somewhere how to do it for a someone whose knowledge of UNIX is not much more than ls -l to get a listing of files? I get the performance issue with an SSD, but already have several hard drives. I figure after I get it working, I can move it to an SSD later. Besides, performance will be so much better than it is now (almost unusable) that I might not even notice the extra speed from and SSD.
The basic syntax for creating a symlink using ln is:
ln -s source target
The source is directory you want to link to; the target is the location you want it to appear (be accessible from).
So the order of operations in your case would be to:
- Stop Plex Media Server.
- Copy the Plex data directory from “/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server” to the desired storage location.
- Rename (initially) “/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server” to something else (just add “.bak” to the end of it).
- From the terminal, in “/Users/username/Library/Application Support” run:
ln -s "/new/path/to/server data" "Plex Media Server" - Start Plex Media Server.
Once you’ve tested, and tested again, that Plex is working as normal, you can delete the backup directory from step three.
Some notes:
- Never, ever, put Plex data folder on a network drive (NAS or other SMB/NFS/AFP share). It will break.
- If you’re moving the data to a convention HDD, it would likely be best to configure macOS to not power down drives after periods of inactivity.
- Other stuff I can’t think of right now.
This is something I read about a while ago from @ChuckPa
I see references here about creating symlinks.
My advice - DON’T DO IT!
There are parts of PMS which will NOT follow the symlinks.
PMS is NOT designed to be chopped up
Although that was a “server-mac” thread, his examples relate to Linux, where it is possible to tell Plex to look for the Plex data folder in another location. That’s not possible on macOS.
He also often follows the mantra “I don’t do it that way, so doing it that way is wrong.”
At any rate, in this particular case, I have personal experience. Moving and symlinking in the manner described results in a perfectly functional system. (I used this method on an old Mac mini that I’d upgraded with an SSD; I just symlinked the old internal HDD’s Plex data folder to where it was expected to be on the new OS drive.)
And thanks for sharing that. It may very well be that symlinking does work well for this purpose in a Linux environment and folks should be aware of that!
On Linux, the EASIEST, and LINUX-SUPPORTED method is to relocate the
PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR environment variable.
Symlinks do not allow you to go backwards (up) the directory tree to go back to where you came from.
While they might work, PMS failure to operate as designed is the user’s responsibility to remedy.
( I’ve had this argument far too many times trying to support the Linux packaging .DEB / RPM installation )
We’re talking about a macOS environment. On Linux, yes, that’s absolutely the way to go. No such method exists on macOS.
Unless you know from experience (which I do), please don’t undermine me. I’m not theory-crafting here. While I appreciate your knowledge, it only extends so far.
Why are you restating what I’ve already said? I gave pretty clear instructions above that don’t require clarification or reinterpretation. I respect you a great deal for both your knowledge and what you do on these forums. But sometimes it’s best to just stay out of a conversation. Again, I don’t appreciate being undermined, particularly when my specific experience is more relevant than speculation.
@ChuckPa I suspect you’re thick-skinned enough that my previous comment didn’t bother you. But I want to apologize nonetheless. I think it was overly harsh; at the very least I could have worded it better. I was having a bad day and I lashed out unnecessarily.
No need to respond or anything. When I make mistakes I just like to admit them and try to do better. Thanks for all you do for the community.
All good. Cleaned up my mess. Moving on 
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