Moving Viewstate

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Had PMS running on Windows 7. Moving to an Ubuntu install. I’m trying to move viewstate over to the new install using this article:

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201154527-Move-Viewstate-Ratings-from-One-Install-to-Another

However, when I get to the last step for importing the data into the new database, I get this error:
Error: near line 18455: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18456: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18457: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18458: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18459: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18460: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18461: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18462: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18463: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18464: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18465: no such table: metadata_item_settings
Error: near line 18466: no such table: metadata_item_settings

(lots of them)

Any idea why this table doesn’t exist in my database?

2

MUCH easier way.

  1. On the new machine: Settings - Server - Library: Turn off auto update, Turn off “Empty Trash”
  2. Stop PMS
  3. Copy the physical DB file from the Windows machine to it’s location on Linux
  4. Start PMS
  5. Individually: Add each new directory path (don’t take the old out yet) and update the section
  6. Verify you still have viewstate and '2" showing (it thinks it has duplicates)
  7. When all show duplicates, you’ve remapped all the directories and can proceed to the next section
  8. When all sections complete, Re-enable Empty Trash, Update the Library
  9. Edit the sections again and remove the Windows directory paths.
  10. When all done… Update, Empty trash, clean bundles and lastly, Optimize Database

I gave you the step by step of https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201370363-Move-an-Install-to-Another-System

2 Likes
3

Thanks for this, it seemed to work smoothly. I found that article when I started this project but was dissuaded from that approach by this bit:

It is generally possible to move between different operating systems, but that’s much more complicated and requires mapping the additional server settings from how they’re stored in one operating system to the other (e.g. mapping Windows registry values to the OS X plist file). That is not officially supported and not covered here.

Maybe you could reword that so it isn’t so ominous and discouraging from attempting it. Might give you access to more feedback so eventually you can officially support it.

Regardless, thank you again for the quick response and clear instructions!

4

I will let the author know.

As you can tell, Linux isn’t so bad. It’s a very ‘hands on’ OS. Because it can wipe out years of work faster than you can with Windows, it scares people.

5

Hey just wanted to update this post. I eventually gave up on Ubuntu mostly because it just sucks in general compared to Windows, not worth the hassle to be open source. I built a new Windows 10 server and moved my database BACK from Ubuntu to Windows following just this post successfully. Thought it might be helpful to those who find this in search results. Thanks again ChuckPA!

6

This seems to be the only way to do it properly, thank you good sir :slight_smile: Went from Synology NAS to Windows without issues.

7

This thread should have closed over 2 years ago.

To avoid confusion and potentially obsolete data, I am closing now.