Can somebody help me figure out how to back up my Plex settings (poster art, sort titles, etc) for a clean re-installation?
My issue is…
Until a couple weeks ago, my Plex server (Desktop i7 computer) was flawless, everything was working perfectly both internally and externally. I was able to watch my movies at home using the Roku app in my family room at 1080, I had correctly set up port forwarding on my router (Arris DG1670) and my family members who live separately were able to watch my movies remotely using a direct connection also at 1080… life was good.
Then, one night my router died and after contacting Spectrum Tech Support (they diagnosed my router died over the phone) they instructed me to bring my bad router to my local Spectrum store for replacement. The following morning I went into Spectrum but was given a new 2-piece modem + router combination (Askey Wave 2) and told Spectrum is now using this new 2-piece combination instead.
Under my current plan, I’m supposed to be getting 200Mbs but was only getting approximately 93Mbs with the new equipment so after re-contacting and informing Spectrum of the speed discrepancy, they sent out a couple techs over multiple visits who changed out the modem piece 2x and router piece 2x during separate visits. Each time I was able to get my 200Mbs for about 24-hours but inevitably the following day my speed dropped back to sub 95Mbs until this last visit where the tech changed my channel and finally, I’ve been able to get a steady 200Mbs ever since.
With my speed finally stabilized, it was time for me to re-set up my port forwarding on the new equipment but when I tired to go into the new router and re-set it up low and behold… I was locked out, couldn’t get into the new router to set it up:
I called Spectrum (thinking my issue might be related to the new hardward) but was basically told “You’re supposed to get 200Mbs, you’re getting 200Mbs, it’s not our problem.” Somewhere, I got the idea to try to access the router through my laptop to help isolate if the problem was with the router or software related to my desktop and when I was ABLE to access the router through my laptop, I realized whatever changed and was causing my issue had to be software related to my desktop.
So…
I contacted Microsoft and the Tech Support representative I spoke to had me jump through a few hoops and after confirming a few things came to the conclusion this wasn’t your typical everyday type problem. At that time, he began having me uninstall things like layers. He had me uninstall a couple of the recent Windows 10 upgrades which didn’t solve the problem and was going to have me uninstall my virus protection (Avast) when I told him I needed to get to an appointment and that we could continue trying at a later date.
Currently, my Plex is a mess. I cannot access my router through my desktop and even after setting port forwarding up through my latptop remote access still isn’t working in Plex…
Internally, while watching movies at home, the movies are transcoding in SD, and oftentimes they’re locking up/freezing. I’m having to exit my Plex app and re-start it about 5-6x to complete a movie. Externally, it’s the same for my family members… the movies are transcoding in SD and are stopping several times necessitating the restarting of their client apps several times to complete a movie.
I’ve been thinking about the best way to deal with this. It seems that I’ve got multiple issues going on, desktop can’t access router, Plex locking up over internal network, remote access not working. I wasn’t sure where to start, which problem to begin with then thought why not at the beginning? Why not start with a clean install of Windows and a clean install of the Plex Media Server and start there? When I bought my desktop last year it came with a 500Mb SSD which I later cloned and replaced with a 1TB SSD.
I was thinking, I could re-install the original 500MB SSD which I purposely kept “as is” just for instances like this where I’d have to re-install the OS. I could re-clone my 1TB SSD back to it’s virgin state which I would think will solve the issue about not being able to access the router. Then, I could re-install the Plex Media Server and try to re-set up the Port Forwarding. If I’m able to access the router but the Port Forwarding still doesn’t work, then I was thinking about buying the same Arris DG1670 router from Amazon which I already know worked and taking the newer Askey Wave 2 equipment back to Spectrum.
The delay on my part is I really don’t want to spend months re-setting up all the movie posters and re-titling everything all over again. It’s just sooo much work.
So, thoughts anyone? I’d be real appreciative hearing anybody’s thoughts or advice on what they think I should do. Is there a way I can back up my current settings so that on the reinstallation of the Plex Media Server I won’t lose my artwork or sorting titling?
I’m sorry my post is so L-O-N-G, I just thought it probably best to fully describe my problem and to my knowledge, I’m running the most recent server version…
Thank you to anyone who has read this far and a special “Thank you” especially to anyone who has any thoughts on what I should do first and takes the time to respond.
Sincerely,
Rene House
