Need help with Plex backup using QuTS

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Server Version#:
Player Version#:
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Hello. I need a QuTS hero expert to help me. I am trying to backup my PlexData folder and am running in to permissions issues. I cannot copy some files/folders from my personal Administrator account or the standard Admin account. I have asked QNAP support to help but they are flummoxed as well. Any ideas on how I can get what I need so I can move my installation?

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Easy thing to do :slight_smile:

After creating the shared folder and restarting Plex (so it populates with the location),

  1. Stop Plex
  2. Open FileStation → PlexData → Plex Media Server (get into the folder)
  3. Highlight the entire contents of the Plex Media Server folder
  4. Right-Click → Compress
  5. When the compression completes, it will be your full backup of Plex.
  6. Move it / copy it to wherever you want.

More info in the FAQ

1 Like
3

Thank you. I will try that. So you cannot just access directly without compressing? Also, when I restore, do I extract directly to the Plex Media Server folder or somwhere else and copy in?

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Didn’t work… I get the error

“Unable to perform this action. You do not have enough permissions, or this folder is read-only”

5

Are you signed into the QNAP with an account which has Administrator privilege ?

What privileges / permissions did you assign when you created the shared folder ?

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I am signed in as admin and also tried my personally created account in the administrators group. Permissions are set to R/W.
image

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This doesn’t work for you??

Screenshot from 2023-12-21 15-44-50
Screenshot from 2023-12-21 15-44-50927×540 57.3 KB

I do everything as ‘admin’. Accounts with “administrator privilege” are useless when dealing with the underlying Linux filesystem

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Signed in as admin. Navigating to the folder in your screenshot and clicking compress then leaving all options as-is and I get the permissions error

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What are the QuTS permissions set for ?

There is something fundamentally wrong with how the underlying storage permissions are set.

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I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question. If you mean the permissions for the admin user, it is set to R/W on all shared folders. Thank you for taking the time by the way.

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If you are using the ‘admin’ account, this translates internally to the ‘root’ (super) user.

I am finding a major problem with QuTS on our lab system.
This isn’t how it’s supposed to work.

Screenshot from 2023-12-21 21-56-43
Screenshot from 2023-12-21 21-56-43760×658 72.6 KB

I will continue to research.

In the intrim, you will need to do backups manually, at the SSH command line level, using tar or zip and writing to /share/Public

ZFS18 is where my packages are. I get a “Read Only” error.
The ZFS18_DATA partition is mounted R/W

[/share/ZFS18_DATA] # mount | grep ZFS  
zpool1/zfs1 on /share/ZFS1_DATA type zfs (rw,relatime,devices,setuid,nonbmand,zfsutil)
zpool1/zfs2 on /share/ZFS2_DATA type zfs (rw,relatime,devices,setuid,nonbmand,zfsutil)
zpool1/zfs3 on /share/ZFS3_DATA type zfs (rw,relatime,devices,setuid,nonbmand,zfsutil)
zpool1/zfs4 on /share/ZFS4_DATA type zfs (rw,relatime,devices,setuid,nonbmand,zfsutil)
zpool1/zfs5 on /share/ZFS5_DATA type zfs (rw,relatime,devices,setuid,nonbmand,zfsutil)
zpool1/zfs18 on /share/ZFS18_DATA type zfs (rw,relatime,devices,setuid,nonbmand,zfsutil)
zpool1/zfs19 on /share/ZFS19_DATA type zfs (rw,relatime,devices,setuid,nonbmand,zfsutil)
zpool1/zfs21 on /share/ZFS21_DATA type zfs (rw,relatime,devices,setuid,nonbmand,zfsutil)
zpool1/zfs530 on /share/ZFS530_DATA type zfs (rw,relatime,devices,setuid,nonbmand,zfsutil)
tmpfs on /share/ZFS1_DATA/.samba/lock/msg.lock type tmpfs (rw,size=48M)

Definitely a QuTS bug

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Thank you! I will give it a go. Hope this is something you can figure out for the future. QNAP support has also escalated this so if they have anything useful to report I will let you know.

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This happened at he same time normal QTS users stopped being able to backup their plex database.
While QTS, I believe, was fixed and the plex backup functionality was restored, QuTS was never again able to perform a plex database backup, like it was possible in the past.
@ChuckPa Could you also please escalate this to Qnap ?
Also, what are the exact commands to be able to manually backup the database at the SSH command level ?
Thanks and Merry Christmas !!!

14

I just finished talking to QNAP.

The issue is known and they’re working on it.

The problem is FileStation does not allow symbolic links in paths.

Ticket Number; Q-202312-28100

Here’s the, manually created, workaround until they get it fixed

Please read the instructions in full before implementing.

  1. Create a shared folder (I used PlexQPKG).

  2. Same Volume as PMS (DataVol) – Might be an issue for QuTS/ZFS users

  3. Manually Specify Path

  4. Using the drop-down navigator -
    – Scroll down to: .qpkg
    – Go into PlexMediaServer
    – Highlight & select Library

    Screenshot from 2023-12-26 14-44-13
    Screenshot from 2023-12-26 14-44-13779×641 48.5 KB

  5. Complete normal creation of this temporary shared folder

Here you see backups (compression) is running normally again.

Screenshot from 2023-12-26 14-48-22
Screenshot from 2023-12-26 14-48-221149×435 32.8 KB

When the next QuTS/QTS firmware release fixes this, You may delete this shared folder and return to using PlexData

WARNING: With this manual shared folder creation, the QTS “Migrate” functionality won’t automatically update this manual path. You must manually change the DataVol .

1 Like
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Unfortunately with QTS Hero it does not let me specify the path

image
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ALL:

I’ve gotten feedback from QNAP HQ.

They mention this will be resolved in firmware version 5.2.0. But BETA will not be available until middle of January, and official release is ETA for March.

They will try to forward a beta copy for me to test.

3 Likes
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Thank you for investigating as well as the current workaround!

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I having same issues with permission in QTS. Had been scratching my head for months. Thanks for the work around and getting a fix started with QNAP!

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Hey Chuck I did what you stated here. All looked good, and it zipped fine. When QNAP anti virus scanned last time, it found a virus in the new PlexQPKG folder. (don’t understand that unless it didn’t like something in that folder). I deleted that one find via the QNAP AV window which was /PlexQPKG/Plex Media Server/Metadata/Albums/5/4d990d689773ef112fb8a14b0725b5c1a96aa17.bundle/Contents/_combined/posters/tv.plex.agents.music_59ab0fb848d3b898f21e37543c159c418b80bb03: BC.Img.Exploit.CVE-2017-16386-6404655-1 FOUND

I decided to delete the subfolders and I created all kinds of crap. I thought it was a mirror PlexData folder… I have PMS backups zips BUT all my meta is gone.

What do I need to do to re point PMS to the PlexData folder??
I want to delete the PlexQPKG folder bc when I restarted Plex it is using this path to repopulate Plex and saving there. PlexQPKG was only a temp fix to do my end of year backup, want to get it back to where it was prior to your work around.
Did I just screw myself? Please help a brother out, lol

20

First: Have you seen this?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Lidarr/comments/maxjxl/lidarr_downloading_virus_infected_artwork/

You have things a bit backwards.

  1. All QTS/QuTS packages are stored under the .qpkg directory on the data volume

  2. PlexData is only a symbolic link which points to that directory.
    – It’s trick I implemented for FileStation
    – BE ADVISED: There is a current bug in FileStation which thinks PlexData is ‘READ-ONLY’. I’ve worked with QNAP. The fix for this is in upcoming (March 2024) QTS 5.2 release.

  3. To restore your backup requires a little Shell-Fu work.

What’s your skill level with the bash command line?