New Plex Ubuntu installation not recognizing migrated OS X files

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

I’m trying to migrate my Plex installation from Mac OS to a NUC running Ubuntu 16.04, but it’s not working. Here’s what I’ve done:

  1. Installing Plex works fine. I run it once and stop the service.
  2. I zip my ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server folder on my Mac, and unzip it to /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support, overwriting the existing files.
  3. I convert my Plex .plist file from my mac to XML using the plutil -convert xml1 command, and replace the Preferences.xml file with it.
  4. I chown the entire Plex Media Server directory to plex:plex

When I start Plex back up, it begins the setup process from the beginning. None of my libraries are there, and the preferences all seem set to defailts. It doesn’t seem to recognize the Preferences.xml file I placed in there at all.

Any ideas how to make it use that Preferences file? Is there some other Preferences.xml file on the system that it’s using? I’ve attached my logs below.

Plex Media Server.1.log (671.1 KB)
Plex Media Server.log (2.0 MB)

2

I thought it might be because I was running 1.11 on my Mac and 1.13 on Linux, so I upgraded to 1.13 on the Mac, and now the Mac doesn’t recognize my libraries either :expressionless:

3

if nothing it there, it means the Preferences.xml file is missing or not readable.

When you moved everything over (tar file I presume?) , after putting Library in /var/lib/plexmediaserver did you remember to sudo chown -R plex:plex /var/lib/plexmediaserver ?

Can you tell me how you moved it from the Mac -> LInux? That might be easier

4

I actually followed your instructions from here: Migrate from OSX to Ubuntu

5

I’m thinking there’s some sort of issue with my db file and 1.13, as once I upgraded from 1.11 to 1.13 on my Mac, my libraries disappeared there as well. That db file just doesn’t seem to work on 1.13 on either OS. I tried restoring a db backup (on the Mac), and my library reappeared, but all of my posters were missing.

6

Was PMS running on the MAC when you first did the migration? If it was, that’s why.

I’m glad you took another shot at it.

I have no access to a Mac to verify that procedure actually works. plus I did that 'off the cuff" :slight_smile:
I’ll integrate what you’ve share here and put into a formal How To

7

Ah, I was not aware that Plex needed to be stopped before I copied the files over.

Do you know why my db stopped working on my Mac after updating to 1.13, or any tips as to how to get my posters back on my Mac after I restore a backup?

8

I can’t be of any help on the Mac at a system level but I can look at your logs for the obvious PMS errors. Maybe something will jump out

1 Like
9

Here’s the PMS log from the Mac:

Plex Media Server.log (531.6 KB)

10

Can you get me the whole set of them from ./Logs ? I can’t see anything from just that one log file. What I see there is a database update after a software installation.

11

Sure. Here’s a ZIP of that entire folder from before and after I upgraded and restored:

Plex Logs.zip (3.5 MB)

12

Thank you for those logs but Plex Media Server.1.log has some errors.

Jul 14, 2018 17:51:36.061 [0x70000f344000] ERROR - Metadata /system/agents/media/get request failed with code: 500: http://127.0.0.1:56894/system/agents/media/get?guid=com%2Eplexapp%2Eagents%2Ethemoviedb%3A%2F%2F72350%3Flang%3Den&mediaType=2&url=metadata%3A%2F%2Fposters%2Fcom%2Eplexapp%2Eagents%2Ethemoviedb_65391cf05a545d62a9a1d276cb924f2ac0ee4adb
Jul 14, 2018 17:51:36.061 [0x70000f344000] DEBUG - Calculated media file path for item 33129: /Users/michael/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Metadata/TV Shows/e/ab95e741e71993dffbbba76ec91e92e6bf8e1e0.bundle/Contents/_combined/posters/com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb_65391cf05a545d62a9a1d276cb924f2ac0ee4adb
Jul 14, 2018 17:51:36.061 [0x70000f344000] DEBUG - Calling back into ourselves for photo to transcode, optimizing the process (status: 404)
Jul 14, 2018 17:51:36.064 [0x70000e367000] DEBUG - Completed: [172.16.0.17:62239] 404 GET /photo/:/transcode?width=270&height=406&minSize=1&url=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F33129%2Fthumb%2F1530902338%3FX-Plex-Token%3Dxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (11 live) TLS GZIP 96ms 452 bytes (pipelined: 2)

404 = not found and not a good sign.
500 = internal error. In this context, PMS couldn’t talk to the agent to get what it needed.

Two remedies come to mind, it may require both.

  1. Reinstall the binaries (if that doesn’t delete your Library)
  2. Restart the Mac (and PMS in the process)

beyond that, with no indication of networking / communications error, I don’t know what next thing to look at

13

Okay. I think at this point I’m just going to start from scratch with a fresh database. Thank you for investigating though!

14

you’re welcome. sorry i couldn’t do more.

15

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