Novice plex user need big help

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: Version 4.141.0
Player Version#: Version 1.105.2.269-12a32491

Hello and sorry for my very poor English I am French.
I use plex premium on an asus rog gl-702vm laptop.
Here is the configuration in question:
i7-6700HQ + 16go ddr 4 2133 Mhz + 500 go ssd + 500go HDD + nvidia gtx 1060 + windows 10 + 3 HDD external Western Digital My book (10 to , 14to and 24 to) connecting on a USB HUB to one usb of my laptop.

I recently replaced my 12TB hard drive named G with a 24TB one. I copied all my 12TB content onto the 24TB exactly as it was, and I didn’t lose any files on my Plex server—no missing custom posters, no missing collections, etc.
But today, there was a new scan, and 3/4 of my series were lost and were scanned again. In the end, everything was found, but I have to reorganize everything, change the posters, add collections, etc. This represents hundreds of hours of work, and I’m really frustrated. How can this be explained?
Should I expect this to happen again?

Moreover, with the announcement of the end of Windows 10, I will have to upgrade to Windows 11, which means I will lose everything and have to start over with the 3 hard drives? This represents far too much work and time; I’ve been storing files and working on my Plex setup for years now to share it with my family, friends, and myself…

I’m a complete beginner—could someone help me figure out if there is a way to manually back up our database so that my current problem doesn’t happen again?
Would I be able to keep my Plex server as it is if I switch to Windows 11? Which files and folders should I back up, keep, and restore in my new Windows installation? Is this even possible?

As you can see, I’m really a beginner. I’ve focused too much on the presentation and content of my Plex and should have researched how Plex works on Windows, database backups, etc…
Could someone explain all of this to me? I feel completely lost…

I’m afraid I’ll have to start everything from scratch; there are way too many files and personal creations in my Plex because TMDB and TVDB are not always up to date… and it would definitely take me months of work to redo everything.

TY a lot in advance.

2

So when you replaced your G drive, there are a couple of steps you should have done to preserve the metadata.

  1. turn off automatic empty trash when scanning
  2. Make sure that the file paths are the exact same
  3. preform a rescan of the new drive
  4. verify movies got matched again
  5. empty trash
  6. Optimize the database.

Do you keep the posters in the folders with the media per then recommended naming/extra’s guide?

3

I didn’t think to do all of this since I noticed that everything was exactly the same. I just kept adding files, and everything went fine; they were added to my collection without affecting the previous files. ATM I just noticed that the custom posters i create and prints were still there, but they are no longer the ones selected by default.

4

I do not save or store the image I have chosen in the series or film folder… I just add them in plex displays directly then I choose them

5

I guess it’s too late for this hard drive… I’ll have to start over, but is there a place in Windows where I can manually back up my database and metadata to prevent this from happening again in the future?

Similarly, for the upcoming migration to Windows 11, is there a solution?

This pc is old and maybe with so many contens and change i need a reclean install but I need to keep as much data as possible…

6

For specific movie posters I would recommend saving the files alongside the movie.

for a complete backup of metadata and images see https://support.plex.tv/articles/201539237-backing-up-plex-media-server-data/

if you dont need images, just backup the database files.

Moving Plex to a new server is fairly easy. Just need to follow the correct process carefully https://support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/

7

Thank you very much for your answers and your time! I will try to follow and translate the links you sent me. You are my savior.
A BIG THANK YOU

8

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