Offline Library/Catalog Access while Server is not available

Feature Suggestions
1

Here are couple of scenarios:

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Friend: Hey buddy, do you have 'Scent of a Women' with you?

Me: Not sure but let me check it right away

 

I opened Plex app on my iPhone but damn the app is not able to connect to my media server bcoz maybe my machine is shut down, I can only see the synced content and not my entire library.

 

Me: Sorry bro.. I can only tell you once I get home.

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Friends: Let's do a movie night out at your home

Me: Sure, what movie would you like to watch?

 

Friends: Well.. what movies do you have?

Me: Let me show you right away..

 

Arrgh.. server down not able to access my catalog

 

Me: Sorry guys.. let's head home and we'll decide it there only

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Now wouldn't it be cool if there is a way to access my entire library even if the media server is down? It could be by making the whole library catalog metadata sync to a cloud server or maybe some other smart way of handling this scenario. 

 

The idea is to be able to see your whole library content anytime. If the server is down, you can still browse through your library but will not able to play any media. 

2

Do you turn your server off all the time or what? I guess the only time I would have this issue would be if the server was down. In which case, movie night is probably off until I fix it anyway. Just curious about your use case.

3

I personally often have my sever asleep, my upload speed is garbage, so there’s no point in having it on if everyone is out of the house during the day, and I often encounter the above scenario, so would appreciate the feature added to plex.


@satpal - for now I use the trakt plugin to sync my library, all you need is a trakt account and you can see you library anytime on their website. However I don’t think it syncs metadata, just ratings

4

That would be a good thought, but for some users the database is several GB in size and would be difficult keeping all the metadata synced.  Could be the same reason trak't doesn't do it.

I know for Android, there is an SQLite manager program to view slqite databases.  I guess you could just sync your home database to your phone through various syncing programs and use that to view your data.

5

Now wouldn't it be cool if there is a way to access my entire library even if the media server is down? It could be by making the whole library catalog metadata sync to a cloud server or maybe some other smart way of handling this scenario. 

So you want your Plex database synchronized to an offline site, like plex.tv?

IMHO, but with all the threads we have seen so far about people asking about what Plex knows of our collections, I doubt this would get many votes

Me personally, will not go for it  ;)

That would be a good thought, but for some users the database is several GB in size

Wow.....

Mine is below 200 Gb, and I kinda think it's big....

Are you sure you talked about database size here, or the size of the library directory?

And if not...Respect :D 

But when above is said, this would req. a sync of both the database, as well as metadata downloaded....

So to answer the OP's Q.....

Look into Plex Export, which does what you want, and host it offline

/T

6

Do you turn your server off all the time or what? I guess the only time I would have this issue would be if the server was down. In which case, movie night is probably off until I fix it anyway. Just curious about your use case.

Where I live, we've scheduled power cuts. I'm using mac mini which turns off during that time. Also if I go for a long vacation, I'll turn off the system. I know you might think then why I would be needing the library on vacation. There are several instances in the past where I wanted to show my collection to my friends but couldn't do that because my system was off. So I was just thinking if by any means we could still have access to our library. Not sure if it's asking too much.


@satpal - for now I use the trakt plugin to sync my library, all you need is a trakt account and you can see you library anytime on their website. However I don't think it syncs metadata, just ratings

Thanks, I'll look into it.


That would be a good thought, but for some users the database is several GB in size and would be difficult keeping all the metadata synced. Could be the same reason trak't doesn't do it.

Pardon my ignorance.. How to check the size of database?


So you want your Plex database synchronized to an offline site, like plex.tv?

IMHO, but with all the threads we have seen so far about people asking about what Plex knows of our collections, I doubt this would get many votes

Me personally, will not go for it ;)

It could be cloud service like Dropbox, so your collection stays with you without anybody knowing about it.
7

Another option is to install the trakt.tv plugin and let trakt scrobble your plex media.

Once it's done you can log into http://trakt.tv/ and view your entire plex library

Note: You can't watch the content there, only see what content you have

8

Are you sure you talked about database size here, or the size of the library directory?

And if not...Respect :D

LOL.  My database file is no where near that range.  I remember one member saying he had a couple 100,000 photos and songs, which would do it.  Ok, maybe this guy was not the typical user.  Still, even trying to sync up a 200MB database file can be problematic.  Since the file is always being used, it would be in a state of constant syncing.  I've tried syncing other non-Plex databases and they never work out.

Trakt is a good option if people don't mind having their info stored in the cloud.

I would prefer to just have a simple text based file to carry around.

hmm.  This gives me an idea.

9

Plex2csv