Plex - lost libraries whilst expanding storage - what have I done?

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Server Version#: Version 1.22.0.4163
Player Version#:

Hello,

Apologies in advance for this - suspect I’ve done something silly…

Running OMV5, Plex via Portainer.
HDD1 - 8TB - has 4 shared folders:
Config
Download
Media (with Movies/Music/Photos/TV folders)
Other

rSync mirror of Media and Other to HDD2 - 8TB (as MediaBU and OtherBU).

Pre-disaster:
HDD1
Config
Download
Media
Other

HDD2
MediaBU
OtherBU

Everything/Plex working :slight_smile:

Drives were filling up so added HDD3 - 14TB - as new rSync mirror destination drive with intent to split Other off from HDD1 and have that located on HDD2 and rSync that to HDD3.
Result to look like this:
HDD1
Config
Download
Media

HDD2
Other

HDD3
Media Backup
Other Backup

Briefly - steps to achieve this - copy Media and Other from HDD1 to HDD3.
Remove rSync jobs for from HDD1 to HDD2 for Media and Other and stop SMB shares of Other and MediaBU to remove References to facilitate removing shared folders.
Remove MediaBU shared folder from HDD2 (and delete content)
Remove Other shared folder from HDD1 (and delete content)
Removed OtherBU shared folder from HDD2 and then create new Other shared folder on HDD2 and point at the Other folder on HDD2.
Create new rSync jobs for both HDD1 and HDD2 to HDD3.

The copying of files and tasks above all seemed to work as intended - files are accessible etc.

Plex backup is on HDD1 under Config. This folder wasn’t touched during the jiggery above.

Plex however is now showing as 0 libraries. It connects to the server but…that’s it.

I also did not adjust any settings within Portainer but in case it helps:
Volumes and Path in Plex container as follows:

/sharedfolders/config/plex /config
/sharedfolders/media /media
/sharedfolders /transcode

What have I done?!
Config files remain on HDD1 - not touched.
Media files remain on HDD1 - not touched.

Best case - hoping I’ve bodged a permission and Plex can’t access Media (but not sure how I could have done this?).

Alternatively, possibly I can repoint Plex to both the DB backups and the Media files and it’ll rebuild with all my metadata intact but I’m not clear how to do this?

I had scheduled backups set and have the following in the Databases folder:

com.plexapp.dlna.db
com.plexapp.dlna.db-shm
com.plexapp.dlna.db-wal
com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db
com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db-2021-02-26
com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db-2021-03-04
com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db-2021-03-07
com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db-2021-03-10
com.plexapp.plugins.library.db
com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-2020-09-08
com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-2020-09-11
com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-2020-09-14
com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-2020-09-17

However, this article

seems to suggest I should have 2 files for each backup - a db-date and a blobs.db-date

(from article)
com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-2020-05-31
com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-2019-06-01

com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db-2020-05-31
com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db-2019-06-01

Which I don’t - blobs seem up to date but others stop in Sept so not sure if I can proceed down this path.

I can’t wrap my head around where the error can lie or silly mistake I’ve made here so any help greatly appreciated.
Happy to share logs/screengrabs and answer questions as required.
And, given the patience and crayons you’ll get through helping me and because good deeds should be rewarded, I’d be happy to make a donation to charity of your choice in return.

Kind regards
G

2

Sorry, I can’t tell you anything specific to OMV, but:

It seems that the regular backup stopped working a long time ago, probably because of database corruption.

(Or maybe because you have set an invalid/inaccessible custom backup target folder under
Settings - Server - Scheduled Tasks - ‘Show Advanced’ - “Backup directory”)

3

Thanks Otto.
The Backup directory is:
/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases
which is where I pulled that file list in my post from so maybe it’s db corruption? Not entirely sure what implications of that would be - would that remove restore option?

4

Unfortunately, yes.
Unless the existing com.plexapp.plugins.library.db files is of equal or larger size than the files with the date in their names. Then you could try a repair https://support.plex.tv/articles/201100678-repair-a-corrupt-database/

5

Thanks again Otto!
It is larger - 207.6Mb compared to 204.9Mb for the 2020-09-17 file.

Thanks for the link - I can get to the folder in Terminal on Mac and run the 1st Check for Corruption command.
cp com.plexapp.plugins.library.db com.plexapp.plugins.library.db.original

Nothing is returned.
Commands 2-4 return
Error: unable to open database file

I have stopped the Plex container so no server running.
Does this seem indicative of the db being corrupted?

6

It is a very broad error. It could mean several things:

  • the file as such is damaged in your hard drive
  • the database file is corrupt
  • the file has somehow become inaccessible to a regular user and needs its access permission fixed
7

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.