If I were to completed rebuild my PMS server from scratch keeping nothing at all (except the raw media files stored on my NAS), would I also lose all of my users (My Home & Friends) or is that tied to my plex_pass account and login?
Thanks
Yes.
All managed users and Libraries (collections of media) are stored in the database (/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases). All metadata is stored in the metadata directory as discrete files under Library. The association between the metadata files and your media on the NAS is what’s kept in the database.
Sorry - Yes I will lose all of my users or yes it is tied to my plex_pass account and login?
Apologies,
Managed users are contained only in your local database. Since they are only contained there, they will be lost.
Any friends you have shared your server with (those who also have a Plex account) will need to be shared again.
As you rebuild your server, it will get a new identification number. After your rebuild is complete, you will need to go to Plex.tv and make sure the old ID number is not there (causing a duplicate friendly name).
While there, you can invited any previous sharing as you had it before.
Understood. Thank you. Is there any way to keep the friend/user info and reinsert it into the new installation?
@rjsears said:
Understood. Thank you. Is there any way to keep the friend/user info and reinsert it into the new installation?
Which info do you want to keep, exactly? Depending on what you want to keep, it might be doable if you are comfortable with SQL and manipulating the database.
From creating a “new” server, I still had to re-share all my libraries with my users because that information is not kept in the local database. I’m guessing that is kept in the database where Plex stores our information. However, I did carryover the watched history but this required me copying information from the old database to the new database (and it wasn’t exactly a quick 1-2 procedure).
-Shark2k
Thanks @shark2k
I don’t really care about watched history I was just hoping not to have to re-invite and readd 25 non-technical family members back to the server is all…
If you are worried about invitations for others with Plex accounts, that can be mitigated…
Save your Preferences.xml file. It contains the machine ID information you’ll need if you want to slide back in place for those ‘external’ users.
Managed users (internal) need to be recreated. That cannot be mitigated.
Here’s the specific page.
Treat the rebuild as if you’re moving to a new machine. https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201370363-Move-an-Install-to-Another-System
Thanks @ChuckPa
My issue is that I am having pretty major issues with my PMS right now. I cannot get the media to automatically match anymore leaving hundreds of movies without metadata. When I manually match them, it matches it correctly every time, grabs all of the metadata and works just fine, but beyond that, it does not work.
I had a couple of people trying to help me out, but none of the suggested fixes worked so I am at the point where I think I need to do a complete reinstall of the PMS system from the ground up, re-add the media to it (stored on a FreeNAS system) and let it reindex (hopefully) all of the data again.
I think If I just copy over the current plex install I will be taking all of my problems right along with me and that would be a pretty big waste of time.
The only downside I can see to reinstalling is readding all of my users (family and friends). I won’t lose any media since it is all stored on a backend NAS. The other bummer will be having to reindex 4500 movies, 7000 TV episodes and 2500 music albums. Even on fiber here at work I bet that will take some time…
I am open to suggestions, if I could get the problem fixed with the media matching not working anymore, I would stick with what I have now.
@ChuckPa said:
If you are worried about invitations for others with Plex accounts, that can be mitigated…Save your Preferences.xml file. It contains the machine ID information you’ll need if you want to slide back in place for those ‘external’ users.
Managed users (internal) need to be recreated. That cannot be mitigated.
I have multiple Preferences.xml on my system, is this the correct one:
/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml
I assume after I install Plex then I can just copy this back in place and restart plex and I will be good to go (other than adding my local users) correct?
Thanks
The only Preferences.xml that matters to Plex is that one. I do suggest you read the article I referenced above. It will help you to know.
This is the same as moving to a new system because the OS installation underneath will be brand new and PMS will have never been installed on it.
To answer your question about ‘copy in place’… yes… You copy it into position, verify ownership and file permissions, then start plex. You must only modify that when PMS isn’t running.
@rjsears said:
Thanks @ChuckPaMy issue is that I am having pretty major issues with my PMS right now. I cannot get the media to automatically match anymore leaving hundreds of movies without metadata. When I manually match them, it matches it correctly every time, grabs all of the metadata and works just fine, but beyond that, it does not work.
I had a couple of people trying to help me out, but none of the suggested fixes worked so I am at the point where I think I need to do a complete reinstall of the PMS system from the ground up, re-add the media to it (stored on a FreeNAS system) and let it reindex (hopefully) all of the data again.
I think If I just copy over the current plex install I will be taking all of my problems right along with me and that would be a pretty big waste of time.
The only downside I can see to reinstalling is readding all of my users (family and friends). I won’t lose any media since it is all stored on a backend NAS. The other bummer will be having to reindex 4500 movies, 7000 TV episodes and 2500 music albums. Even on fiber here at work I bet that will take some time…
I am open to suggestions, if I could get the problem fixed with the media matching not working anymore, I would stick with what I have now.
Apologies for getting out of sync.
My suggestion:
Copy "/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml" and we will extract the ID information later.
You should perform the initial setup completely ‘cold’. Do not give any consideration to shared users. Those will be handled after you’ve gotten everything back up with your managed users.
Thanks @ChuckPa
Will do - I am currently waiting on a new Samsung Pro NVMe 1TB M.2 drive, that is what my new install will be going on so once I receive it, I will reinstall everything. I’m building my reinstall document now to make sure I don’t miss anything.
Thankfully all of my media management is done on another linux box and Plex is the only thing running on this machine, so that makes it easier.
On the Preferences.xml do I just copy that entire file over the new one that gets installed?
What you need to do.
- Install PMS completely cold on the new machine. Deliberately give the server a dummy ‘Friendly name’. Hold the saved file until later.
- Perform all your Library setups and let it get its metadata. … 1 section at a time, optimizing the database between each (yes, I’m being pedantic)
- When complete, Stop PMS
- Copy the saved Preferences file to /tmp on the new installation (it’s always safe to use
/tmp) - Open a terminal window and
sudo sh(root shell) - In the new terminal window you will do the following
cd "/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server"mv Preferences.xml Preferences.xml.origcp /tmp/Preferences.xml .chown plex:plex Preferences.xmlchmod 600 Preferences.xml- Start PMS
- Open the browser, go to Settings - Server - General , sign it OUT and then back in. Repeat with your Plex/web (upper right corner if needed)
- Go to Settings - Server - Remote Access and configure it as you previously had
- Go to Settings - Devices - Server You will see your old server (which is now current) and the ‘dummy friendly name’ server.
- Delete the dummy friendly named server as it no longer exists
- Complete test-driving the new installation, double-checking and tweaking your Server settings (check them all)
At this point, We’ve rebuilt from scratch; dropped in the old identification and updated the new installation to assume the old identity; synchronized the Preferences.xml with the actual state of PMS and what it has in the local database (connection information).
All that is left to do is test connections via Plex.tv to access it.
This is perfect - THANK YOU!
One other quick question, I have now gone in and manually matched every single unmatched movie so now all ~4500 of my movies are correctly matched with the correct metadata.
Is there any way to save all of the metadata and matches and move it to the new install so It does not have to rematch all of the movies/tv shows/music?
I would, for posterity and possible use later (ifyou really want to do this).
create a tarball.
cd /var/lib/plexmediaserver
sudo tar cfz _put_some_path_here.tar.gz ./Library
snapshot it. It’ll be in path relative addressing for if/when needed.
SO you think I should just let Plex redownload all of the metadata again as the best course of action as opposed to using what I already have downloaded?
Yes, I think we opt for doing it the right way, making sure all the data UUIDs (in the metadata tree) 100% match what’s in the database.
OK so I have ~4500 movies, although I think I am going to prune that a little bit, do you think it wise to break that up into a couple of different directories so that the indexing and optimization is done on a smaller group of movies or just let it hit all of them at once?
