This is fantastic, thank you!
My HTPC was acting up and was WAY past due for a format and fresh installation of Windows. I THOUGHT that I had everything backed up, but lost the Watched / UnWatched markers, which continues to haunt me 2 months later.
Are you saying the backup missed the Watched/Unwatched info? Any ideĐ° where these are stored? I personally would not care about these, but if they are important, Iâm wondering which folder should be included to keep them.
No, Iâm sorry for not being clear:
Before I even knew about your script, I manually backed up my Plex stuff before I did a format, but missed something because I lost the Watched / Unwatched markers.
Today, I went in search of what a FULL backup should include and found your script.
I havenât tested yet, but it busily filled the backup folders.
Thanks again,
Mark
Is this still working?
https://forums.plex.tv/t/psa-script-to-back-up-and-restore-plex-app-data-on-a-windows-system/368779
Yes. Why shouldnât it?
Hi Alek,
I am a home plex user on windows 11 PC who has been looking for a way to backup and restore Plex âcollectionsâ which are important in my use of Plex and which I have had to manually recreate in full several times now when I have had to uninstall and then reinstall my Plex due to operating problems. This takes me a great deal of time each time.
One of the Plex forum members has kindly sent me the link to your script which I have read through and which appears very comprehensive. However, I am not an IT professional and it all appears very complex to me and I doubt my ability to successfully implement. First, do you have a simple script or tool just to deal with collections backup and recovery. If not, do you offer a paid service to do a one-time backup when I finish my next collections build?
Many thanks, Michael Power.
Iâm pretty sure, you do not need to be an IT professional to do this. Have you checked the instructions at PlexBackup/GETTING STARTED.md at master · alekdavis/PlexBackup · GitHub? Do you have any questions about the outlined steps? Another walkthrough can be found at https://smarthomepursuits.com/how-to-automate-plex-metadata-backups/. If my GETTING STARTED section is too confusing than maybe that one would help. Iâd really like to know what parts of the GETTING STARTED instructions you find confusing, so I can rewrite them or add info that is missing.
Thanks Alek for coming back to me,
I really appreciate you wanting to understand my challenges and your determination to revise the process for that.
The key reason I felt this was above me is I have zero experience reading, running or writing scripts and associated code and also no experience or understanding of power shell. Seeing the reliance on these elements within the process makes me very nervous as I have no prior experience to fall back on and really everything in the process [other than creating backup directories on an external drive] feels like unfamiliar territory for me. Eg., An area that stood out as potentially problematic for me was the update config file settings which involved interacting with and potentially rewriting code when I know nothing about code writing although I do know how unforgiving the syntax can be.
It would be easier I believe for users like me if the entire process was performed via a simple windows app/user interface/wizard that asked questions, specified decisions that need to be made by the user, provided options where relevant and generated or executed code or a process based on user input in the wizard. Hope I have articulated this OK. I appreciate such a tool may be difficult or time consuming to create so this may not be an option. However, this may be a real business opportunity for you as I donât believe a consumer friendly Plex backup tool exists and there must be many home users out there with my or similar needs.
I have read both your links below closely and the instructions in the second link do seem more detailed and step by step for me which gives me more confidence I may be able to implement using those instructions despite my anxiety with code and power shell.
Can you confirm the data captured in this backup script definitely captures the file paths of the media sitting within each collection and the name of each collection and that any restore would automatically recover this info and rebuild those collections in a fresh Plex Media Server reinstall?? For me this is redundant work if it doesnât tackle 100% my key use case [collections].
If so, at this stage I would propose to go through and build my collections library again in PMS [it was lost recently as part of an Plex reinstall] and then try to implement the backup script relying on the 2nd link in your message below. NB:- This may take me 2-3 weeks to complete and hopefully implmentation of the backup script does not prove really problematic for me.
Many thanks again Alek for your support and care with this matter,
Regards,
Michael Power
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All the script is doing is to backup the plex data folder (except of a few caches which are not necessary for restore).
It doesnât cater specifically to collections or anything else. All it does is saving the whole plex data â which would include everything about your collections and anything else for that matter.
What you need to keep in mind about a full server backup:
Even with the saved data, you will only have a chance to a full restore if your new server installation has everything just like the old server.
That mainly applies to the type of operating system,
but also the storage location of each media file.
These must be kept the same between the old and the new server, or even restoring that large backup will not be able to preserve some of the data.
You are well advised to keep a list of the plex library root level folders and their storage adresses (i.e. drive letter plus folder name, or the address of the file server/NAS unit where they are stored)
(screenshots of each libraryâs âAdd Foldersâ tab should do fine)
Understood Otto. Thankyou!
I use âweb toolsâ app to export all of the collection file names and file paths as a backup record which I can reference in the event of a system rebuild but it is still very time hungry to reference this and then go through and rebuild each collection, 1 media file at a time.
If you run into problems, let me know and I will try to help.
Thanks Alek, this is greatly appreciated and knowing this support is possible gives me confidence Plex is the right multi-media solution for me.
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i wish i were more tech savvy.
i wonder if anyone can embed his script with a GUI. Like a little visual basic application.
select which folers or options etcâŠ
