My current machine is Win 11 with a 1TB SSD C drive and a 6TB HHD D drive. I’ve had an ongoing project converting old 8mm movies, 8mm and VHS video to MP4 and storing them in one library on Plex to stream to my home TV. When done I intend to get plex pass to share with family members. Originally I had put these on my 1TB SSD and realized I will eventually run out of space and want to move everything to the 6TB HDD.
My current configuration is to have all video form a certain year in a collection titled for that year. For example all videos for 2024 are under a collection titled 2024. Withing each collection I have renamed each title to be different that the sort title as I used YY/MM/DD at the beginning of each video to sort by date in Windows. For example in the 2024 collection I have a sort title of 2024_10_15 Soccer Game. I then change the Title to Soccer Game (Oct 15).
I have followed all the steps in the above article and am at the point where you edit the library and add the new folder (there is only one). After this a library scan takes place and I see all duplicates in the main library window however they have all reverted back to original titles and are not in the collections like my originals are. It would be a lot of work to move all of them into each individual collection and rename. How do I move to the new location and retain the name changes and have each video go into its related collection as they exist now? I could not find any information on this.
Proper article link here.
Interesting question. I don’t know if the article works with “Other Videos” libraries, most people want to move a “Movies” or “TV Shows” library instead.
If you are seeing duplicates of your media in your library view, then it did not properly detect the media in the new location as identical to the media in the old. When you do it right, after a scan, Plex will likely not show ANY new media added, and instead list duplicates of everything. (But - again - that is how it works for regular libraries, not “Other Videos”).
One alternative option, since you are using Windows, is to try to use the same drive letter for your second drive. Shut down Plex, change your 1 TB SSD to something other than what it currently is. Then change the new 6TB HDD to use the same letter the SSD used. When you turn on Plex, do a scan, and nothing should change, other than the media wil now pull from the HDD.
If you cannot do this (due to the 1TB SSD being the C Drive…), then make sure the folder structure is the EXACT SAME depth in your new source as in the old. For example, if you have the library point to "C:\MyMedia\Videos" (where the bolded folder is Plex’s target), then make the new library source use "G:\MyMedia\Videos", and not "G:\MyMedia\ Videos". It’s a simple change, but can be devastating to how Plex detects media. (And again, I feel compelled to say that this is how Movies libraries work, not sure if it applies to "Other Videos.)
Thanks for the advice. i did try to change the path to be exactly as it was in the prior C drive with the exception of the drive letter but it still imported outside the collections and with the original file names. I guess this must not work for Other Videos or simply the way I created the collections. I’ll just have to move and rename. Thanks again.
Unfortunately that single letter is difference enough. With “unmatched” content (i.e. “Other Videos”), you need to recreate the storage path perfectly on the new machine.
Alternatively, you would need to edit the storage path in the database directly: [HowTo] Plex database modification - Moving media the right/wrong way - #10 by jelwell
