Okay, so I’ve been happily running Plex for a few years now without issue. Thing is, the folder in the Users section has now grown to a size where it is clogging my drive. I left things at their default settings when I installed Plex without realising how large the databases and other files would get. So, it’s now taking up over 200gb of a 500gb SSD drive. I desperately need to move all that stuff to a larger/different drive. I don’t currently want to replace my SSD as that would require a long and tedious argument with Microsoft over the Windows License as the hardware change would kick their authentication off. Last time I did this it took me five days to get a clear answer from them and get my copy of windows activated again. Perhaps that was just a bit of bad luck on my part, but it was very annoying.
So, basically, is there any way to tell plex to use a folder that is on a larger drive instead of the Users/AppData/Local folder for storing it’s information?
I have a terrible feeling the answer is going to be no.
Thank you very much for your assistance, and all the information you provided, this has been copied in case I need to do the same thing again later.
Unfortunately my system only has one SSD slot so I can’t use a dedicated SSD for Plex, though when I finally get around to upgrading my desktop PC, I will do this. Mind, it may not be necessary as I have several large external stacks available. It is to one of these 6tb drives that I want to move the data folder.
When I went poking around in the Windows registry earlier this evening after posting my question, I did find a data path already in the location you recommend for editing, set to C:/Users (etc) I was going to edit this to reflect my new chosen location and test that tomorrow, but with the confirmation in your post, I feel more confident of a successful test.
Again, thanks a bunch for the information you posted, it was extremely helpful and I appreciate the time taken to reply with such an informative response. And so quickly too, ta muchly.
Normally, if the hard drive is the only thing you’re changing, this won’t require re-activation of Windows. Only if there are more hardware changes at the same time it will complain.
There are SSD’s available, which can replace regular 2.5" laptop hard drives.
Or if you have a free PCI-e slot, you can get a cheap-ish adapter card, which provides another NVMe SSD slot.
Just as a further note, moving the data files to a new location, repointing the RegFile address and rebooting worked perfectly. Everything is up and running, load time is a teeny bit more extended but not so much that it is a problem, we’re talking maybe a couple of seconds. So, this will do for the time being. Thanks again to FordGuy61 for the information.
@OttoKerner
I was not aware of the potential for replacing the regular drive in my laptop with SSD, I didn’t know there was such a thing. I will look into that today as it would be nice to have a larger drive in that slot as well.
In regards to the Windows authentication thing. I purchased a 2tb SSD for my work laptop, and that was sufficient to kick off the re-activation. I presume because it was my system drive. I kind of understand Microsoft taking precautions but their help facilities were not particularly helpful or speedy when this occurred. That experience has made me somewhat reticent to upgrade the system drive in my media laptop. I’ve already spent money purchasing another copy of Windows for my desktop PC as that is getting a major overhaul and everything is changing. I don’t want to have to use that to kick my laptop though as Windows is not cheap and I don’t entirely trust the “cheap activation code” items for sale in various online stores.
However, changing the secondary drive shouldn’t have any effect at all on windows activation, so that is something I will definitely look into.
Thanks for the info there, like I said, I had no idea there were adapters or SSD designed to replace 2.5s.
