I have spent the entire day carefully changing out some hardware on 2 pcs, and upgrading them from windows 7 to windows 10. I followed a tutorial on youtube and some forum links on how to reinstall plex on a new machine (same machine just formatted with newer windows in my case) i will list out the steps i took, but when i log into PLEX after installing PMS well says my library is empty and need to start one, i did all this to avoid having to rebuild all my settings and metdata.
1)Made a copy of my %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server contents.
2) Backed up my plex registry
3) Formatted PC with fresh windows 10 install
4) installed stablebit drivepool software which i use for my 5 WD RED NAS drives to pool in one dedicated to plex.
5) downloaded and installed newest version of PMS (did not launch it just installed)
6) Merged my saved Plex Registry on my new installed windows.
7) Copied my LOCAL APP DATA contents into the default path and replaced/overwrite stock contents.
8) launched plex media server and logged in.
9) NOTHING SHOWS UP
Please help, im exhausted messing with this, i have my stuff saved as per video and forums, not sure where i went wrong. Thank you for your help and patience, Happy New Year.
Another idea: verify that you now don’t have a folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Server on your drive (notice the double Plex Media Server folder)
Because if you do, you have restored the data one folder level too “deep”.
im sorry i didnt find out to quote your specific questions ill address as clear as possible.
Yes i shut down the plex media server completely when i copied those files over. (localappdata contents)
on the new windows, Plex was installed but i did not click the launcher, nor was it running. However inbetween these steps i had to restart for some reason, and windows automatically started plex , it poped up doing the whole “updating/setting up” dialog when first running plex, i quickly exited the plex media server closing it hoping i saved it before it loaded anything, once closed i then copied the files over. I had some troule finding the “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server contents” initially said it did not exist until i restarted and the server ran as earlier mentioned, then i found it, but its contents did not exactly match my copied folders and files, and i ended up replacing/overwriting 19 items. i cannot revert back really, as windows was completely wiped from the system, all i did was back up my original %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server contents and registry content.
My media files are stored on dedicated hard drives tha ONLY contain media, however now thinking about it i think i have a hidden backup folder of an old PMS backup i did 6 months ago. The only thing that was stored on windows was the localappdata and installation of PMS.
additionally now when i go to explorer and type in “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Server” i get the following error: Windows cannot find “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Server”
im sorry i dont understand what you mean by restoring it “too deep” , from what i can see i only have 1 “Plex media server” folder under the following path: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server”
In addition i tried pointing a newly created library category to one of my folders such as “stand up” it went to load all the files then they quickly merged all into 1 thumbnail and were bunched together and said “inaccessible” please check permissions ?? its a fresh install of windows and i believe i am the administrator however i did not sign into my windows account with a microsoft online account just local account.
Thank you for your help, if anyone can shed some light on this that would be great i hope i can maybe do the installation of PMS again and try again or something, i really dont wanna have to rebuild the data base, and metadata again on 12 TB+ of files
which also indicates that you copied your files to the right location.
How did you restore the files from the backup? Were you using a different Windows user account (Administrator?) or did you use a backup software which preserves the Windows file access permissions? If yes, then the restored files and folders might be inaccessible to the Plex server because it has not enough permissions to read/write/change them.
In which case you need to reset them all to the defaults, which get inherited from the containing C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local folder.
Here is a graphical tool, if you find Windows’ default UI for this task confusing: Resetting NTFS files permission in Windows – Graphical Utility – lallous' lab
I restored the files from back up by simply plugging up my 2nd ssd drive which the files were copied to(from my old windows), then i copied them from one ssd into my localappdata location (on new installation of windows). on my old machine all the permission were messed up among other issues which is why i formatted.
Im sorry if i was unclear about my drivepool contents, the only thing stored on my plex media drive pool is music,video files and thats it. however there is a hidden folder i placed inside the drivepool which is a backup that i did long ago of my localappdata. so i could delete it i dont think i need it plus long ago when i made that locappdata backup im almost certain at the time i was unaware that you need to close PMS fully before you make the backup.
i navigated to the regisrty : “Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server”
within the window i went through everything listed reading carefully and did not see anything that said “localappdata path”
i will take a look at the permissions tool, i have some trouble figuring out the whole permissions thing i found it just not sure what im looking at.
im sorry i did not fully understand the steps in that link. The original plex server and data base no longer exists, all that remains is my plex backup files and registry.
So i log into plex and my previously made categories are not there and nothing loads up, i never clicked “add library” and selected movies for example, and pointed the path directly to my movies folder. It seems to be loading everything now, im just having difficultly understanding if infact i did it right and its using the backup or just redownloading all metadata from internet and rebuilding ? However i did notice some movies that i SPLIT in the past, for example movies that have regular 2D and 3D versions, when i downloaded them they would be added as one, and i would have to manual split them. Well from what i can see the 3D version and 2D versions are still split as when i manually split them long ago, does this mean that its working ? i have 850 movies, its been loading them and circling for like 10 minutes now, still loading everything. When you do a proper backup do they just appear immediately without any loading ? because i am going through the whole waiting process for everything to appear. Please advise, thank you.
Update when i go to Status and then click on alerts, it shows "downloading metadata for " , does this mean its downloading my metadata from my backup on my local drive or from the internet ? if its downloading from the internet im assuming i didnt do it right
Thanks again for all your help, sorry we have to keep going back and forth. i just want to get it right and learn from my mistakes (if any) in the future.
If you never had to create libraries on the new server,
and based on your observation about the splitted 2D and 3D movies,
I think it is safe to say that you did it right.
ive always used this device, even before this whole format and new plex install, for a year+. it worked before i re-installed PMS on new windows machine.
