Restore crashed media server in pieces

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: 1.15.3.876
Player Version#:

I had a major drive failure on my media server, and have scattered backups of data (media files) and the configuration settings. I have a few questions about the possibility of doing a staged restore (I have a lot of data and it will take to to pull it all together):

  1. Is it possible to access the configuration files to get a complete listing of all the media I had in the server libraries before the crash to aid in my finding and pulling back together my data?

  2. Is it possible to restore the server configuration settings and server, then slowly restore the media files in stages, while retaining the watched status for TV show episodes, movies, etc? e.g., if I restore the server and settings files now, and then some movies now, then say in a few weeks restore a TV series that I had watched some of in the past (before the crash), will it “remember” which episodes I watched before, or will it be loaded as a new TV series that it thinks has never been watched?

Backups are good. Good backups are best. :-/

2

See: Where to find list of deleted/cleaned up movies and tv shows

3

Thank you - that should help with my first question. Does anyone know about my second? If I reload the config files from the server with most of the media missing, then backfill it later, will it retain the watch history of TV series, etc., and recognize that retained info when I later replace the media for those TV series? Is that what disabling the “Empty trash after scanning” setting is for?

4

Yes

It’s to prevent PMS from removing files that’s not present

5

Great, thank you.

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