So I made a mistake, I did a fresh install of Windows 11 and thought it was a good idea to back up the library database I backed up the entire %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server folder then did my OS reintall and copied it bacl to the LOCAL folder. Unfortunately I should have read the instructions and backed up the registry settings, I followed the instructions for a complete reset (delete data and uninstall/re-install Plex) but the old libraries still show up and there is no option to either edit them or delete them. Is there way I can restore my old library database or do I have to rebuild the whole thing?
What you are seeing are the old libraries from the old server. You can’t change these. You’ll need to delete the server from the list of devices, then unpin anything that isn’t automatically removed. You will need to recreate all your libraries.
Although, if you raid the backup data properly, your libraries should appear but as part is a new server. If you don’t see this, you may not have restored the backup correctly.
I just decided to rebuild my libraries from scratch after removing all Authorized Devices from Plex. I lost my collections but they are easily re-done, the entries that were not matched are easy enough to find but the media with the wrong metadata or none at all have to be edited and corrected. A few hours of work but the old server seems to be elminated. Thanks for your help, next time I’ll make sure to back up the registry since Plex seems to have decided not to have a backup option available as part of the software.
