Server migration not working

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.43.3.10828
Player Version#: 4.160.0
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

I am trying to migrate my server to a new machine (both linux), and a new external hard drive. I understand that I will have to map the libraries to the new drive when I’m done, but I’d like to keep all the metadata I’ve added. A lot of the artists in my music library, for example, don’t have readily-available metadata online, and they don’t show up in Artists unless I manually change the metadata. And I’d like to keep the playlists I’ve made.

I’m following the guide, and using rsync and --archive to copy server data from the source system. I’ve uninstalled and purged Plex on the new machine to start over several times now.

When launching plexmediaserver on the new machine, the server I’m trying to migrate does not show up at all.

I went out of town for a few days, and I needed to have my music, so I set up a new server mapping to the new library locations. Now - no matter how many times I remove and purge all of plex from the new machine - the new server is the only one showing up when I launch plex. And the new server does not have any of the metadata that I’ve copied over using the instructions in the guide.

Logs.tar.gz (393.4 KB)

2

No offense, but if you had followed the guide exactly it would be working. Can you please provide exact details of what YOU have performed and in what order?

3

Some things to check:

Copying the Plex Data Folder

To copy the Plex Data Folder from the old to new system, see the Plex Linux FAQ: Backup, Restore, or Clone your PMS installation.

tar preserves file/folder ownership and permissions. If you wish to make sure they are correct (from Migration from another OS to Linux):

  • Change the ownership of the files to the Plex user on the Linux host.
# chown -R plex:plex "/var/lib/plexmediaserver"
  • Make certain Linux file permissions are set correctly
# find /var/lib/plexmediaserver -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
# find /var/lib/plexmediaserver -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
# chmod +x /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/EasyAudioEncoder-8f4ca5ead7783c54a4930420-linux-x86_64/EasyAudioEncoder/EasyAudioEncoder

Preferences.xml

Did you copy preferences.xml from the old server?

preferences.xml contains info that uniquely identifies your server to plex.tv. If you copied it from the old server, then plex.tv cannot tell the difference between the two servers.

  1. Stop Plex Media Server on both systems.
  2. In Authorized Devices, remove the listing for the new server and also any outdated server entries.
  3. On the new system, rename preferences.xml to preferences.xml.old (or just delete it).
  4. Start Plex Media Server on the new system. It will be unclaimed.
  5. Claim Plex Media Server on the new system. If remote, use the User Credential Reset Utility.
  6. Ensure the new server is online and working OK.
  7. Start Plex Media Server on the old server.

Remote Access

To access both servers remotely, they must use different remote access ports.

If using UPnP, it should handle the port assignments.

If using manual port forwarding, then the router must have separate port forward statements for each server with differing public port numbers.

The public port in the port forward must match the public port in Plex Settings → Remote Access.