Server Version#:10210304014-58bd20c02
Player Version#:4.54.2
I know that my server is probably not the newest. Every time I start plex on any device I own, it says there’s an update to the media server, and every single time, on any device, the install of the new server fails, so I’ve just learned to ignore it. Even clicking ignore this version means nothing, it’ll give the same message in 5 min if I restart.
Anyways, I recently created a new user profile on my PC in an attempt to troubleshoot some excessive cpu usage. When I made the new user, my resource use issues went away, so I wanted to poke around and see how much of my system was usable/how much would need to be reinstalled to stay with the new user as my main profile.
As part of my checking under the hood and kicking the tires, I went to see how plex would act over there. I tried to start plex, but it didn’t see the media server, so I started the media server. This brought me to a login page, no problem. So, the next thing I know, it’s asking me for the name of my server, so I put the name I had been using. Next it asks me to add libraries. Now I know something is wrong, so I back out.
When I go back to my original profile, plex now has my original server as unreachable, and the new server with no libraries is now my main. I went ahead and added the libraries (after copying the database files to a zip), hoping that by adding them, they’d show back up for the old server, I’m sure you know that didn’t happen.
Is there any way to get my original server back? I have almost 3k movies, plus at least 1k of tv files, and that all took a LOT of effort to fix all the naming, matches, poster art, etc. I had been dreaming of reinstalling windows for some time, but the idea of migrating plex to a new system had kept me from cleaning house for just that reason, and now I’m screwed. Not to mention that my friends can’t see this library, and it was a real hassle to get most set up remotely, since I can’t see their screen and some have very little computer literacy. Can anyone help me?
I didn’t copy the database files until after returning to the old user, because I had no intention of messing with Plex, so I was caught off-guard. The fact that Plex is still looking for my old server is the only thing giving me some hope, but I don’t know if there’s a way to let it know that this is the same server on the same drives that it wants, so it’ll associate all the metadata.
THANKS!!
Plex’s data are stored in the Windows user-dependent folder C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server AppData is a “hidden” folder, so you might want to activate the display of hidden files in file explorer to make things easier.
Which means that all your old library data are still there and only need to be moved/copied to the appropriate location in the AppData folder of your new Windows user account.
You must make sure that no part of Plex is running during the copy process. Otherwise the copied data may be incomplete or damaged. Use the Windows Task Manager to find running processes belonging to Plex and shut them down.
Afterwards, you must make sure that Plex is only started under the new user account. You must not have Plex running at the same time under both user accounts!
Side note: If you have a second hard drive or SSD in this machine, you should consider moving the plexdata on there instead. It only takes a small edit to the Windows registry to tell Plex to use this new location instead: [HowTo] An extended guide on how to move the Plex data folder on Windows
Thank you for replying!
I have copied the folders in the plex section of the appdata, and made them into a zip file bc it was about 9gb (without the cache, I heard you could skip that folder). The main confusion comes in when I think of what I’m supposed to do with it. I didn’t get a chance to copy until after the 2nd library was created, so IDK how useful it is. Also, the old library is still showing as an option, just unreachable with an exclamation mark, while the 2nd library of the same name is right under that in my plex sidebar. All of the movies are in the same directories as always, but the old library comes up as unreachable. When I go to users & sharing, it says I’m sharing libraries with them, until I edit the friend listing, then it instantly says I’m not sharing anything with them, unless I add from the new library.
It’s this weird space where the library seems to exist and not exist at the same time. How can I tell plex to repopulate THAT library, with all my old metadata and adjustments to the 3k movies that I have? I feel like the instructions are to make the dir of your pc the same as the old setup, then trick plex into thinking nothing has changed, but in my case, plex has already changed where it’s associating files/data, which is exactly the same dir as the old library, so I’m at a loss as to what’s the complication and how to restore it. How do I fix it by telling it the files are over here, when it’s already pulling the right files from the right place, just not associating them with my old server/library?
Again, thanks for any direction with this very confusing problem!
I’ve been looking around the forums, and found a promising idea. Since all of the original files and directories are the same, can I just restore a backup of my library and blobs? I seem to have 4 backups, spaced every 3 days, the latest being the day before the issue happened. Since I’ve already made a mess, it would be great to get a confirmation before I go poking around under the hood, so a go/no go from anyone with experience would be great, thanks!
So, I"m not really getting any input, so I tried to restore a backup. Copied the instructions word for word from here: Restore a Database Backed Up via ‘Scheduled Tasks’ | Plex Support
but it left me with nothing working. So, I tried deleting the dina.db -shm and -wal because the instruction said to get the shm and wal out, but closing the PMS got rid of the ones connected to library and blobs, but that didn’t work either. I put back all the original files that I have stored in another folder, on another drive, and still nothing works. Now I have neither library accessible. Can someone PLEASE HELP ME?
Well, in case anyone was wondering, I managed to fix it. Restarting the pc after making the changes to the library files got the change to stick. I left the dina files alone this time, fyi, but it was the reboot that was needed, I tried without moving the dina files the first time. I was left with my old server restored just as I remembered it, and the new server unreachable. All I needed to do to clean up was to go to settings and find where the server name has a triangle to indicate a dropdown menu, where I was able to remove the defunct server (took me a minute to find that, I was ready to look here for how to delete it). The friend/sharing connections pointed themselves to the right place once I got rid of the extra server. I had to allow remote sharing, and reboot to get that to stick (it kept losing connection), and it was as good as always.
I hope this helps anyone else with a similar problem
