I am getting ready to move Plex Media Server off of my NAS and onto a dedicated server. Is there any way to do this that will allow me to retain my existing metadata, posters, etc.? I would really hate having to start over.
What bass OS type are you moving to?
If you’re moving to another Linux-based OS, there is an incredibly easy way to accomplish this.
Please advise further?
See below.
@ChuckPA said:
What bass OS type are you moving to?If you’re moving to another Linux-based OS, there is an incredibly easy way to accomplish this.
Please advise further?
I was planning to move it from my x86-based QNAP TS-853 Pro to a quad-core i7 machine running Windows Server 2012 R2. This is mainly because I’m sitting on a pile of MSDN licenses and I’m not exactly fantastic with Linux.
I can completely understand how switching between the two worlds can be painful. I don’t ‘do windows’ for the same reason… “not fantastic”
Have you seen this article? https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201370363-Move-an-Install-to-Another-System
This covers the basic but you need the real ‘nuts and bolts’.
I believe (please verify with an experimental PMS installation on Windows), where your Application Data is.
If you look in Linux under the “Plex Media Server” directory, where you see all these:
[chuck@lizum Plex Media Server.113]$ ls
Cache/ Crash Reports/ Media/ plexmediaserver.pid Plug-in Support/
Codecs/ Logs/ Metadata/ Plug-ins/ Preferences.xml
[chuck@lizum Plex Media Server.114]$ ```
these are what you're after. If you can bring all of that with you, you're most of the way there.
Before you zip up your Linux-side,
a) Turn off auto update.
b) Turn off auto empty of trash
c) Shut down Linux PMS
.. This puts the database and preferences in the state you need them to be in for first-start on the Windows system ..
When started in windows,
**For each Library:**
a) Add the new location (add the windows path) but **do not remove the Linux path**
b) Update the library. You'll see the '2' show up (duplicates). this is what you want. One will be available, one won't be.
c) Remove the Linux path
d) Update again and watch the dupe go away
e) Empty Trash
f) Clean bundles
g) Optimize Database
I write the procedure this way because I don't know your library sizes. If you don't have a lot, you can save on steps e, f, and g until the end.
I'd rather you over clean than under clean and have it get all bogged down.@ChuckPA said:
I write the procedure this way because I don’t know your library sizes. If you don’t have a lot, you can save on steps e, f, and g until the end.
I’d rather you over clean than under clean and have it get all bogged down.
Thanks. That was super helpful. I will try it this weekend. I appreciate the “over cleaning” approach, since I have roughly 15TB of media (also the reason I want to port and not start over).
It’s not so much the size of the library… it’s the number of entries in the database that will bite you. SQLite3 performs differently on different machines (basic OS runtime library and I/O differences)
@ChuckPA said:
It’s not so much the size of the library… it’s the number of entries in the database that will bite you. SQLite3 performs differently on different machines (basic OS runtime library and I/O differences)
Is there a query tool I can use to interact with the database? I’m a data architect and it occurred to me that database updates could be a great way to quickly resolve some tagging issues.
Sqlite3. Remember, it’s not ‘full scope’ in the senses of mysql or any enterprise-grade. So always interact with the DB when PMS is fully stopped.
Sqlite3. Remember, it’s not ‘full scope’ in the senses of mysql or any enterprise-grade. So always interact with the DB when PMS is fully stopped.
Thanks for the heads up on that. I’ll have to check it out. As long as it understands basic ANSI SQL, I should be good to go.
It does. There’s a great (and i mean GREAT) set of documentation for it at the sqlite3 site
