I am pretty new to Ubuntu, but I was able to transfer my Windows 11 PMS libraries to an Ubuntu 22.04 PMS server after some trial and error. I started with the instructions here: How to transfer Plex library from Windows to Linux?
But I had to do it a bit differently, so I thought I’d share what worked for me:
- Create the necessary directory on the Ubuntu system and change permissions to enable copying files from the Windows system:
sudo mkdir /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/
sudo chmod 777 Plex\ Media\ Server - Share the folder you just created with the Windows system. I used Samba.
- On the Windows system, from the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server, copy the following folders to the share created in step two. It can take a while to copy.
- Media
- Metadata
- Plug-in Support
- Plug-ins
- Install Plex on Ubuntu, but don’t do anything with libraries yet - I followed this guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/install-plex-media-server-on-ubuntu/
- Shutdown plex:
sudo systemctl stop plexmediaserver.service - Change the owner and permissions of the folder created in step 1:
sudo chown -R plex:plex Plex\ Media\ Server
sudo chmod 755 Plex\ Media\ Server - Start plex:
sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver.service - I added the new paths to the libraries before removing the old paths.
- Adding the new paths kicked off library scans\analysis that lasted quite awhile.
- After the library scans are done, remove the old Windows library paths
- Share your libraries with your friends/Plex Home users.
This preserved the play history of all users, current place in tv show seasons, current place in partially played shows/movies, collections, artwork, and labels. There is probably more that was kept, as well.
