And not a single time has it actually worked, and I can’t go back to old server either apparently. I jus want to transfer my metadata, why is this so difficult? I packed everything in a zip, transferred it to the new server, and nothing worked so I had to rescan the libraries. None of the metadata nor any settings nor anything else transferred over. Didn’t even show the libraries.
How do I fix this so I don’t have to keep spending hours every time I switch computers to put the same metadata back in place that was already there? And why doesn’t Plex let you search for movies based on audio channels?
Did you only copy the server’s data directory or also the registry keys/values from your old setup?
From what I’ve seen in the forum, the guide seems to work ok unless steps are omitted/missed.
What exactly do you mean… the # of channels of an audio track, the channel layout or audio track languages?
An error that is often made, is copying the files while either the source or the target Plex server software is still running. Never do that. You will end up with an incomplete copy of the database file(s).
If you have to swap machines due to a hardware failure, chances are high that Plex server was not shut down cleanly on the old machine. Which means that the primary database file will be damaged and therefore unusable. You will need to restore one of the backups in this case: https://support.plex.tv/articles/202485658-restore-a-database-backed-up-via-scheduled-tasks/
(this might also help in the above first case)
Another thing to take care before moving machines is to take note of the drive letters of your media hard drives. You need to restore them exactly on the new machine, including their folder names, folder structure, and file names.
I followed the instructions exactly as they were written, and I copied the metadata and registry values.
By audio channels I mean… audio channels. A lot of stuff is stereo, and I frequently want to sort through stuff for surround sound. As it stands my biggest annoyance for this process is that Plex has this information, but you can’t filter it like you can for genre for instance. I have to use Tautalli to sort by audio channels and then go through the list of 1200 movies and add that metadata in every time.
Nowhere in the instructions does it say to do that. But I also don’t think it’s an incomplete copy.
There was no hardware failure, just a PC swap.
The drive paths are the same. Media drive is D. The only other drive in both systems is C. Is there a way I can still import the metadata I already had?
#2 of the guide lists a set of files. That’s the current database.
If enabled, Plex will create a backup of those files every few days. Those are the files with a timestamp at the end of their file names.
com.plexamp.plugins.library.db-[yyyy-mm-dd]
com.plexamp.plugins.library.blobs.db-[yyyy-mm-dd]
As part of #2 you’re required to secure/move the current files.
As part of #3 you create a copy (duplicate) of one of the backed up files (base filename as listed above with the same timestamp at its end). Remove the timestamp at the end of the duplicated files – this leaves only the base filename. On next start, Plex will work with the content of those database files… therefore, the backup has been restored.
