Win7 decided to stop connecting to the internet despite saying it had internet access, so I’m switching to Win10. At this point, I’ve tried the suggested method about 4 different times on multiple server swaps and it’s never worked. I’ve done everything in the how-to guide, and I’ve now spent 6 hours trying to get this to work.
So I copied the appdata folder, transferred it over to the new location, and Plex refuses to start and just says “Corrupt database PMS was unable to open its media database.”
Brilliant. Is there a way to actually get this to work so I don’t have to redo the entire server for the 5th time? Every time I try to delete the stuff to re-install and retransfer it, it takes a half hour. I’m beyond aggravated.
A corrupted copy most likely is caused by the Plex server software still running while you were doing the copy.
The server must not be running during the copy process. Neither on the source, nor on the target system.
If the database is already corrupted on the source system (for instance because of a hard shutdown or a filled hard drive), you can try and use one of the older backup copies: Restore a Database Backed Up via 'Scheduled Tasks' | Plex Support
Don’t forget to transfer the Windows registry branch for Plex server.
After you copy the data, don’t start Plex server ever again on the old machine!
Plex was closed on the old machine, technically, the same machine since it went from 7 to 10. The only thing I couldn’t do is disable emptying trash because it had no internet access so I couldn’t do anything but close Plex. So now it’s corrupted and I have no way to fix it?
If so, that’s rad. Looks like dozens more hours scanning, cleaning, and re-tagging all of the media again.
If the database is already corrupted on the source system (for instance because of a hard shutdown or a filled hard drive), you can try and use one of the older backup copies: Restore a Database Backed Up via ‘Scheduled Tasks’ | Plex Support
But I don’t have the “source system.” It was wiped clean to install Win10. Can I do that with the current files I have? Can I just pick what files to copy? I don’t really care about the music metadata, that was mostly all auto-generated, but I put a lot of work into movies and collections.
Yes.
No. I assume you have copied them already. No point in trying to remove any of them selectively. The main database is just one file anyway.
I don’t understand what “correct directory” I’m supposed to be putting them in. I don’t even see the .shm and wal files.
“Correct directory” is by default the standard location of the Plex data folder.
You can also choose a different location, but you have to tell Plex this by creating a value in the Windows registry: [HowTo] An extended guide on how to move the Plex data folder on Windows
.shm and .wal don’t need to be present. They are usually only there if the server was not cleanly shut down.
So I take the backup files and just drop them in the local app data/Plex Media server? The instructions don’t make sense. There’s nothing there by default.
On a fresh installed computer it is not existing of course. The folder structure will be created after Plex Media Server is installed and started the first time.
You just have to replace the contents with the files from your backup, i.e. the old Plex Server.
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