I appreciate this is an old post, but I have exactly the same problem.
Plex tells me there is an update available and to install manually on my Thecus NAS
I do so, and I have no libraries - I’m starting from a vanilla install … again.
This occurs every time I am asked to do a manual install.
Either I’m doing something wrong - in which case please tell me and I’ll stop! - or the .app isn’t detecting and updating the old install.
So how exactly did you start using Plex on your Thecus NAS? I used to run it on my N5550 but have since moved on. I had a similar issue- I installed the Thecus provided Plex flavor and found out it did not use the standard install path that the Plex provided app package does. I bit the bullet, uninstalled the Thecus version, went into my NAS via Root- cleaned everything up except for my media, and then installed the current Plex provided app package. It was fine after that.
The other thing I found useful was to always stop Plex via the Admin GUI prior to upgrading- there was a hang problem I ran into once that corrupted the DB. After stopping prior to upgrading I never had any issues.
Hope that helps.
I’m downloading the app from Plex (the Thecus app is so old it won’t even communicate with the client any more!) and there’s no corruption as such - it just forces me to go through the initial setup once the upgrade is complete, which leaves me with the updated app but no libraries etc.
Anything I’ve shared is still there, but it’s now sharing non-existent libraries so that doesn’t really help.
I’m genuinely surprised that when you run the app it doesn’t check for an existing install and upgrade if found/install if not - that’s generally how most other apps I use appear to work!
That sounds very similar to what I experienced. Have you tried uninstalling, SSHing into you Thecus NAS, and manually cleaning up the old install directories? I found that if you had ever at any point installed the Thecus provided version of Plex, it installed to a different path than the Plex provided installer. It caused issues on mine until I manually cleaned it up and reinstalled. Once I did it worked fine afterwards even with upgrades. The only hard part was documenting all my library configs so I could recreate them, the time it took to rescan, and the “rematching” of movies and TV shows that didn’t detect right. I don’t currently share with anyone but you’d probably need to reshare libraries as well.
I haven’t - but I will now. Fingers crossed!
(Also, haven’t used ssh for years, so let’s hope I don’t break anything!)
I was asked to see if I can help?
Which model Thecus do you have ? (I can look at its configuration files)
Also, did you uninstall the previous version or simply install on-top-of the old?
I ask because on QNAP, if you uninstall prior to upgrade, it will remove your metadata.
Hi ChuckPA, thanks for looking into this.
It’s a Thecus N2810 running v3.02.02.11 which I believe is the latest firmware.
I’ve tried every combination I can think of, from completely removing the existing app up to just dragging the new .app file into the install box and installing over it.
The most recent one (today) was installing over the top but it still lost all my libraries.
Thanks. It’s my weekend here but I will find some time tomorrow and sign into one of the lab systems.
I admit upfront, it will be my first time so anything can, and probably will, happen.
No worries - if you can work out what’s happening (or what I’m doing wrong) before the next update is released I’ll be over the moon!
I tried to use the lab machine. It’s in Engineering mode right now. I will get someone to address it Monday morning California time
Sorry for not responding sooner - had some RealLife issues to address.
Any news on what’s happening (even if it’s that I’m doing something wrong I’ll be happy, as long as I can upgrade without destroying everything!)
There’s a new update out and I’m waiting for a response, I’m not wanting to update until this is resolved, but I do like to stay up to date … any news?
Still awaiting a response - it’s starting to feel like you’ll hope this thread will just fizzle out, but it won’t.
When I bought my Lifetime Pass I didn’t expect to have to rebuild my libraries on every update.
So depending on how much you want to experiment- I was looking at my Plex Server, and what you describe sounds to me like when you are upgrading, your Plex Server is somehow losing its database. ChuckPA or others can correct me if I’m wrong- I’m thinking that if you back up your database prior to the upgrade and you have the same issue, you can restore it. I don’t know how often the DB schema changes with version updates, but you should be able to restore the database and get your library(s) back. On my server it’s under Manage>Troubleshooting. There’s a button on that page that says Download Database. When I clicked it I got a zip file that has the DB in it. There’s also more info on database backups at https://support.plex.tv/articles/?s=database+backup&search=support_articles
If it was me I’d backup the DB first, try the upgrade, and if you end up without your libraries as before, try restoring the backed up database and see if everything comes back or not.
As a side note I upgraded Plex on my N7770-10G with no issues. It’s my secondary server at this point so I wouldn’t be upset if it lost its settings.
I’ve just realised that I don’t think that on the NAS in the App Center Plex does not appear as an ‘Update’ option, only as a manual install so I am definitely installing “over” the existing app (when I haven’t tried a complete removal first) rather than just updating.
I don’t know if that is because the update option is only for App Center apps or if the Plex app does not notify the server that it can be updated.
You’re correct that on a Thecus NAS, App Center never shows Plex as an update. It’s always been under the Manual install. The only way normally I’ve ever been notified of an update is via Plex itself- i.e. I login and get the “…An Update is Available” banner across the top of the page.
That said, the way I’ve always updated Plex on my Thecus NAS has been to:
- Log into the NAS GUI
- Go to Manual install
- Disable (Stop) the Plex App
- Choose Manual Install and browse to my Downloads folder where I’ve saved the Plex APP package
- Install- note the time I start the install
- Wait about 30-45 minutes for the install to complete.
- When it completes, re-enable the Plex App and start it.
- Validate everything works as expected.
As long as I’ve followed those steps everything has worked. There was one time that I didn’t stop the app first and that’s the only time its ever blown up. (That was also when I found out that the original Thecus issued Plex package didn’t install to the proper directories.)
Since you’ve always installed over the top of an existing working install, I don’t know why you’d keep losing your libraries- seems like something is happening to the database- so as I suggested earlier try backing the DB up before upgrading- and if it blows up you can restore the backed up DB and see if that brings everything back. Just be prepared to provide Plex with logs so they can try to determine what happened. (Logs can also be backed up from the same page as the Database backup.)
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