Server Version#: 1.21.1.3830
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I am trying to slim down my Plex backup so I can store it on backblaze.
The largest folders in /Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/ are:
Media ~101GB, Metadata ~30GB, Cache ~8GB
It seems like Media just stores preview thumbnails and could be re-created by plex.
I’m guessing Metadata needs to be kept and Cache can be left out of the backup.
I think you’re on the right track.
I think Metadata is stuff Plex has downloaded and is worth keeping.
I think Cache is all ephemeral. You can definitely exclude Cache/PhotoTranscoder and Cache/Transcode. I’m 95% sure you can exclude the whole thing, or the rest of it is tiny anyway.
I think Media is stuff Plex has generated or calculated from your files.
Can you exclude by filename? The majority of Media is index-sd.bif files, the Video Preview Thumbnails. If they’re missing I know that Plex behaves just fine and will regenerate them.
I can’t swear to how Plex behaves if other parts of Media are missing. I’m not certain if Plex will notice the missing files, regenerate them, or cause any errors.
If Metadata is just movie/tv posters, actor names, etc. and Plex can just re-download I’m fine with that I have 2gbps internet so no problems there.
Cache definitely makes sense, I assume its just files to make things a little faster and Plex would just recreate them.
I just started using a Duplicati container so I’m not sure if I can exclude by file type, I can exclude individual files/folder by unchecking them.
I think I might create a plex-test container and add a few GB of media and then delete folders one by one to check what happens.
Any info on where Plex stores files that can be deleted would be appreciated thought.
I am mostly concerned with not backing up the files that store things like watch status as I have 1000 movies and 18000 episodes on Plex and could never hope to set everything back for myself or my users.
The Library itself, including viewing status & watch history, are stored in the database files.
I’m not sure if you really need to keep any of Media/Metadata/Cache. I suspect that it would all be reprocessed and re-downloaded by Plex. That might be preferable to backing them up, and the DB files for even a gargantuan Library are manageably small.
Be careful that you’re making a good backup of the DB - Plex makes periodic DB file backups, use those. Don’t try to copy the live DB files while Plex is running.
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