It looks like my hard drive crashed. Is there a way to restore the Plex server if I only have the database backup? My media is on a NAS, so media files are not affected. Thanks.
Which drive crashed?
The one with the media files
or the one with the Plex data folder on it?
If it’s the latter:
-
set up Plex server as usual
re-create your setup as close as possble, make sure all media drives/shares have the same drive letters/share names as before
You can abort the scanning for media though. -
shut down Plex server completely (which means on Windows, also stop the ‘Plex Update Service’)
-
replace the main Plex database file with your backup
reboot the Plex server machine
You still might to have to Refresh all your libraries.
If you don’t have a backup of your server configuration as well, you still might lose your shares.
If you have extensively edited your metadata ‘by hand’, custom uploaded posters might be lost.
@OttoKerner said:
If you have extensively edited your metadata ‘by hand’, custom uploaded posters might be lost.
Thank you, @OttoKerner . That’s what I was afraid of. I’m wondering, why doesn’t the backup hold all this info?
@alekdavis said:
Thank you, @OttoKerner . That’s what I was afraid of. I’m wondering, why doesn’t the backup hold all this info?
Because making this backup would take several hours on some bigger media collection.
We are taking about Gigabytes of data in several hundred thousand files and folders.
Practically the whole Plex data folder would have to be backed up to save everything.
@OttoKerner said:
@alekdavis said:
Thank you, @OttoKerner . That’s what I was afraid of. I’m wondering, why doesn’t the backup hold all this info?Because making this backup would take several hours on some bigger media collection.
We are taking about Gigabytes of data in several hundred thousand files and folders.
Practically the whole Plex data folder would have to be backed up to save everything.
I’m probably missing something, but for most data driven apps, the only thing that needs to be backed up is the database (metadata) and application settings. You obviously should not backup media, Plex application files, or plugins (media should be backed up separately, and Plex and plugins can be reinstalled). The backup must only contain the info about libraries (in the database) and configuration settings (all custom posters must be part of the database metadata). The main purpose of backup is to be able to restore the system after a hardware failure, but if you can’t do it, then something is not right here. IMHO
Since you’re starting over…
Now would be a good time to set up that: Path where local application data is stored - to a Local Drive that isn’t the OS drive (and hope for the best that one doesn’t explode).
Also probably a good time to bring all your media into compliance with Plex Naming and Structuring Standards so most everything will be matched and populated instantly - leaving only a few stragglers to deal with if anything bad happens (you know about that).
FileBot makes it all too easy. Link in my signature.
JuiceWSA: Thanks for the hint. I did not realize I could set up the app data file to point to a different location. My media is in compliance, but I have a lot of music, instructional videos, some obscure foreign TV series that I had to update manually, since Plex could not find metadata for them, and it looks like I need to redo all this again. 
I’ll check FileBot out. Thanks again.
@alekdavis said:
My media is in compliance, but I have a lot of music, instructional videos, some obscure foreign TV series that I had to update manually, since Plex could not find metadata for them, and it looks like I need to redo all this again.
Take also a look at .nfo importer agents and ember media manager
@OttoKerner said:
@alekdavis said:
My media is in compliance, but I have a lot of music, instructional videos, some obscure foreign TV series that I had to update manually, since Plex could not find metadata for them, and it looks like I need to redo all this again.Take also a look at .nfo importer agents and ember media manager
I currently do not have anything in this format (not coming from XBMC), so I’m not sure how it would work. It’d be nice if Plex supported metadata files stored along with the media files.
@alekdavis said:
I currently do not have anything in this format (not coming from XBMC), so I’m not sure how it would work.
Ember Media Manager allows you to create and edit .nfo files.
It’d be nice if Plex supported metadata files stored along with the media files.
Agreed.
@OttoKerner said:
@alekdavis said:
I currently do not have anything in this format (not coming from XBMC), so I’m not sure how it would work.Ember Media Manager allows you to create and edit .nfo files.
It’d be nice if Plex supported metadata files stored along with the media files.
Agreed.
Oh, sweet. I’ll give it a try when I get my system back.
