I’m trying to move all my data from the internal storage of my Plex server to a NAS. Never though about this before, but where does the DVR actually store recordings?
Is there a dedicated DVR folder somewhere? Or do the automatically get moved inside the corresponding movies or tv-series folders?
Recordings are stored in a grab folder inside the folder you specified when you created the library you are using for the recording. My suggestion would be to add the NAS storage location as an additional folder to your library before you move the files. Leave the current location. Let new recordings still save to the computer, then setup some script that automatically runs to move the recordings from the computer to the NAS. I do something similar but record to a SSD and move the recordings to a HDD shortly after the recording is complete. This is separate from my post processing script. For me running Windows it is one line in the script:
robocopy /MOVE /S “G:\TV_DVR” “F:\Recorded TV” /XD “G:\TV_DVR.grab”
Move all folders from “G:\TV_DVR” to “F:\Recorded TV” ignoring the “G:\TV_DVR.grab”
This script is scheduled to run every 5 minutes on my computer. My recordings post processing finishes somewhere between 3 and 17 minutes depending on the length of the show and SD versus HD 720 or 1080. This ensures the SSD is kept relatively empty for future recordings.
Recordings are stored in a grab folder inside the folder you specified when you created the library you are using for the recording.
Thank, so I have full control over where the recordings are stored. It’s not like Plex is temporary caching the recording data on the same disk that the database is written to, right?
I do something similar but record to a SSD and move the recordings to a HDD shortly after the recording is complete.
Interesting. What’s the benefit of going the extra route with the SSD. Why not have Plex write the DVR recording directly to the HDD?
There is a transcode folder that Plex uses as well during the recording. The transcode is so that you can be watching the same show while recording and be able to time shift within the recording. You can specify a different transcode location in the Server Settings. Plex then assembles the full recording to the grab folder.
I would highly recommend leaving the recordings happening on the local Plex Medis Server. Another user I was helping found that after he moved all recordings to local storage instead of his NAS the failed recordings he was experiencing went away.
I had replaced the SSD boot disk in my Server and had the 128GB SSD with no use for it at the time. So I use it for my recording and post processing drive. Then once post processing is complete the finished recordings are moved off the SSD by the script a few minutes later. I could probably just as easily kick off the script from my post processing and add a short delay to allow Plex time to finish moving the recording from the grab folder to the library but running the script from a scheduled task works so why mess with something that is working.
