I have created a whole bunch of playlists with plex. I would like to back them up in case of an OS failure. I am just wondering where they are saved? I have windows 7. I have both plex server and home theater on the same desktop. I tried to find a folder or file named playlists within the Plex folders, but I can't seem to find the playlist info.
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It should be in the database file which is part of the Plex Data
See Backing Up Plex Media Server Data Support Page
See also recent discussion here
Ok. SO I read that article and I got things backed up. Now I also read on about changing the Plex Media Server Directory. I changed the setting to another drive. I then copied everything from the original location to the new location. I relaunched the Plex server and everything was there. Awesome. I was asking because I am planning on doing a reformat/re-install of windows in the next couple weeks. I like to do it on my computers occasionally but I wanted to make sure I didn't lose my plex playlists.
As long as the database and data is held on local drive it should be ok. Network Drives for the database is a No No as far as I am concerned but ok for media files.
You should study carefully these 2 articles and if it is important go through the process to test it:
There are 2 separate actions:
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Hi, read info from this link:
support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201539237-Backing-Up-Plex-Media-Server-Data
and what I want to know is that if I were to backup the playlist data and just the playlist data which of these files or directory should I copy?
[/share/MD0_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/Library/Plex Media Server] # ls
Cache/
Metadata/
Scanners/
Crash Reports/
Plug-in Support/
Thumbnails/
Logs/
Plug-ins/
plexmediaserver.pid
Media/
Preferences.xml
This is on a QNAP x89
thanks
You cannot backup just the playlist data. The playlist is part of the database which contains the data for all your media, except the images, which are stored in the Metadata and Media folders. The database is in subfolders inside of the Plug-In Support.
cool, its the Plug-in Support/ that would be critical to my needs then.
Will this complicate things on restoration? Will a fresh install of Plex work or will it be looking for more files since is restored the Plug-in Support/ folder.
thanks
Plex will look for all files already in the database. When you restore, if the original media files are in the same path location as they were previously so every entry in the database matches up, you will have no problems. If you start moving things around, so Plex cannot match the files up in the database, the playlists won’t work either.
Does anyone know of a way to copy Playlists from one user to another?
For example I have made some really good playlists in the Paul & Emma Login and want to copy to Marc and Alex’s respective user login can this be done? Or is it just being able to backup your existing setup like above talks about?!
I also have been looking for an answer to this question. Is this a feature / option that can be later added to plex?
Bump. I have some large playlists for a library that is next to impossible to sync. My plan is to copy the library so it is local on the Android device and I’d like to copy the playlist as well. Beuller??
@Geocas1 said:
I also have been looking for an answer to this question. Is this a feature / option that can be later added to plex?
There is no easy way to backup the Plex playlist. If you have access to a Windows machine, you can use this tool I made that will convert the Plex playlist into an m3u playlist that can then be imported back using my tool into PMS, https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/120292/moviefans-database-tool-for-plex
@slalomnut said:
Bump. I have some large playlists for a library that is next to impossible to sync. My plan is to copy the library so it is local on the Android device and I’d like to copy the playlist as well. Beuller??
This won’t work. The Android app will not detect local music files.
That is most unfortunate. What’s the recommended way of syncing a 300GB music library to a Nexus 7 device?
I noticed the option to sync playlists exists now but only with Apple devices. Is there a roadmap for this feature with Android devices?
@pauldeans said:
Does anyone know of a way to copy Playlists from one user to another?For example I have made some really good playlists in the Paul & Emma Login and want to copy to Marc and Alex’s respective user login can this be done? Or is it just being able to backup your existing setup like above talks about?!
I’d like to see this feature too… have playlists with hundreds of videos and were created before Managed users was even a “thing” so now I’d like to export those playlists to their respective new managed user accounts…
I also would like to know how to export/import playlists to managed users- I have all my playlists in the admin account, but want all user accounts to have access to them. I really don’t want to recreate them. THANKS!
I would also like to be able to copy playlists between users.
+1 copy playlists between users (or between servers also).
Copy between users on a single server should be as easy as adding a “copy to user …” or “share with user …” option to playlist edit or playlist actions. The copy can either list users associated with the current server/plex friends, or it could allow freetext entry for better privacy between users.
Copy between servers should be possible if hashing ID is used between servers who have identical items indexed. Some sanity checking could allow for a threshold to verify that the items are analogous. Any items not found during import/copy should be omitted from the destination playlist. Actual transmission of data could be brokered by a flat text file export/import process, via direct server-to-server transfer, or via Plex cloud services, depending on how you want to design things. I’d start with export/import and work up to a federated cloud style configuration.
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Not what you want, but ExportTools can now export playlists from Plex into m3u8 files.
After all, it’s a start
/T
Bump. I am trying to figure out if this is an official feature request because it really should be.
And be warned that the people using the new DVR features will be in the same boat if they don’t make an import/export or save/restore feature.
Found this thread while building a new Plex server. I did a copy/move for the last server I built, but I am reluctant to keep all the stuff I mucked with (plug-ins and settings tweaks) for a fresh install.
