Wiped my main hard drive as I needed to reinstall Windows (all my media is on a seperate drive and is safe)… I need to reinstall Plex on the new installation and just realised I didn’t take a backup of my server config etc. The drive was formatted, but can still access files using recuvva. If I can find them, what files do I need in order to move my plex install to a new windows installation. Got a feelin there isn’t much I can do, the folder structure on teh drive is no t showing like it did before I wiped it, so unsure if I can even get to the location I need. Any help appreciated.
Plex stores backups in
AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-in Support\Backup
If you can recover of the the backups intact that would be a good starting point.
Alternatively you can try to recover the file com.plexapp.plugins.library.db
Without either of the above you are looking at a rebuild.
Unfortunately the folder structure is no longer intact, so I cannot navigate to the specific folder. However, if I search for plex in the drive, I can see loads of DB file…
OK, I’ve looked on teh drive and found the following files:
As mentioned earlier, I can’t see the file structure so unfortunately the article posted is not much help. Are these .db files what would have been in the Plex Media Server folder? Does it matter that I can’t access the registry? What do I do with these .db files. I am going to do a fresh install of PMS on the new windows installation so assume I need to put these files somewhere?
Of these files, the one with the shortest file name is the right one.
However, it appears to me quite small.
Mine is several hundred MB large.
So it is either a very old version and has not much useful data in it, or your media collection is quite small.
You install Plex server as if it is brand new.
Disable automatic and periodic library updates.
Disable automatic emptying of the library trash.
Then you shut down the server.
Then you overwrite the database file with your restored copy.
Then restart Plex server and take a look.
You should see the libraries as you had them in your old server.
Now edit each one of them and verify that your media are still located under the same drive letters and folder names and file names as before.
(You cannot combine this restoration with a reorganization of your media. Don’t even try. It’ll end in )
I have searched the old HDD, and the only .db file with plex in the name are those listed in the previous screenshot. What one would you suggest I use to copy over once I have reinstalled Plex?
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