So, my data is all moved from t’old machine t’new one (for any Americans, you’ll need to read that sentence in a strong Yorkshire accent. Good luck.)
That could be that, but losing all of the ‘watched/unwatched’ and progress through series would be a bit of a pain in the arse, so I’m trying to migrate the metadata of my now-old Plex install (Razorback) to the new one (Blackjack).
On Windows, Plex stores everything in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server.
In Docker, that data is located at /mnt/cache/appdata/Plex-Media-Server/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/
Plex’s FAQ does include information on moving Plex data around, but it’s a far cry from what you really need to know in a scenario like this. That is fair, as there are a large number of potential scenarios and configurations that it would be unfair to expect Plex to constantly stay on top of and document adequately – after all if it doesn’t work, people would come crying to Plex and they’d have to support that or risk the wrath of Unhappy Internet People.
I’ll make this a long story short – I’m going with the basic bitch method of just copying the (several hundred thousand) files across the network from my Windows machine. I tried zipping the whole lot up and then unzipping it on the host, but with various combinations of commands I always got the same error: caution: filename not matched, which didn’t make sense then, and still doesn’t now.
I tried a number of different solutions from researching online but decided quite quickly that this is one of those annoying Linux things that I know I’ll spin my wheels on for an hour or so, and eventually just have to do it the basic way anyway.
So, I skipped ahead.
At the very least I am grateful that Plex have kept the folder structure and mechanisms broadly identical across different platforms. I’ve certainly dealt with software in my time where a Windows and a Linux version of an app were entirely incompatible and there was no hope of moving settings from one to the other, so this is a refreshing change from previous experiences.
Of course now we’ll have to see if this actually works or not. I have … middling hopes of success, but we’ll see.
A few hours later …
So the metadata is all copied over. I started the Plex Docker and immediately went into the server settings and edited my libraries; the existing libraries pointed at the old media locations, which was good. I added the new locations and let Plex scan them.
And … it worked! My On Deck still shows a half-watched episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and my watched / unwatched lists are all there.
This guide gave me the confidence to move forward with my plex migration to an unraid docker container. Hoping to take advantage of my gpu in a way my vm was not previously. Wish me luck!
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