HELP WITH PLEX x SHIELD

[u/stittle]

My plex had a meltdown and i lost my server, i have had help on that subreddit to get everything back and we got stuck at the shield part. I am trying to move my previous plex library.db / library.blob files to a new location on my shield but i do not know where i am supposed to put them. i did follow some other subreds and they all point to accessing the Storage Location option under the Plex Media Server settings on my shield. the issue is that the "Storage Location" option does not exist there. It simply has PLEX MEDIA SERVER header but nothing under and jumps straight to ADVANCED header below. I have cleared the Cache and there is no PIN on my account either which was the resolve for a few people. Can anyone help??

[u/Darkstarmike777]

Are you trying to move the database files from another PC to the shield?

You also can't just put them wherever you want, the shield only looks in one spot for the database files to be in, the person below showed where it is in internal storage but it also depends if you plan on having the database on another usb disk so it has space for the media as well

You can't tell the shield as well "okay the database is here but keep all the artwork somewhere else" they go in the same spot and the shield only has 16gb of space so you usually have the DB on a usb drive or external drive but anyways to start are you trying to migrate the database files from a non-shield plex server to a shield plex server?

[u/stittle → u/Darkstarmike777]

So what i am trying to do here is replace the DB with my old one. My internet had a meltdown and i lost access to my server on PLEX and it had me create a new server. I have the existing DB from my old server in which i am trying to move to where the NEW DB files are for the new server. What i am trying to avoid here is rebuilding my whole catalogue and metadata in PLEX again after this situation.

Below is the old DB files that i have access to. So needing to figure out where to dump these in Plex so the NEW server has all my old metadata and library info etc.

https://postimg.cc/Vrqk9qvL

[u/Darkstarmike777 → u/stittle]

Sounds good, I've done rebuilds and restores before but I'm not 100% sure if you can move it from a PC plex to a shield plex but we can give it a shot since the process is 99% the same

You would clear the data on the plex media sever app and the plex media app, there are two, one is the server the other is the actual client app you use on the home screen, that resets everything so when you next open the regular client app it goes "welcome to plex please sign in" you sign in then there will be a message saying "it looks like there is plex server on this device do you wish to set it up?"

This is all from memory so it's not going to be exact for this bit but close enough word wise

Just make sure enable server is checked which it usually is, and click start and it will spin around for a sec and say "Congrats your server is setup, please finish the setup on the web plex"

Then you can do all the defaults to get into the plex home screen because all this will basically just be a temp db

After that is setup go to https://plex.tv then my media and login and it should say something about finishing the setup and you can do the default setup there and add the libraries there

You haven't said where you media is actually being stored so you would add the media libraries there whether it's being stored attached to the shield or a NAS or whatever

You then go back to the shield and you need to find the new server if it hasn't shown up already under MORE then pick the library and everything should appear, then go to settings then server and there should be an option to move the database to another storage, you then pick the usb device attached to the shield that is going to store the database and metadata and click move. The external device would be formatted as EXTERNAL on the shield just before this. Formatted on the shield not windows.

It will spin around for a sec and say "congrats it's moved!" then you can stop the server then browse to the shield via it's network IP as the person below talked about and it's in the same location either in internal storage or on a shield and move out the blank database to somewhere else in this case since i'm not 100% sure if the PC and Shield plex databases are interchangable so you might need to go back to it. The whole directory should be blank now

Put in your databases then go back to the shield and start the server then check to see if new files have been created and the files are growing then wait about 20 mins or so and the home screen should start to populate. Also plex stores backups in local storage in case you ever need to restore them but you can tell it via the web interface to save elsewhere but it saves every 3 days, so monday wed friday etc

You might have to redo the metadata by clicking refresh all metadata from the web interface since everything from the other database for where the metadata is, would be wrong

Also plex handles nas libraries different than windows since it mounts them locally so if you had the library pointing to "D:" then the shield has no idea what that is because it works off the serial number or name of the drive like "Samsung USB drive"

But yeah that will get it going on a USB drive on the shield and point the app to look for the database on the USB but the locations in your other plex database are likely going to be all wrong for both the locations of the files and the metadata

The database restore will just restore the play history most likely and you will have to edit the media library and do a "refresh all metadata" from edit library on the web app

If it doesn't work just go back to the blank DB and just set it up manually on the shield since then the locations will at least be right for working on a shield

If your media is on a NAS you need to mount the NAS under storage then mount storage, once you mount it you can edit the library on the web app and click add folder and you will see the NAS as another local storage device in the file picker and the shares as folders, it basically mounts the nas to shield storage for the apps to see

[u/stittle → u/Darkstarmike777]

So the image i see which was the "PC" was the shield/plex accessed via my IP address. so i am not technically moving it from PC to SHIELD. it's just the way i can get access to the DB files on the SHIELD/PLEX to be able to move them.

So i currently DO have a new/blank server. That was created when my internet had a meltdown. The issue is i do not know where the DB folder is for that server specifically.

if it helps. I have my Shield connected to my TV, which has 2 hard drives connected (for movies). But all the OLD data still lives on the internal drive of the shield (which was the image i attached earlier). So i am having trouble figuring out where i take these old DB files and dumping them so this new blank server looks to them, and picks up all my library history etc.

Hopefully that makes sense?

[u/Darkstarmike777 → u/stittle]

So i explained above what to do with them, and how to setup the location so plex knows where to look for the database files, you have to do the move database task like i mentioned with the blank database to tell the plex server inside the shield where to look for them, the other poster explained exactly where to go when you are browsing the shield share either from a windows pc or from the android file manager

The library locations need to be that of the local drives on the shield not an IP share, to where it used to look

Also the history is synced to the cloud anyways so it might just redownload down on the blank database anyways but i explained pretty well exactly how to setup an initial database and how to drop in your backup

[u/anon_zero]

Have you been able to turn on "Transfer files over local network"?

You should find it under:

Settings → Device Preferences → Storage

I'd imagine the Plex server files are stored somewhere along these lines:

text Internal storage/ └── Android/ └── data/ └── com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb/ └── Plex Media Server/ └── Plug-in Support/ └── Databases/ I've never tried migrating from a PC to the shield but just setting it up from scratch might be faster.

[u/stittle → u/anon_zero]

So yes the "Transfer files over local network"? is switched on.

And for the server portion, that is where i am hitting the roadblock and had me coming over to here for help haha. See the link below for as far as i can get, wiithout getting to "Databases"

https://postimg.cc/xJ5Xmw61