Plex not seeing Metadata after transfer? Stored where? Permissions set

Apps and Virtualization
1

Hello! Ok, like everyone says, I’m sure its exhausting seeing these Plex threads over and over but I’ve been at this for at least 12 hours and I can’t figure out the issue:

I am a brand new TrueNAS user! This is my first “server” build. I have very little experience with command lines and zero experience with anything that isn’t Windows!

TL;DR for the impatient = I’m migrating my Synology Plex install over to TrueNAS Scale. I’ve got to the point where Plex runs and I have permissions seemingly set up correctly as it will see my media folders, I can see the metadata folder, and I can add a library and it will scan all the files like normal. I’ve figured all that out. But it isn’t using my metadata. All of my collections and posters etc is gone.

The Problem - My Plex server was previously running on Synology. I’m trying to migrate it all over. I copied the “Metadata” and “Media” folders over (plus all the others) but Plex is not using it or seeing it per-say. I also noticed that, when installing Plex on TrueNAS, it does not create “Metadata” or “Media” folders in the ‘\Library\Application Support\Plex Media Server’ structure? So maybe I’m putting the metadata folder in the wrong directory? But I cannot find any information on where it would be.

Again, everyone’s always saying permissions are the issue but I believe I’ve figured all that out. I can go into the Plex WebUI, go to “Add Library”, and I can browse the system folder structure there and I can see the Plex ‘config’ structure and all the metadata files. So its there and the app can see it. And the permission/user is setup so that I, the user, who copied the files over via SMB, am the owner of Plex, all the relevant directories, child paths, with full control.

There’s also lots of conflicting info online about what the “Plex Data Storage” host path is used for. All the info I initially found said it was the location that your media was stored. And now I’ve come across Plex setup instructions that say ‘Plex Data Storage’ is actually where the metadata is stored. But I created a new install and dataset, launched the app, and no metadata folder or anything was created in there. So I don’t know what to believe.

truenas .com/community/threads/migrating-plex-server-from-windows-to-truenas-scale.112062/post-775805 (it wasn’t letting me post proper link)

I’ve followed this as a general guideline.

Step 8 - Within “Plex Media Server” should be all the folders such as “Cache, Codecs, Media, Metadata, etc…”

There is no Media or Metadata folder created in there.

Step 10 - If you now start the app again you should now see all your metadata, but no link to the content.

This is what is not happening for me. I start Plex and it’s just empty.

Am I doing something wrong or is there something that just isn’t compatible swapping the metadata over from Synology to TrueNAS scale? Are there certain config folders or files that I shouldn’t copy over?

I feel like I’m missing something super simple and obvious. And to me the key hint is that Plex isn’t creating a metadata folder where I think it should be. Someone please help, I’m going to rip my hair out. I don’t want to lose all my metadata.

2

Oh my god I think I got it. I’ll post my thoughts in case someone else has the same issue.

I’m not 100% sure what fixed it as I was messing with a couple things at the end:

1. This is what I think solved my issue: The [\Library\Application Support\Plex Media Server\Plug-in Support] folder includes various subfolders; one being Databases. And in there is some plexapp.plugins.library files etc. From my limited understanding, this seems to be what indexes your data/media i.e. tells it whats there and where it is.

I’m pretty sure I copied this all over when I moved the whole Plex Media Server folder but maybe I didn’t? Or maybe something else caused it not to work before. I uninstalled/reinstalled and copied these directories around so many times I’ve lost track. In any case, I copied everything in the ‘Plug-in Support’ folder after doing the initial install.

2. Making sure the “Empty Trash Automatically After Every Scan” option is disabled. I was aware of this from the beginning but it’s maybe tricky because you have to run the app and WebUI to be able to get into the option to disable it. OR, and what I was trying to do, was the ‘Preferences.xml’ file in the Plex Media Server directory has on/off (1 or 0) code in there. But the line isn’t generated until the WebUI is run. So you can try copying over your old ‘Preferences.xml’ file to the new directory and then editing the file to disable this option prior to running the WebUI.

3. For the “Plex Data Storage” Host Path, I set it to [\Library\Application Support\Plex Media Server]. The full path is not generated until after the Plex app is run, so once it was installed, I went back in to edit the app and changed the “Plex Data Storage” host path. I do not know if this made any difference. Some instructions online said “Plex Data Storage” is where the metadata is stored but there was no metadata folder generated that I had seen. So I just pointed it to where I put my Metadata and Media folders.

Finally, I ran the Plex app again and this time it came up with my libraries but with ‘Trash’ markers on everything. This is Plex seeing that content should be there but it can’t connect the metadata to the media content itself. And because we had the “Empty Trash Automatically” option disabled, it didn’t just ignore it or make it disappear. That’s my theory.

I was then able to go and edit the libraries, where it was still looking for the old Synology content directories. I deleted that old file path and directed it to the new folders in the [plex_media] Movies, TV Shows, Music dataset

I now have all my Collections, my Watched history, and it seems to be most of the metadata. Some things are’t getting the posters I had, but I think it might be related to certain metadata agents having changed or maybe I didn’t copy something over quite right with those. I’m okay with re-matching some stuff and changing a few posters now that I’ve ended this multi-day troubleshooting nightmare.