A title like that is pretty ominous considering I just rebuilt my computer, but the damage is not system wide, I’m just dealing with one application. But as applications go, it’s a big one. I have to rebuild my Plex library, which means redoing all my playlists and the extensive metadata improvements I had made over time.
After I had gotten all my files moved from my old drives to the new ones, I knew I had to figure out how to restore my Plex database. I knew there was a backup that ran every 3 days, but I didn’t know where that backup was or how to restore it. From research on the Plex website, the only thing I really got out of my questions for restoring was to copy the entire data folder from the old computer to the new one. Well, ok.
And not unlike my amazement at Lightroom’s massive file structure, Plex was the same way. Tens of thousands of files got copied to my new hard drive, then I reinstalled the server application and fired it up. No initial errors, which is great, but when I went to the home page and the music library page, all I got was an error message.
In my mind, I sort of expected it. The reason for that was because I hadn’t installed any application updates in some time. Why should I? The features added didn’t pertain to the music portion of Plex, and there weren’t any security fixes, so I never needed them. Why potentially introduce bugs with a new version if what I had was working fine?
Well, this came back to bite me when I tried to restore a database for an application version much older than what I installed. And I had no idea what version I had been running before, so there wasn’t an option to install a matching older version. So there you go. A mismatched application and database equals a non-functional application. Time to start over with a new database matching the current application version.
Rebuilding the playlists will be tedious, but I have a pretty good idea of what I want in them, and to be honest, I really only played three or four of them, so I can start there. The metadata updates will be tedious as well. I had decided that I was going to use the plex server as my definitive source of collection info. But now, maybe I will start using Discogs, which can get me info on my collection in greater detail and more expediently, using their mobile app.
I’ve taken a “no rush” attitude with most everything in my life now, so I know eventually it will all work out, when I’m ready for it to happen.
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