Changing System Paths

[337Manni 66]

I have a 60GB drive with my OS and programs on and it's getting full (6GB remaining after a good scan/clean of temp files etc). I would like to move as much as possible off this drive and onto my other HDD's.

 

I can see the following system paths, which account for about 7GB of space;

Under Dashboard > Server > System Paths

 

Cache:
C:\Users\HTPC\AppData\Roaming\MediaBrowser-Server\cache

Images by name:
C:\Users\HTPC\AppData\Roaming\MediaBrowser-Server\ImagesByName

Logs:
C:\Users\HTPC\AppData\Roaming\MediaBrowser-Server\logs

Metadata:
C:\Users\HTPC\AppData\Roaming\MediaBrowser-Server\data\metadata

Transcoding temporary files:
C:\Users\HTPC\AppData\Roaming\MediaBrowser-Server\transcoding-temp

 

I've gone through the settings and have found the following paths to alter:

 

Under Dashboard > Server > Settings > Advanced

there's a section to move the Cache path

 

Under Dashboard > Library > Advanced

there's a section to move the Images by name path

 

Under Dashboard > Metadata > Advanced

there's a section to move the Metadata path

 

Under Dashboard > Playback > Transcoding

there's a section to move the Transcoding temporary path

 

 

I can't seem to find a place to alter the Log path, but it's under 10mb anyway, so not really an issue.

 

Can I just give a new path in Media Browser Server and it will move my data, or am I best stopping MB Server, manually moving these folders, then starting MB Server and changing the paths?

 

Also are there any other paths or data I can move off this drive?

 

Will any of this effect the performance of MB? I'm assuming if anything it will improve it, as it could access two drives at once instead of waiting on the one drive, but I doubt that it will be noticeable.

[Beardyname 195]

I think it would be safe to just change the paths, if you are worried then change the path's press save close the server and copy the folder contents to their new locations.

 

the metadata folder could be empty, if you have enabled the option to store metadata along side your actual media files if not then move it.

 

transcoding temp path should also (almost) always be empty (except when transcoding is taking place) so move that is also totally fine ^^.

 

What you will gain the most space when moving is the Images by name since that contains the images for all the actors and such.

same goes for the cache folder.

 

 

Now lets talk performance, it might actually get worse (especially if you move the cache) to a disk which is not an ssd due to seek time and read/write performance, (loads of small files and images gets stored in the cache) As for the transcoding folder that might actually not matter as much since it's a larger file with a stable read/write.

 

I would suggest if possible to leave the cache folder on the ssd and move everything else. I believe this will gain you the most speed advantage while still saving you some space, (or you might have an extra ssd and all this is just mumbo jumbo)

[337Manni 66]

Thanks for your reply.

 

It's not an SSD so I don't think there would be much of a performance hit. I had my SSD fail so this is an image of that disk onto an old HDD.

 

How can I enable saving metadata with my media, I thought if I left the path empty it would do this, but I have 1.87GB fo data in the metadata folder...

 

What would a typical Movie folder look like with the metadata stored alongside it? is it in a sub folder etc...?

[Beardyname 195]

Thanks for your reply.

 

It's not an SSD so I don't think there would be much of a performance hit. I had my SSD fail so this is an image of that disk onto an old HDD.

 

How can I enable saving metadata with my media, I thought if I left the path empty it would do this, but I have 1.87GB fo data in the metadata folder...

 

What would a typical Movie folder look like with the metadata stored alongside it? is it in a sub folder etc...?

 

I realized my image of "empty" was a little bit flawed You might actually have the "store metadata with files" enabled and still have items in that metadata stored in that folder, I realized what get's stored in the metadata folder is images related to for example channels and similair items (which has no native folder of their own).

So if we are saving space better move that folder as well!

 

If you want to check if metadata with media is enabled you can check the dashboard --> metadata and the checkbox option there

 

And whoops my mistake, when i saw the storage space (60GB) my mind automatically thought hey that's ssd size

 

 

*edit* if you want to store items alongside your media it will in the end look kinda like this :

There are options to save these  as hidden files etc, and all those settings are available under the dashboard --> metadata menu!

Edited November 28, 2014 by Beardyname

[337Manni 66]

Thanks again for your help.

 

I have just double checked and I do have the store metadata with media checkbox ticked, so it must be the channels and alike, as my folder looks like yours above.

 

I'm going to move everything over today...

[337Manni 66]

Thanks for your help Beardyname!

 

I copied the folders to the new location, redirected each one in Media Browser, checked it was all working fine then deleted the old folders.

 

All is working well and I now have plenty of space on my OS drive.

[ICT-Solution 1]

I'm searching for this point too.

 

It would be awesome if we can change the log path too.
..or is it possible to change this as a premium member?

[Beardyname 195]

Logs as of now are not movable

Source-code is on github though and the devs love pull requests!

[337Manni 66]

That's weird....

 

I moved all of the ImagesByName folder over to a different HDD and changed the setting in MBS, just checked the folders today and I now have a ImagesByName folder back on the old HDD with a channels folder inside and artwork for each channel (Revision 3 etc).

 

 

It's also a shame I couldn't just move the whold data folder instead of just the metadata folder, as there are other folders like collections and camerauploads that I can see filling up eventually.

The remaining data folder is at just over 0.5GB already and I don't use Camera Uploads as of yet as I currently use BitTorrent Sync for that and havn't got any reason to switch over yet.

 

Maybe a feature request for another release would be the option to move more folders like data and any other folder with the potential to expand in size.

[amclaughlin01 0]

I recently upgraded my computer and had to move the media server to a different drive.  I have changed the paths above, however when I try to update the server, it comes back with the following:

 

  

 

Any suggestions on where or what file needs to be modified the path?

 

Thanks

[saitoh183 137]

I recently upgraded my computer and had to move the media server to a different drive.  I have changed the paths above, however when I try to update the server, it comes back with the following:

 

  

 

Any suggestions on where or what file needs to be modified the path?

 

Thanks

 

uninstall and reinstall the server, you can do that without losing any config.

 

@@Beardyname @@ICT-Solution

 

If you guys are on Windows, you can use mklink command to make a junction folder on another drive. This will allow the logs to be elsewhere but MBS will think they are in the default location.

Edited January 14, 2015 by saitoh183

[shorty1483 453]

Even the thread is old, also a nice solution is to symlinking the folders you want to have at another place using the command mklink /j metadata X:/yourPath/metadata.