Migration from Windows to Windows - Backup and Restore

[karldonteljames 3]

Good Afternoon All,

My media server is also my HTPC and I've resisted the migration to windows 8 and 10, as i still use Windows Media Centre on windows 7. well the time has come to finally upgrade to 10, as i'm having more and more issues i think would be quicker and easier to resolve with a fresh install than fault finding. (This machine is solely used as a media server and playing back media in the livingroom, so it is never used to browse the internet)

 

I have emby premier, so can install most plugin's, I also have a backup of my emby metadata folder including images by name etc. What is the best route to take to migrate my installation keeping watched status, file paths, cached data etc.

 

Windows will be installed on a new drive, and will be a fresh install. Drive maps and folder shares will be the same (i'll make a note of all of these prior to taking the existing windows drive out.)

 

My library is quite substantial, and the last time a full scan was run it took a few days, which i would like to avoid where possible. I believe emby is configured to store all data in the original folders too.

 

Any advice on the best route to take to ensure i'm only restoring what is needed.

 

Many thanks.

[Luke 37024]

@@cayars

[Carlo 4330]

Assuming you will take out the old drive (just in case) and put in a new drive that will get Windows 10 installed on you should be able to revert.  You didn't mention if Emby is currently installed on the drive to be "removed" or if on a different drive.  I'll assume you'll be able to later copy these back again if needed to the same location.

 

Write down all paths that show up on the Emby Dashboard so you can set these back up if needed the same way.

Install the Backup plugin and configure it to save your Emby configuration to a different drive (even USB) that won't get touched with the OS upgrade.  This does not use a lot of space and is only the core that's backed up.

 

Pull old drive, put new one in and install windows.

Copy Emby Server directories back to this drive if needed.

Install Emby Server (use same version) over top of the current system (you already have it backed up) which will install any missing DLLs and executable and set windows up correctly.

Check to see if everything is working correctly and report back any issues.

 

Read this knowledge base article as well: https://support.emby.media/a/solutions/articles/44001159936 which might come in handy.

 

I've helped quite a few people do this and have yet to loose data or have a messed up system.  As long as you have your original data/drive you should be fine.

 

Any questions, just ask,

Carlo

[karldonteljames 3]

Thank you.

 

Yes i will be pulling my existing windows install just in case. Emby is installed on my windows drive.

 

Emby cache is on a separate SSD just for the cache.

 

I already have the plugin emby backup installed and that backups to my nas every night. I've just opened the plugin and i can see that it took a backup this morning at 00:10.

 

I believe my emby server is installed in this location: "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system" as the shortcut for emby server points here and ends with EmbyServer.exe
Just to clarify this is the only folder I should need from my existing c drive, and i need to copy that to the new drive BEFORE installing Emby server?

 

Checking on my emby server homepage I can see i am running version 4.4.0.40

 

I've been using emby since it was mediabrowser, i'm sure that it's just been upgrade each time, so there might be lots of old pointless files in there!

[Happy2Play 8252]

Thank you.

 

Yes i will be pulling my existing windows install just in case. Emby is installed on my windows drive.

 

Emby cache is on a separate SSD just for the cache.

 

I already have the plugin emby backup installed and that backups to my nas every night. I've just opened the plugin and i can see that it took a backup this morning at 00:10.

 

I believe my emby server is installed in this location: "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system" as the shortcut for emby server points here and ends with EmbyServer.exe

Just to clarify this is the only folder I should need from my existing c drive, and i need to copy that to the new drive BEFORE installing Emby server?

 

Checking on my emby server homepage I can see i am running version 4.4.0.40

 

I've been using emby since it was mediabrowser, i'm sure that it's just been upgrade each time, so there might be lots of old pointless files in there!

Well you need the entire "Emby-Server" folder, but depending on how old the database actually is you may have issues relocating do to whether it has path tokens or not.  But since you have a Emby-Server install instead of Mediabrowser-Server install, I believe you should be good.

[Carlo 4330]

Personally I would backup/restore every directory mentioned as a path on the Dashboard screen. Some of these might be part of your base Emby Directory install as well.

 

The more you "restore" the system to the way it was before you install Emby Server again the less likely you are to have an issue.  For me the Cache directory alone is worth the restore as I've got a decent size system.

[karldonteljames 3]

My data seems to be all over the place!

As you can see the first folder is the original MediaBrowser folder. but some of the file dates are today, so i'ts clearly referenced somewhere.

 

[karldonteljames 3]

My backups using the plugin seem to be running without any issues:

 

 

I also backup my media using cobian, and that seems to be running ok too.

 

 

There seems to be a lot of data in here considering that my metadata is held is E:\Emby - Although to be fair that folder is about 43Gb (this is an SSD just for the emby cache.)

[CBers 6766]

@@karldonteljames If you have the Server Backup plugin installed, then moving Emby between PCs is a piece of cake.

 

I have done the following many times over the last 5 years:

 

1. Install Emby on the new PC.

2. Add your libraries and let the library scan finish - this may takes many hours depending on the size of your library/libraries.

3. Install the plugins you want and configure, especially the Server Backup plugin. Make sure you have copied the backups over to the new PC and Co figure the plugin to point at the folder you have placed them in.

3. Add the users you need.

4. Using the Server Backup plugin, select the users you want to restore from/to and select what you want to restore, such as the play states (watched status) etc.

 

Once the restore is complete, restart Emby server.

 

If you have multiple users, you could skip the user creation and restore them via the Server Backup plugin as well.

 

This is how I have done it, but I only normally deal with 1 or 2 users, so YMMV.

[karldonteljames 3]

Is there anyway of exporting the library paths?

 

I have a few of them!

[Luke 37024]

Is there anyway of exporting the library paths?

 

I have a few of them!

 

What do you mean, from configuration?

[karldonteljames 3]

Sorry my question should have been clearer, when I restore will it restore my library paths etc? I think I have about 10 libraries mapping to a number of folders.

[Ceten 27]

@@karldonteljames If you have the Server Backup plugin installed, then moving Emby between PCs is a piece of cake.

 

I have done the following many times over the last 5 years:

 

1. Install Emby on the new PC.

2. Add your libraries and let the library scan finish - this may takes many hours depending on the size of your library/libraries.

3. Install the plugins you want and configure, especially the Server Backup plugin. Make sure you have copied the backups over to the new PC and Co figure the plugin to point at the folder you have placed them in.

3. Add the users you need.

4. Using the Server Backup plugin, select the users you want to restore from/to and select what you want to restore, such as the play states (watched status) etc.

 

Once the restore is complete, restart Emby server.

 

If you have multiple users, you could skip the user creation and restore them via the Server Backup plugin as well.

 

This is how I have done it, but I only normally deal with 1 or 2 users, so YMMV.

I used the backup plugin this week after reinstalling my NAS. Everything was restored smoothly except for my custom collections. If you have custom collections it would be best to do a manual migration like described here i guess: https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001173192-collections-manual-migration.

[karldonteljames 3]

Thanks. I was just curious if the backup also backed up paths, it seems a little daft backing up a configuration that then needs to be manually setup again, with the libraries then completely rebuilding, followed by a restore. I think my last library rebuild took around three days, and I'm trying to minimise downtime and disruption as much as possible.

[Ceten 27]

Thanks. I was just curious if the backup also backed up paths, it seems a little daft backing up a configuration that then needs to be manually setup again, with the libraries then completely rebuilding, followed by a restore. I think my last library rebuild took around three days, and I'm trying to minimise downtime and disruption as much as possible.

All paths were restored, all I had to do was run to the quick setup, install the plugin, point it to the directory and restore from the backup.

Emby did do a full library scan after that which finished in a few hours which included retrieving people images and creating boxsets with the auto boxset plugin.

I do save all metadata and images in the media folders which helps in restoring faster I presume.

[karldonteljames 3]

I save all of my metadata and images in the folders too (with the exception of chapter images.) Out of interest, did it restore all of your other plugins and licence too?

[Ceten 27]

I save all of my metadata and images in the folders too (with the exception of chapter images.) Out of interest, did it restore all of your other plugins and licence too?

The plugins were restored, I had to enter the license key before the restore because the backup plugin is a premium plugin.

But for the opensubtitles and addic7ed plugin I had to enter the username and password again.

[karldonteljames 3]

Am i correct in thinking the API Keys are not restored?

[karldonteljames 3]

I'm really confused at why the library database isn't restored. surely this means that when it has finished scanning the date added are all going to be wrong, and the recently added is going to very much out of order, or will this fix itself when it's finished scanning?

[Happy2Play 8252]

I'm really confused at why the library database isn't restored. surely this means that when it has finished scanning the date added are all going to be wrong, and the recently added is going to very much out of order, or will this fix itself when it's finished scanning?

But your existing metadata with media already contains date added and with be read.  Why do you think it would be wrong?

 

Not every configuration is technically transferable from system to system.  Like forsay how the library paths are actually configured, same drive letter on different system.  So if paths are different things will not function properly. 

 

So migrating to different machines will have mixed result.  Restoring on same system will not have any issues.

[karldonteljames 3]

It's odd because some of the tv series and movies that have been on the media server for a few years always show up as the most recently added when a fresh library scan takes place.

 

for example:

 

the latest children's media is showing the following:

 

 

I'm restoring to another windows machine, as well as that i made sure that drive letters were copied exactly, and i backed up the registry key that stored the shares and restored those too, so all the shares and the permissions are the same.

 

As well as this none of the users have their pictures anymore, is that normal?

[Ceten 27]

For me the latest movies and series are showing what seems to be the latest added items.

[karldonteljames 3]

That would normally be the case, but as this has re-scanned the library very old movies and tv series that have been on the system for years are showing as latest, obviously going forward new stuff will surpass this, but it means that all the new stuff from the last few months isn't showing in the order i would have expected.

 

I'm running time lord on emby that sets the dates, but this doesn't seem to be making a difference.

[Ceten 27]

Just checked an for me it seems to have pertained the date added, I restored the backup past weekend:

Maybe it does have something to do with the  time lord plugin?
Totally irrelevant, but that seems like a low critic rating for the movie with the most Oscar nominations of the past edition.

[Luke 37024]

That would normally be the case, but as this has re-scanned the library very old movies and tv series that have been on the system for years are showing as latest, obviously going forward new stuff will surpass this, but it means that all the new stuff from the last few months isn't showing in the order i would have expected.

 

I'm running time lord on emby that sets the dates, but this doesn't seem to be making a difference.

 

 

Assuming timelord isn't doing anything strange, the reasoning for this is very simple. Look at one of the titles and check the date added value in the metadata editor. Does that item have an nfo or xml metadata file containing the date added value? If yes, that's where it came from. If no, then it came from your date added setting in advanced library settings.