In reference to the post below about setting up a new M1 mini, does anyone know the best way to migrate a Plex server?
I know Plex has their instructions on how to do it, but it seems somewhat cumbersome
If using Migration Assistant would be the method with the least amount of friction, I’d be willing to forego setting up the mini as new (to avoid transferring the cruft with MA) just to avoid any cumbersome Plex server recreation
I’d go with Plex’s instructions on this. I’ve done this in the past and the steps are pretty straightforward and painless.
As folks recommend in your “Best advice for setting up new Mac mini”
post to start fresh (which would be my advice also), I would reinstall and
not migrate. Plex accumulates cruft also, and a new install, to agree with
@tjluoma, “If there was ever a time for a clean install, an architecture
transition seems like the right time.” A Plex install is very straight forward
Thanks for that link. Yes I’ve seen that before - I guess it isn’t as complicated as it seems to be from just reading through it?
But then one would lose all viewing history accumulated in Plex, right?
Also, would need to re-add/re-invite all who I share the server with?
Yep. I’d just move over the database to keep that. Also, any customizing such as movie poster selections would be lost. I don’t know how much “cruft” it gets but I’ve been running a Plex server now for over 10 years without any cleaning.
+1. Regular housekeeping (emptying trash, cleaning bundles, optimizing database) should ensure that cruft doesn’t build up. I’d definitely like to keep my library customizations (collections, labels, posters, metadata edits etc) and not start from scratch, especially so if it is a large library.
Agreed, Regular maintenance is a must, and while Plex
best practices says not to add metadata manually, sometimes
you have to. 
Curious as to the footprint of your server @tomalmy?
I have 4986 Movies and 397 TV Shows shared with 35
people worldwide. Server gets a lot of use…
I went ahead and used the Plex instructions on moving your server to a new computer and it worked without a hiccup
Got to keep all my history, invites, metadata, etc.
Definitely the best way to do it
Zounds! And my wife thinks we have too much media. That’s a whole video store. Curious how much space a library like that takes up? Something else!
It’s a bit over 8TB, but in talking to @tomalmy who has photos
on his, I’m afraid if I suggest that, we will be pushing petabytes!
Huh! I’d have thought much more than that. I guess depending upon quality, it may not take up as much. I think my Plex library is around 4-5 TB, but I only have not even half of the content you do. But then, I store all of it as close to original as I can get, and Blu Ray is enormous. I try to keep those movies under 15GB if I can.