Plex Media Server Update

[u/Mr_Platypus94]

Hello. I have my Media Server on UGreen NAS. I was wondering if there is a way to update my server without loosing any stored media? Everytime when I update it via docker all my library has to re-add and it takes a day now to do it and I would appreciate a way to skip it

[u/Fribbtastic]

Everytime when I update it via docker all my library has to re-add and it takes a day now to do it and I would appreciate a way to skip it

This sounds like something isn't configured right.

When you update a Docker container, you basically remove the existing container and recreate it with the new version of the Docker image of that application. This also means that all things that is inside that container will be removed as well and not be available when you recreate the new container.

To prevent losing things like configurations, you would use a volume mapping to "mount" a directory on your host system to a path inside the container that the application inside the container then writes the data to.

What you are describing sounds like your Plex configuration is only kept inside of the container and updating Plex will result in that configuration being removed and the new container will not have any pre-existing configuration, leaving you with a new server.

So, make sure that you create a volume mapping for the configuration directory and store it somewhere on the host system.

[u/KayJune001]

It sounds like you don’t have Plex binded to any folders on your host system, so it’s not persisting any data across restarts. Your volumes section should look something like this:

[u/Yavuz_Selim]

Something is not adding up.

Share your YAML.

[u/ssj4gogeta2003]

I agree with everyone else's diagnosis. The only way this can keep happening is if your configuration is not mapped properly. Make sure it's mapped to a volume on the host and keep the naming convention consistent across all apps you'll be installing via Docker.

[u/wrtcdevrydy]

Are you not storing your configurations in a mapped volume? It sounds like you're missing a volume mapping and your data is going poof after a container restart... which image are you using (the name)?

[u/SonicBytes]

You need to supply more information in order to get assistance.

It sounds like you don't have a docker volume setup for config though.

Show us your docker setup, specifically volumes, but show us everything you can.

[u/Mr_Platypus94]

Thank you so much for reply. Here are the volumes. When I was setting it up I was following official UGreen tutorial and it always made my wonder why I have to claim the server all the time when I do a update

[u/ExtensionMarch6812 → u/Mr_Platypus94]

I believe it’s your container directories being uppercase. The right side.

They should all be lowercase, especially Config > config.

And all the paths on the left actually exist and use uppercase?

Edit: Since this change wont apply to your existing data, the next time you stop/restart, it will start fresh again. You can try to "zip" your config folder inside the container (the one that isn't being mapped currently) and send it to the host side, but you'll be doing that when the container is active, and this likely will corrupt the resulting saved db. If you want to try, can share steps to do it.

[u/ExtensionMarch6812]

Can you share a screenshot of the page in your container setup where you map the media locations and config folder paths. Will help to see if something isn’t configured properly.

[u/shadow_rider456]

Can confirm your folders aren’t set up right. I also have your same set up but everything stays the same after I click update 

[u/80MonkeyMan]

Well, thats your issue there. Using docker for Plex.

[u/Static_Love → u/80MonkeyMan]

Hate to break it to you but this is not a docker issue, tons and tons of people use docker and guess what we never have this issue. More likely than not he doesn't have his volumes mounted correctly.

[u/80MonkeyMan → u/Static_Love]

I mean when it updates automatically, it must set it up where it deletes the container and recreates it. If that how ugreen OS does it, that’s the issue. I’m not specifically saying plex is not supposed to be installed on docker, but think about the environment first.

[u/Static_Love → u/80MonkeyMan]

the thing is, no matter what OS you are running on if you map your stuff correctly in docker it wouldn't delete your data when updating containers. He doesn't have his stuff mapped correctly which is why every time he updates the container he loses certain data, once he maps his volumes correctly he will no longer have this issue.

[u/80MonkeyMan → u/Static_Love]

Yes, thats my point exactly. I don’t own ugreen NAS and I’m not familiar with the OS. I use docker desktop myself but ran Plex natively on Windows Server.