Plex DB Mirror (quiesced)

Fast, safe nightly mirror of the Plex data folder to a network share on Windows. Briefly quiesces Plex (stops Updater → stops Server), runs a tuned Robocopy mirror, then starts Plex (Server → Updater). Optimised for LAN/NAS targets and busy libraries.

Latest release: v1.0.0

Quick start

1. Find your service names (they vary):

   Get-Service | ? DisplayName -like 'Plex*' | Select Name,DisplayName,Status
   # e.g. PlexService (server), PlexUpdateService (updater)

2. Edit the top of scripts/PlexData-Backup-Quiesced-MIN.cmd:

   set "SRC_LOCAL=G:\Plex Media Server"
   set "DEST=\\YOUR-NAS\backups\PlexData"
   set "PLEX_SVC_NAME=PlexService"
   set "PLEX_UPD_NAME=PlexUpdateService"
   set "THREADS=12"

3. Dry-run once (no changes): set DRYRUN=1 in the file and run it.
4. Schedule nightly (Windows Task Scheduler):
   • Run whether user is logged on or not
   • Run with highest privileges
   • Action: cmd.exe /c "C:\Scripts\PlexData-Backup-Quiesced-MIN.cmd"
   • Start in: C:\Scripts
   • Stop the task if it runs longer than 1 hour

Why it’s fast & safe

• Robocopy: /MIR /J /XJ /FFT /MT /R:1 /W:1 (+ excludes for cache/codec/log noise)
• Local source path (avoid SMB loopback), UNC destination
• Clean exit codes: 0/1 = success; >=8 = failure (good for schedulers/monitors)

Troubleshooting

• Service didn’t stop/start: use the service name (not the display name).
• Endless re-copies on NAS: keep /FFT (2s timestamp tolerance).
• Slow copies: avoid /Z; add AV/Defender exclusions for SRC/DEST; on VMs use VMXNET3.

Files

• scripts/PlexData-Backup-Quiesced-MIN.cmd — main script (edit the Config block).
• docs/schtasks-example.md — Task Scheduler CLI example.
• docs/release-notes-v1.0.0.md — release notes for v1.0.0.
• docs/CHANGELOG.md — all notable changes.

License: MIT — use, tweak, share.