Germany
Hi.
As the release of the first MP 2.1 version ( MP 2.1 Pre- Release) will most likely be in the next 48 hours it is time for a new tool. As Expected MP2-Edit did not work any longer with MP 2.1. MP 2.1 Backup & Restore did not have all options from MP2-Edit but this never was the plan. But it can make fully automated backups of your MP 2.1 databases and will help you migrating from MP 1.x or MP 2.0 to MP 2.1.
There is an German post also, if you prefer to read in German.
MP 2.1 Backup & Restore
The tool is available in two languages, English (default) and German and can be translated to any other language easily. It comes with an average installer. It should be installed on the same system where you planed to install or have installed the MP2 server. As it needs to alter files in system folders (ProgramData) it needs admin rights. And the taskplaner settings also needs admin rights, at least on Windows 10. The program asks for admin credentials on startup, if it is not running under an admin account already. Sadly this can not be avoided. You also can install the tool on a different system, but only to save the watched flags from an "old" MP 1.x installation. All MP 2.x related functions are only working if the tool is running on the same system than the MP2 server.
Configuration:
After the installation you should first set the GUI language (if needed) and have a look at the path settings.
If you have a default installation of MP you most likely don't need to change anything. Only the storage for backups probably should be adjusted. Any changes here require the tool to be restarted to be used.
Backup Mangement:
Here you can restore or delete existing backups or create a new one manually. Backups are possible for the media library and both TV engines, TVE 3.0 (default, stable) and TVE 3.5 (Alpha version). But only one TV engine can be existing at the same time. If you restore an existing backup, the MP 2.1 server needs to be stopped for a short time. As this will interrupt media playback, Live-TV and running recordings there is a requester asking you, if it's save to stop the server now. As soon as the backup is restored the MP2.1 server will be started again.
Setup Schedules:
Her you can schedule an automated and invisible backup of your database( s ). You can set the day ( s ) and the time when a backup should run and select which databases should be backed up. The time has to be entered in 24 hours format. You can set the number of "old" backups to keep. I would suggest to limit this to at least 2 backups, just to be on the safe side, if you have done some bad things right after the backup was running. But you may want to keep more than two. this is completely up to you. You can delete any existing schedules if you don't want to use the automatic function any longer and you can set a new schedule with the recent settings. Any older schedules are removed automatically if a new schedule is created, so you don't need to do this by hand... The automated backup did not disturb the MP2.1 server at all as special SQLite functions for backup purposes are used.
Watched Flags Tools:
As MP 2.1 has very complex relations between series/seasons/episodes and movies/moviesets it is not too easy to save and restore watched flags from/to MP 2.1. For this the MP 2.1 database first need to be scanned. During the scan all relevant data is transferred to an own database to perform all needed actions before storing them back to the MP 2.1 database. This scan has to be done for every watched flags tool. You can backup existing watched flags from MP 1.x or MP 2.0 installations without scanning the MP 2.1 database. This can and should be done before you install MP 2.1. When you have installed MP 2.1 and have imported your media sources you should scan the database.
The scan can last some minutes, depending on the size of your media library.
After it is done the disabled options are activated so you can backup or restore the watched flags from/to MP 2.1 Before a restore it is possible to reset all watched flags in the MP 2.1 database. This option normally is not needed but if you want to, you can reset the flags.
When the flags are written into the MP 2.1 database the MP 2.1 server also has to be stopped shortly. Again there will be a request for safety reasons.
Recent version: 0.1.1.15
As the release of the first MP 2.1 version ( MP 2.1 Pre- Release) will most likely be in the next 48 hours it is time for a new tool. As Expected MP2-Edit did not work any longer with MP 2.1. MP 2.1 Backup & Restore did not have all options from MP2-Edit but this never was the plan. But it can make fully automated backups of your MP 2.1 databases and will help you migrating from MP 1.x or MP 2.0 to MP 2.1.
There is an German post also, if you prefer to read in German.
MP 2.1 Backup & Restore
The tool is available in two languages, English (default) and German and can be translated to any other language easily. It comes with an average installer. It should be installed on the same system where you planed to install or have installed the MP2 server. As it needs to alter files in system folders (ProgramData) it needs admin rights. And the taskplaner settings also needs admin rights, at least on Windows 10. The program asks for admin credentials on startup, if it is not running under an admin account already. Sadly this can not be avoided. You also can install the tool on a different system, but only to save the watched flags from an "old" MP 1.x installation. All MP 2.x related functions are only working if the tool is running on the same system than the MP2 server.
Configuration:
After the installation you should first set the GUI language (if needed) and have a look at the path settings.
If you have a default installation of MP you most likely don't need to change anything. Only the storage for backups probably should be adjusted. Any changes here require the tool to be restarted to be used.
Backup Mangement:
Here you can restore or delete existing backups or create a new one manually. Backups are possible for the media library and both TV engines, TVE 3.0 (default, stable) and TVE 3.5 (Alpha version). But only one TV engine can be existing at the same time. If you restore an existing backup, the MP 2.1 server needs to be stopped for a short time. As this will interrupt media playback, Live-TV and running recordings there is a requester asking you, if it's save to stop the server now. As soon as the backup is restored the MP2.1 server will be started again.
Setup Schedules:
Her you can schedule an automated and invisible backup of your database( s ). You can set the day ( s ) and the time when a backup should run and select which databases should be backed up. The time has to be entered in 24 hours format. You can set the number of "old" backups to keep. I would suggest to limit this to at least 2 backups, just to be on the safe side, if you have done some bad things right after the backup was running. But you may want to keep more than two. this is completely up to you. You can delete any existing schedules if you don't want to use the automatic function any longer and you can set a new schedule with the recent settings. Any older schedules are removed automatically if a new schedule is created, so you don't need to do this by hand... The automated backup did not disturb the MP2.1 server at all as special SQLite functions for backup purposes are used.
Watched Flags Tools:
As MP 2.1 has very complex relations between series/seasons/episodes and movies/moviesets it is not too easy to save and restore watched flags from/to MP 2.1. For this the MP 2.1 database first need to be scanned. During the scan all relevant data is transferred to an own database to perform all needed actions before storing them back to the MP 2.1 database. This scan has to be done for every watched flags tool. You can backup existing watched flags from MP 1.x or MP 2.0 installations without scanning the MP 2.1 database. This can and should be done before you install MP 2.1. When you have installed MP 2.1 and have imported your media sources you should scan the database.
The scan can last some minutes, depending on the size of your media library.
After it is done the disabled options are activated so you can backup or restore the watched flags from/to MP 2.1 Before a restore it is possible to reset all watched flags in the MP 2.1 database. This option normally is not needed but if you want to, you can reset the flags.
When the flags are written into the MP 2.1 database the MP 2.1 server also has to be stopped shortly. Again there will be a request for safety reasons.
Recent version: 0.1.1.15
Last edited:
