Migrate Plex to Jellyfin and Navidrome on a VPS

Why leave Plex in 2026: 36,000 servers exposed

What Plex hides behind its cloud model

• Remote access via Plex Relay: every stream goes through plex.tv servers, even if your VPS is the only one storing the files. Plex sees your playback metadata.
• Plex Pass required for key features: offline sync, full multi-user access, Live TV, and remote access without port forwarding are reserved for paying subscribers.
• Centralized authentication: your clients' logins go through Plex servers. A plex.tv outage locks you out of your own files.
• Uncontrolled updates: Plex can deploy server-side changes (relay, authentication) without you being able to audit or block them.
• Active telemetry by default: playback, searches, and viewing habits are sent to the vendor unless manually disabled in each client.

Prerequisites before starting the migration

Plex → Jellyfin migration: step-by-step

1. 01

   Create a VPS snapshot

   First: snapshot create plex-before-migration from your provider's panel (or equivalent API). This step is your safety net; do not skip it.

2. 02

   Stop Plex cleanly

   systemctl stop plexmediaserver
   systemctl disable plexmediaserver

   Wait for the shutdown confirmation before continuing. Plex must no longer be listening on port 32400.

3. 03

   Install Jellyfin via Docker Compose

   # /opt/jellyfin/docker-compose.yml
   services:
     jellyfin:
       image: jellyfin/jellyfin:latest
       container_name: jellyfin
       restart: unless-stopped
       ports:
         - "8096:8096"
       volumes:
         - /opt/jellyfin/config:/config
         - /opt/jellyfin/cache:/cache
         - /data/media:/media:ro
       environment:
         - JELLYFIN_PublishedServerUrl=https://jellyfin.your-domain.com

   Replace /data/media with the exact path to your media files. The volume is mounted read-only (:ro) as a precaution.

4. 04

   Start Jellyfin and run the setup wizard

   cd /opt/jellyfin && docker compose up -d

   Access http://VPS-IP:8096 for the web wizard. Create the admin account, then add your libraries pointing to /media/films, /media/series, etc.

5. 05

   Scan libraries and verify metadata

   Jellyfin uses The Movie Database (TMDB) and TheTVDB by default. The first full scan takes between 5 and 30 minutes depending on library size. Verify that covers, synopses, and ratings display correctly. If a title is not automatically recognized, use the Identify function to force the match.

6. 06

   Configure Jellyfin clients

   Official Jellyfin apps are available on Android, iOS, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, and browsers. They are free and open source. Point each client to your server's internal or public URL — no third-party authentication required.

7. 07

   Verify transcoding and subtitles

   In Dashboard > Playback, enable hardware transcoding if your VPS has a GPU (Intel Quick Sync, NVIDIA NVENC). Test an H.265 file from a mobile client to validate that software transcoding works as fallback. Also verify that SRT and ASS/SSA subtitles display correctly.

8. 08

   Remove Plex

   apt remove plexmediaserver --purge
   rm -rf /var/lib/plexmediaserver

   Only remove the old installation after validating Jellyfin on at least one client for 48 hours.

Music migration: Plex → Navidrome

1. 09

   Check folder structure

   Navidrome expects an Artist/Album/Track.mp3 hierarchy. If your files are already organized this way (which Plex also requires), no reorganization is needed. Check for special characters in folder names (/, :, ?).

2. 10

   Audit ID3 tags

   find /data/music -name '*.mp3' | head -20 | xargs id3v2 -l

   Fields TPE1 (artist), TALB (album), and TIT2 (title) must be filled in. A file without these three tags will be imported but with no displayable metadata. The beets tool can fix missing tags in bulk via its MusicBrainz database.

3. 11

   Deploy Navidrome via Docker Compose

   # /opt/navidrome/docker-compose.yml
   services:
     navidrome:
       image: deluan/navidrome:latest
       container_name: navidrome
       restart: unless-stopped
       ports:
         - "4533:4533"
       volumes:
         - /opt/navidrome/data:/data
         - /data/music:/music:ro
       environment:
         - ND_SCANSCHEDULE=1h
         - ND_LOGLEVEL=info
         - ND_BASEURL=

   Start with docker compose up -d then access http://IP:4533 to create the first account.

4. 12

   Migrate Plex playlists

   Plex does not natively export playlists in M3U format from the interface. Use the plexapi Python tool to export: python3 -m plexapi.playlist export --token YOUR_TOKEN --output /data/music/playlists/. The generated M3U files are automatically imported by Navidrome if paths are relative to the /music volume.

Plex vs Jellyfin vs Navidrome comparison

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Nginx reverse proxy configuration for Jellyfin

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/jellyfin
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name jellyfin.your-domain.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name jellyfin.your-domain.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/jellyfin.your-domain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/jellyfin.your-domain.com/privkey.pem;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8096;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";

        proxy_buffering off;
        proxy_read_timeout 3600;
    }
}

Troubleshooting: the 3 most common migration errors

• Library empty after first scan: verify that the Docker-mounted path exactly matches the directory containing your files. docker exec jellyfin ls /media should list your folders. If the volume is empty, fix the mapping in docker-compose.yml and restart the container.
• Transcoding fails with ffmpeg error: Jellyfin ships its own version of ffmpeg. If the container has no GPU access, disable hardware transcoding in Dashboard > Playback and switch to software transcoding. On a VPS without a GPU, this is the normal configuration.
• iOS/Android clients cannot find the server: make sure the firewall allows port 443 from outside (ufw allow 443), your DNS points to the VPS IP, and the TLS certificate is valid. Test with curl -I https://jellyfin.your-domain.com/health from your local machine.

Conclusion