Migrating from Debian to Ubuntu

[TallNerd87]

This is interesting. I unfortunately didn't quite understand what the problem was with Debian. I ask because I currently run my JF on an Ubuntu server and would like to go the other way and move to Debian.

When the exams are over here :-)

I did what you are trying to (or have done) just now. I had some issues but was able to get it to work with the following:

Migrating Jellyfin apt install from Ubuntu to Debian:

The paths you need to copy are:
/var/lib/jellyfin
/etc/jellyfin

The issue is there are files that can only be read/copied by the root user, so the root user is needed on both systems to properly copy all of the files.

To enable root SSH (ubuntu/debian, I did this on my old server):
Edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, there should be a line that reads:
PermitRootLogin [some statement, ie prohibit-password or yes]
That line needs to read:
PermitRootLogin yes

For me, there was just a # in front of it commenting out the line, so I removed the #.
Once /etc/ssh/sshd_config is edited and saved, you need to restart the ssh service:
sudo systemctl restart ssh

Now you can ssh into the root user on the old server. The steps I took are:
1. Installed jellyfin on the new server.
2. Stopped the jellyfin service on the new and old servers.
    a. sudo systemctl stop jellyfin
3. Enabled root ssh on the old server.
    a. See above instructions.
4. On the new server, ran the following:
    a. su -
        i. Enter root password
    b. rsync -a --info=progress2 root@[old_server]:/var/lib/jellyfin /var/lib
        i. -a does a bunch of things for rsync, but ultimately it saves the permissions and dates of all files
        ii. --info=progress2 just gives a nice readout of the progress
    c. rsync -a --info=progress2 root@[old_server]:/etc/jellyfin /etc
5. Started the jellyfin service on the new server.
    a. sudo systemctl start jellyfin
6. Access the new jellyfin service via the web interface and all of your users should be there.