Moved sparkbox and now unable to restore from backup
Posted by Inter_Cel
Moved my sparkbox to a new mount and I am unable to restore from the backup. TomAI was unable to help me fix this one. [2026-08-09T11:38:25.239Z] [WARN] Restoring from backup: sparkbox-full-20260809192211.tar.gz [2026-08-09T11:38:52.390Z] [ERROR] Restore failed: sparkbox-full-20260809192211.tar.gz Error: Refusing to restore — symlink escapes archive: /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Drivers/imd-a5431fbbff9ce9568f94ae21-linux-x8664/dri/iHDdrvvideo.so at restoreUnlocked (/app/lib/backup.js:1646:19) at async AsyncMutex.runExclusive (/app/lib/backup.js:59:14) at async /app/server.js:5753:20 SparkBox AI replied: Okay, that's a real one — not something you did wrong. That's a safety check in the restore code doing exactly what it's supposed to (block a symlink that points outside the archive, path-traversal style), but it's tripping on a legit file: Plex's own Intel media driver bundle ships symlinks like that for VAAPI/hardware transcoding, and it's getting flagged as unsafe. This isn't a config fix I can hand you — it's the restore validator being overly strict against Plex's own driver folder structure. That needs a patch, not a workaround from your end. A couple of options while that gets looked at: 1. If you don't need Plex's HW transcode drivers restored specifically, you could try extracting the tarball manually and stripping that one symlink path out before restoring — but manual archive surgery is risky and I don't want to walk you into corrupting the rest of your config. I'd rather not have you hand-edit a full backup arch …(reply truncated — full chat sent to Tom)
1 replies
Chris wrote:
You didn't do anything wrong here — that error is a safety check in the restore process, and it's misfiring on a file it shouldn't. Plex bundles its own hardware-transcoding driver as a shortcut-style file, and the restore code is mistaking that shortcut for something unsafe, so it blocks the whole backup because of it. There's nothing on your end to fix — this needs a change to the restore code itself, so I've flagged it to Tom with your exact error. Sorry it's not a fix you can apply right now.