u/tarynm25

I’m pretty new to Jellyfin and have been testing it over the last couple of weeks.

Right now I’m running the server on my Windows gaming laptop with an external HDD attached, and it’s been working surprisingly well. The issue is that I travel a bit and I don’t really want my gaming/editing laptop running 24/7 just to host Jellyfin.

My plan was to hopefully move the server over to an older spare Windows laptop that would stay at home permanently with the external hard drive connected, then use something like Tailscale/VPN for remote access while travelling.

Where I’m getting confused is how the workflow would work once the server is moved.

So my questions are:
- How do I properly “move” the server from my gaming laptop to the spare laptop?

- If the spare laptop becomes the actual Jellyfin server, can I still manage/edit the server from my gaming laptop either remotely or while on the same home network?

- Can I upload movies/TV shows over the network directly to the external HDD attached to the spare laptop? Or would I have to physically move the hard drive back and forth between machines when adding content?

I’ve tried searching the sub for people with similar questions but haven’t had much luck, so any advice or examples of how people normally structure this kind of setup would be greatly appreciated!