Hey Team. Been using Plex for a VERY long time on my QNAP TS-453A without a single hiccup. If I did I would simply stop Plex and restart and all would be good.
However after a recent NAS crash, and my obligatory stop Plex, start Plex unfortunately I can’t connect to the server with ANYTHING. I went further and completely uninstalled Plex and manually re-installed it and still nothing,
Checked my firewalls in both Ubiquiti and QNAP itself but port 32400 is allowed without discrimination on both.
So assuming even though QNAP show the app as started it may not be started properly?
Here’s the logs - I used Windows zip after making the folder a share because QNAP was bitching about permissions even though my user is an admin. Let me know if they’re OK or what else you need and thanks so much for your fast response!
I just had it shut down for a week because it was not working.
I JUST started it again
QTS THINKS its running
But in my \QNAP\PlexData\Plex Media Server folder only ONE log seems to get a new timestamp:
Startup Crash
and it contains:
Jul 23, 2025 12:39:45: Failed to initialize logging: Error parsing file at “/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/Library/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml”
and nothing else.
@ChuckPa sorry just tagging you so you get notified
Sorry to reply to my own post. Deleted that file and PMS started! Had to rebuild library but can see stuff directly through browser. None of my external clients show the server though. Do I just need to be patient?
All good mate. I’m making fantastic headway and using local and plex.tv and using the admin acccount I can do and see everything. Nearly there. This means remote access is also working. I can access the primary account via devices with the QNAP server showing
However.
None of my managed users can see my plex server. Not even locally :(. I went back into a few users and made sure I re-gave them access to the QNAP Plex folders. None of them see the QNAP server.
So I thought to create a new test user and set up from scratch. Same
Obviously this all works fine for the primary account, just not the managed users.
Did something not reset properly when I removed the server from my account and it was reclaimed when I got this one going? Your thoughts on anything I’m missing maybe?
Thanks for guiding me in the right direction to get back to being this far. The managed users is the final boss problem I can leave you alone after that,
Wow all this because the preferences file corrupted itself. What a pain!
You need to enable Remote Access so the server becomes “Published”
(visible to others)
After Remote Access is enabled & working,
Each person must RESTART the app (or the set-top box if that’s easier) so the Plex app fetches the new ID number from Plex.tv
If they previously pinned library sections, they’ll need to pin them again.
They will likely (dependent on app) need to REMOVE the server from the app.
(each is a bit different but most will go away after everything unpinned and app restarted)
Remote access was enabled - but it did have the red writing, so I disabled it, then re-enabled it manually filling in the public port (same as default 32400), but when I re-enabled it I did get the green tick so surely that must be OK now.
Went back to my managed users in Plex Home, they’d now lost their library settings, so I tried to add them again but now I get “There was an unexpected error” when I hit “Save Changes”. If I create a test user and give them access to the library the error is “Failed to create home user.” but it actually DOES create the user but without libraries again.
I actually don’t really use TRUE remote access a lot my family just has managed users that access on various devices when they are home.
But that basic functionality now seems to be broken somewhat. Something somehow still seems to not like adding the server and it’s shares to individual users.
The primary user is still fine. I can use that locally, from the lan, or even remotely using plex.tv.
So frustrating I feel I’m nearly there but something is still causing issues.
As a precaution, I ran the QNAP installed package to make sure I had the latest version. Went back to my users, gave them access (no errors this time) and all devices can now see all libraries.
Being overly cautious, I’ve taken a backup copy of the new preferences.xml file. No idea if I’ll ever need it but hey can’t hurt right?
Everything currently seems to be working again as it should.
Big thank you to you and the team for fixing the bug. I appreaciate you guys. All the best.
