Can not access NAS Media server, redirects to app.plex.tv

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.18.5.2309-f5213a238
Player Version#: ?

Synology NAS DS220+

We have savant installed at a clients house with access to plex through a Synology NAS DS220+.
It has worked on and off until a recent service call out there. We were previously able to access the local media server for plex on the NAS, however now we get redirected to the app.plex.tv website with no access to any of the music/files through plex.

Also with this new redirect, you can imagine our savant system also can not see or access the storage of files when trying to access through plex. The savant part is our own issue we will sort out. We just need the plex to be communicating properly because right now something is very wrong.

Any ideas how this can be resolved?
It first started when on the media server page - network - and it said to login. So this was done. After that, it immediately started the redirecting. Any way to unlink this or revert back?

Thank you,
Jesse

2

What is “Savant”?

whatever is happening, Plex’s log files will be needed

If DSM 6, make a ZIP of the Logs directory in the Plex shared folder.
if DSM 7, make a ZIP of the Logs directory in the PlexMediaServer shared folder.

(drill down in whichever you have using FileStation then right-click Logs → Compress to Logs.zip.

Download it and attach here.

FYI: The server account owner should be the one responding here.

3

Hi Chuck, Thank you for the quick reply. See the logs attached.
running: DSM 6.2.4-25556
Logs.zip (3.2 MB)

This all started October 26, 2022 - around 10-12 eastern time.

4

Savant is a premium integration system much like Crestron. I wouldn’t worry about that factor, that one is on us. That was just an additional piece of information I really didn’t need to mention, sorry about that.

5

Thanks for those logs.

  1. I see 6 log files full of it scanning only music. It’s as if
    – The server has a substantial music library
    – Something changed dates/times somewhere on files/directories and caused it to trigger a full music library rescans like this.
Nov 01, 2022 02:03:13.026 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity e9cb9d89-0b70-4b71-8fd6-aa7e00b403ca - completed 39.1% - Scanning Music
Nov 01, 2022 02:03:13.026 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/Cloud Purchases/495984AA4C58E457/04/14/11 (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 02:03:13.026 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/Cloud Purchases/495984AA4C58E457/04/14/11', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.

  1. I do not see any other activity (communicating with Plex.tv, attempts to play anything, etc) which I would expect however that may have rolled off the logs buffer (common when a machine has a lot of music)

  2. I noticed, which isn’t important right now, there is a bunch of junk in the Music shared folder which shouldn’t be there. It looks like other apps store their Settings info in the Music shared folder. This should be addressed at some point.

Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.333 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/GarageBand', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.333 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 6c9d8bb9-e8d6-495f-a329-710deae5c98a - completed 59.4% - Scanning Music
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.333 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Audio Music Apps (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.334 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Audio Music Apps', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.334 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Audio Music Apps/Plug-In Settings (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.334 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Audio Music Apps/Plug-In Settings', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.334 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Audio Music Apps/Plug-In Settings/Alchemy (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.334 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Audio Music Apps/Plug-In Settings/Alchemy', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.335 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Audio Music Apps/Plug-In Settings/Alchemy/Libraries (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.335 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Audio Music Apps/Plug-In Settings/Alchemy/Libraries', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.335 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Audio Music Apps/Plug-In Settings/Alchemy/Libraries/ImportBrowser (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.335 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Audio Music Apps/Plug-In Settings/Alchemy/Libraries/ImportBrowser', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.335 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 6c9d8bb9-e8d6-495f-a329-710deae5c98a - completed 64.4% - Scanning Music
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.335 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Audio Music Apps/Sampler Instruments (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.335 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Audio Music Apps/Sampler Instruments', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.335 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 6c9d8bb9-e8d6-495f-a329-710deae5c98a - completed 69.3% - Scanning Music
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.335 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Audio Music Apps/Databases (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.336 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Audio Music Apps/Databases', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.336 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Audio Music Apps/Databases/Tags (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.340 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Audio Music Apps/Databases/Tags', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.340 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 6c9d8bb9-e8d6-495f-a329-710deae5c98a - completed 74.3% - Scanning Music
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.340 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Audio Music Apps/Custom Icons (parent: yes)
  1. Someone set the periodic library scan interval to a ridiculously low number. Observe here how the music scanner finishes. It calculates just under 20 minutes has elapsed which is apparently longer than the scan interval — so off it goes again.
    This can only be corrected by regaining owner control of the server.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.341 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Amazon Music/Esther Williams', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.341 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 6c9d8bb9-e8d6-495f-a329-710deae5c98a - completed 99.0% - Scanning Music
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.341 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Music Scanner: Idle and left with 3675 media items.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.342 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 6c9d8bb9-e8d6-495f-a329-710deae5c98a - completed 99.0% - Scanning Music
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.342 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Removing 0 media items that were left.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.342 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Removing 0 directories that were left.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.658 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 6c9d8bb9-e8d6-495f-a329-710deae5c98a - completed 100.0% - Scanning Music
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.660 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Refreshing section 4 of type: 8
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Refreshing 0 IDs.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 05fa1c28-cbf5-45a4-a503-c21d3f7540c1 - Processing subscriptions
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f42825a1700] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 6c9d8bb9-e8d6-495f-a329-710deae5c98a.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Grabber: Cleaning up orphaned grabs.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Grabber: Cleaned up 0 decrepit directories in 0.0 sec.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity c15691e1-9665-4089-9bf9-fa62035674c8 - Processing subscriptions
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Subscription: Scheduling subscriptions.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Subscription: Initialized 0 schedulers.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Subscription: Starting with 0 grabs, scheduled 0 active ones preemptively.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Subscription: Scheduled all subscriptions in 0 ms.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity c15691e1-9665-4089-9bf9-fa62035674c8.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Subscription: There are 0 active grabs at the end.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 05fa1c28-cbf5-45a4-a503-c21d3f7540c1.
Nov 01, 2022 06:23:13.875 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Subscription: Refreshed all content in 0 ms.
Nov 01, 2022 06:28:10.721 [0x7f429943d700] DEBUG - Checking if time for scheduled update
Nov 01, 2022 06:33:10.721 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Checking if time for scheduled update
Nov 01, 2022 06:38:10.722 [0x7f4283159700] DEBUG - Checking if time for scheduled update
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.723 [0x7f429943d700] DEBUG - Checking if time for scheduled update
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.723 [0x7f429943d700] INFO - It's been 1197 seconds, so we're starting scheduled library update for section 4 (Music)
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.723 [0x7f429943d700] DEBUG - Library Updater: Requested that section 4 be updated, force=0, deep=0, subdir= iTunes=0
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.723 [0x7f429943d700] DEBUG - Library Updater: Queueing section 4
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.723 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 90262f65-1720-4a3d-ad10-b39d12a73e5c - Scanning
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.723 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Scanning section 4
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.723 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 90262f65-1720-4a3d-ad10-b39d12a73e5c - completed 0.0% - Scanning Music
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.723 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.733 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Asked to cull library timeline before time 1667301790, we're starting with 0 items.
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.733 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Library timeline cull complete with 0 items left.
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.733 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Scanning Music using en(Plex Music) with 3675 current media items and 1 section locations in the database...
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.733 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Performing a scan with 'Plex Music' (language: en virtual: 0).
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.734 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG -   * Scanning /volume1/Music
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.734 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music (parent: no)
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.734 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory '', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.734 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.735 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.735 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Music (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.736 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Music', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.736 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.736 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.736 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 90262f65-1720-4a3d-ad10-b39d12a73e5c - completed 9.9% - Scanning Music
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.736 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /volume1/Music/Music/Music/Previous Libraries.localized (parent: yes)
Nov 01, 2022 06:43:10.737 [0x7f42822b3700] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'Music/Music/Previous Libraries.localized', as nothing has changed; removing 0 medi

  1. Speaking to the admin control, the next step is to verify if PMS can actually communicate with Plex.tv (the server is signed in). I suspect the problem here is that something signed the server out of its account. Now let’s make the server confirm it is or isn’t still attached to an account. I suspect it’s not attached. These next steps will show us the current server state.
    – Restart PMS
    – Allow it to run , completely idle, for 4 minutes.
    – Stop PMS
    – Make a new ZIP file of the Logs directory (repeating what was done above)
    – Again download and attach here.

  2. While in the “Plex Media Server” shared folder,
    – make certain “Preferences.xml” is not zero-length.
    – make certain the length is more than 200-300 bytes. A signed-in server, with music, should have a size of about 1 - 1.5 KBytes

Screenshot from 2022-11-01 13-13-46
Screenshot from 2022-11-01 13-13-46785Ă—344 30.3 KB

6

Sorry I only have time about once a day to look at this, thanks for the patience and assistance so far, you’ve been great. I will need another day to work on getting you the rest of the info, but I have a little bit of an update and another question…

So for whatever reason the savant system locally through the IP address of the NAS is now working and loads in the music where it was not the other day… Not sure why music wasn’t loading in before…

So we have a savant system at their other location…savant aside though, it should be possible to remotely access the NAS from another network I’d assume? Also assuming I’d need to access that network page of the media server which I can not currently get to.

7

Between the Synology’s security and Plex’s security, being remote from the machine is extremely problematic.

  1. With PMS not operating correctly, you can only operate on it locally over the LAN and the owner account credentials. If it were operating correctly, you’d need the owner’s user credentials to effect changes.
  2. DSM isn’t going to grant access to control Plex unless local and then only with proper credentials.

Synology and Plex take security very seriously. DSM 7 was tightened up a great deal beyond DSM 6.

You really are getting to the point where the end customer himself/herself is going to need to get involved.

While you might have “broken” it, only the physical owner can fix it.

The one thing you can do is SSH-tunnel to it (given you were able to get the logs)

8

Understood, we have done all setup and have all account information and can be on site if needed, can also vpn into the local network…
I did realize something, not sure if this is part of the problem or not…
Rewinding a bit…Client did change their plex password, which is where from the beginning of my problem - I went to sign in under the network tab of media server, with new credentials and immediately after that, lost access to the local plex media server.

9

Also - attached here is the logs after performing your previous steps of restarting/stopping and downloading logs.

The “preferences.xml” file is 941 bytes in size.

Logs (1).zip (3.1 MB)

10

I have an idea for you.

  1. If you can VPN to the machine
  2. AND can putty/ssh into the NAS command line.
  3. AND open https://app.plex.tv as the admin/user’s account.

Use this: It’ll do all the Preferences.xml editing for you as well as take the “Plex Claim Token” and reclaim the server.

If the user were on DSM 7, this would be built-in package-install option.

Please look through my readme.md and the example I show with QNAP.
It’ll look the same with Syno except for a minor directory name change

11

Hi Chuck,
Just getting back to this, was very busy leading up to thanksgiving. Speaking of that, hope yours was great.

  • I tried following the instructions but have a few questions before I proceed…
  • I have enabled ssh/telnet and have verified I have active connection via ssh. No problems it seems as far as any sort of connectivity I would have to follow the steps provided.
    *I think my only real question is specifying which folder exactly the usercredentialreset zip needs to be placed into…We have a plex folder, but also have a entirely separate folder labeled “music” which was shared to plex. Im assuming this would go in the plex folder where the preferences.xml file is place?

So my folder options are as follows:
Plex > Library > Application Support > Plex Media Server > (this location has cache/codecs/crash reports/diagnostics/logs/media/metadata/plug-insupport/plug-ins folders as well as plexmediaserver.pid and preferences.xml

Other option:
Music > Music > from there its the folders pertaning to local media music files

12

The recommended location for Synology is in the Plex/PlexMediaServer shared folder (as indicated in the README.md documentation)

Screenshot from 2022-11-29 13-48-04
Screenshot from 2022-11-29 13-48-04595Ă—841 79.4 KB

Unzip / un-tar.gz it using the DSM GUI. (right-click actions)

13

So I asked because there is no “volume1” folder in plex, atleast that I see anywhere…so should I create this folder?

14

You won’t see “volume1” in the GUI.
In the shell, you will.

I place the Plex share on /volume1 when the package installs.

15

Oh silly me, I totally misread the directory hahaha my bad, thank you chuck!

16

Did you get that resolved?

1 Like
18

YES!!! Sorry didn’t finish it until this morning.

There were some other concerns you had mentioned above about the system, should we address them and if so do it here or make a new thread?

Also - if they decide to change their plex password again, is this really the only way to resolve/reclaim NAS with Plex?

Thank you Chuck for your extended support and patience with me on this. You’ve truly been the best.

19

  1. It’s your thread :sunglasses:

  2. “They” ? It’s your account :slight_smile:

  3. DSM 6 currently has this method. DSM 7 has it built in.

While I could put the same mechanisms into DSM 6. I’ not surehow much need there is for DSM 6 and if it outweighs the complexity of the DSM 6 installer natively.

20

You raised some great points :upside_down_face:

I was mainly asking just in case password did have to get changed, if there was an easier way. However, at least we know the solution for reconnecting everything and its really not that bad.

I’d say if the above logs you were looking at, where it constantly searches for music and never catches a break in about 20 minute intervals, if you think this is a concern and might negatively impact the system then we should do something about it. I can double check how many files, i think there were anywheres between 2-5k?

As for extra files and things in location of shared music folder, i remember setting it up we had some issues with transferring files and maintaining metadata and it reached a point where things got a little hectic, until we finally got it, we were afraid to touch anything else. So I’m sure theres extra files and things in there potentially not needed.

These were things we weren’t aware about until you pointed them out. If you think any of them will cause problems I’d say let’s do something about them. Otherwise our main issue has been sorted out.

21

I have been debating if it’s worth the pain (yes, it’s a major overhaul) to backport the multi-language support of the menu system into the DSM 6 package.

I mostly see folks now moving over to DSM 7. If I did get direct feedback , and it was substantial, I’d talk to my management about getting the time to do it.

Music remains unknown to me. I don’t use Plex for Music. I have everything I want on vinyl (one of those types) :slight_smile: