I picked this up on Reddit, see if it helps anyone trying to reconnect to the server
[AI fantasy deleted by moderator, in order to prevent it from getting picked up by the next AI scraper]
The above sounds like AI fantasy. On Windows you will not find a file named .claimurl
At least not when using Plex.
I went to that directory on my working system and there is a file name there that starts with a period on Win 11. The name is .LocalAdminToken
Just because it has a Unix like name format is silly, those names are perfectly valid on a Windows system.
Yes, file names starting with a period can exist on Windows. But that still doesn’t mean that there is a file named .claimurl in there.
Which is what you wrote above what users should open.
It doesn’t work like that on Windows.
The file name is actually Setup Plex.html and can be directly opened with your locally installed web browser.
Absolutely adore the Plex employee and moderator attitude, as in “yes of COURSE you morons have to reclaim your server. Duh.”
As if this entire disaster wasn’t due to yet another company having garbage security practices and getting HACKED, forcing us to reset our passwords, which then has a (obviously KNOWN to Plex) side effect of detaching the server from the account. But, being apologetic, proactive and informative is for lesser beings, right?
What a total joke. These forums are already trash as nothing gets resolved, and now there’s attitude from the f*cking STAFF on this, as if you clowns didn’t create this whole mess yourselves? Get stuffed.
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Thank you for the tip about claiming the server; mine resolved after some time, seemingly on its own. I was experiencing the same with a headless NAS installation. Ran the latest server update to try to resolve it, no luck. The URL kept coming back that it couldn’t connect. I let it go unresolved overnight with intention to put a monitor and keyboard on the NAS this morning to determine if that made a difference. Same symptoms this morning, however, now I was able to see it in the Windows plex app as an unclaimed server and was able to claim it there successfully. Maybe this helps others….
Here’s my outstanding question though. Seemingly this was due to the plex server being authenticated with single-signon with another service. Were any of those tokens compromised that we need to be concerned about our single-signin accounts elsewhere similar to other recent reports elsewhere with OAuth token breaches?
No, that is not the case.
But you also have a regular password on your plex account. That one is possibly affected, hence it was a good decision to change it.
No.
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What a piece of crap! After password reset the server is no longer working? I had to go to a CMD and Regedit to get it working again. And now external devices can no longer connect because they cannot connect securely anymore to the server
OMG, I am stuck with Plex for now because of the license I bought. 1 star review
Just let it sit for a few hours. A new password and a reclaimed server mean a new certificate. An new certificate means a new subdomain. A new subdomain means that the DNS resolver of both your provider and your local network need to refresh their DNS caches etc. All of this might not happen instantaneous.
After a few hours, stop and reboot your server.
Do the same with your client devices.
Short version, run:
ssh -L 8888:127.0.0.1:32400 username@ip.address.of.server on your local system.
Browse to 127.0.0.1:8888/web on your local browser.
Follow the instructions in the linked article. Don’t worry that the initial thread is about FreeBSD. The same applies to Linux. If you have questions, ask.
So I have the strange behavior that I CAN connect to my plex-server and play media from my windows based clients, but my Android clients (both phones as Google TV) show either an empty library or a ‘server is off-line’ message.
What could be the solution for this?
I was having the same issue. My setup is Netgear RNxxx NAS running the latest versions of Plex Server / Plex Media Player. I had removed the entries in the Preferences.XML file and restarted.
When I navigated to http://xxx:32400/web/. login as per normal, there is no mention of claiming my server and I am still getting this and there are no server settings.
My fix ended up being to make sure the processes are all stopped first. You will note there is no detail on how to do this in the Plex support pages, just assumed knowledge.
systemctl stop fvapp-plexmediaserver-annapurna.service
edit Preferences.XML and remove those entries.
systemctl start fvapp-plexmediaserver-annapurna.service
If any services are still running, Preferences.xml is regenerating from somewhere without your changes.
Now I have the claim option, and have been able to resolve the issue.
I, too, lost my library after changing password based on recent email from PLEX. The “claim code” business is too complicated and not user-friendly in the least. So how can I simply start at ground zero and rebuild my library as if I were a new user? I see no way to “add library”. So I want to start over again…but there seems no way to do that either. I’ve been with PLEX almost as long as there has been PLEX. I have a lifetime account. I need help but PLEX’s idea of help is to let the blind lead the blind. Come on, guys. This is your problem you need to do a favor to the customers.
My plex server runs as an “app” on a headless Truenas Scale 24.10 server.
I needed to connect a lot of dots to get this working again.
Here are my notes in the hopes that it helps someone else in a similar position:
After getting locked out of plex because of changing my password:
I tried https://support.plex.tv/articles/account-requires-password-reset/#toc-2
I opened a shell into the app through the truenas gui
But claimit didn’t run (fatal error)
I found the Preferences.xml file in /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/
I backed up the existing version to a new name (cp Preferences.xml Preferences.xml.beforelockout)
NOTE: From the server (not the container) run midclt call app.stop megaplex because if plex is running it didn’t work for me. I expect I need the app/container running but not the plex server for the Preferences.xml edits to work as suggested.
Back inside the container shell I used apt update && apt install -y vim (because nano ctrl+ commands didn’t work inside the browser app shell and I’m mildly conversant in vi)
Inside vim (vim Preferences.xml) I search for these and deleted them:
PlexOnlineHome="<somestuff>"
PlexOnlineMail="<somestuff>"
PlexOnlineToken="<somestuff>"
PlexOnlineUsername="<somestuff>"
Then I had to modify the sshd config (of the Truenas server not the container). I ssh to the server and in /etc/ssh/sshd_config changed ‘AllowTcpForwarding no’ to ‘AllowTcpForwarding yes’ then ‘systemctl rstart sshd’
Next from my windows desktop powershell I ran ssh -L 8888:127.0.0.1:32400 truenas_admin@[ip address of my server]
And on the windows browser opened http://127.0.0.1:8888/web/ and was finally able to claim the server.
To the collective eye rolling of my family who blamed me for tinkering with it and disrupting their screen time. Bah humbug! 
