Can't set up plex

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 4.66.1
Player Version#:

Ok, I have had no end of problems setting this up. I have created several accounts because things weren’t working. I have since deleted all accounts except this one. I uninstalled plex, went through my registry and removed all plex items that were not removed with uninstall. Rebooted my system, and then reinstalled plex, using this new account, and a fresh copy of the media server.

When I start it up, I do not get the “manage libraries” section in the settings so I can not make a new library. I am guessing that my personal server info is being stored on Plex’s servers, perhaps using my computers IP address, which is why when ever I try to do anything, it’s bringing up my library from my original account and not letting me create a new server and library.

So I would like to know if someone could go in and delete my ip address and server info so I can start this over and hopefully get Plex to work.

I figured deleting my old accounts would accomplish this, but apparently not. I can not think of any other reason other than it being tied to my computers IP address.

Can someone please help me get this thing running again? I would like to have my movie server back and running on my livingroom TV again.

Thank you for any help.

2

Make sure to access your new server through its local IP address in order to complete the setup. This will let you name your server, link it to your Plex account and optionally start creating your libraries (though you can do that later too). Once you finished the setup and linked the server to your account you can also access it from other Plex apps.

  • If you’re on the same machine that hosts your new Plex Media Server:
    Open http://127.0.0.1:32400/web in your browser

  • If you’re on a different machine inside the same home network:
    Open http://[local server IP address]:32400/web

If your old server is still linked to your account and you want it to be gone, delete its record from the list of authorized devices. Though this is unrelated from setting up your new server.
https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/devices/pms

3

Ok, first let me apologize in advance for my very limited knowledge on tech issues. I’m in my mid 50’s so learning new things is a challenge, and you’re probably going to find my quite annoying. If you do, have no fear, I do not take offense, and if I had to deal with me, I’d probably punch me in less than 5 minutes. And this is still me, in my last attempt last night, I went and deleted all my accounts, made this brand new account, and turned off all other computers in my house, removing them from my w-fi network. So the movie server computer is the only one running and connected to the internet right now.

Now, I followed everything you said step by step. I installed the clean copy of Plex media server. It is installed on the same machine my movie and tv shows are stored on. And as I said, it’s the only computer on and connected right now.

After it installed, I launched it, and opened it up. It opened in my Microsoft Edge browser, and it opened to
“[ Plex]( http ://127.0.0.1:32400/web/index.html#!/setup/19f17cd87522b3fc7cc960351c0dd4e1ff942f81)”

This gave me a page that said "Not Found We can’t find the page you’re looking for and right under that, a link that says “Go Home”. Clicking that link took me to my home page, which is:

“[ Plex]( http ://127.0.0.1:32400/web/index.html#!/)”

Since Plex is installed on the same machine all my media is on, I stayed there because that’s what you said to do.

On that page, I get the left menu with Home, Live TV, Movies & Shows, Web Shows, podcasts, and music.

When I set up up the very first time, there was a + sign under that, to add my own media, but that is not there now. In the main window, I have all the selections for those categories that are loaded through plex. None of them are media that is located on my system.

If I open settings, I do not have the “Manage Libraries” section on the left side menu to add new media. The only sections I have on that left side menu in settings is:

“gnzsrvr @ gmail.com”

Account
Online media Sources
Authorized Devices
Webhooks
Users & Sharing

Plex Web

General
Player

That is all that there is on that left menu. I don’t have the “Manage libraries” section at all, so I am unable to add new media folders.

Now, you said if my old server is still connected to my account and I want it gone, to delete it’s record from the list of Authorized Devices.

I don’t know if it’s connected or not. As I said, I deleted all 3 of my old accounts, and am using this single brand new accont. But in my Authorized Devices, it only shows 3 instances of Microsoft Edge. Just the blue “e” buttons.

One says

4.66.1 21 minutes ago
Plex Web
Windows

Second says:

4.66.1 22 minutes ago
Plex Web
Windows

Third says:

4.72.0 23 minutes ago
Plex Web
Windows

I don’t see anywhere that mentions anything about authorized devices records, but there are red x’s on the top right corner of each of those 3 where I can remove them. But I have no idea if they are for my current one or my old server.

Is there any way I can just wipe everything out completely and start the whole process from scratch like I had never even installed this before? I think that would make the whole process much easier.

Thanks for all your help and patience so far, and thanks in advance for any help and advice you can continue to provide until my “noobishness” has pushed you to your tolerance limits. :slight_smile:

Very much appreciate your time and assistance.

Conzo

Edit: The URL’s I posted to show what pages opened in plex, I went pack and stuck in a couple random spaces, because they kept displaying as a link, and would not show the text in the URL otherwise.

And I tried the same steps above connecting it to my local IP address, even though I’m not on a machine that does not contain my media files, and I get the exact same results as above.

4

Server Setup

Did you have a server installed on that particular machine before installing your new server?
If so you might have accidentally locked yourself out while changing those accounts. You should be able to fix that by deleting some information from the Windows Registry, following the procedure described in the linked support article (make sure to stop the Plex Media Server app before doing so).

Old server

The old server is linked to one of your old accounts. Therefore it doesn’t show up as an authorized device when you’re signed in with the new one.

5

I followed your instructions. That article you linked said to go to the following key in my registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server

So I went to that registry key. Then it said to delete the following entries from that key:

  • PlexOnlineHome
  • PlexOnlineMail
  • PlexOnlineToken
  • PlexOnlineUsername

I was unable to do that, because those entries were not in the registry key.

So I decided to uninstall plex, then manually delete the plex folder from Programfiles because unistall does not remove it. Then I rebooted my system.

Once my system was back up, I used regedit, and did a search for Plex from the very start of the registry. This found about 3 billion entries, because there are TONS of entries with words like “Duplex”, “Quadplex”, “Complexities”, etc to infinity. Took nearly an hour to sift through the entire registry. But I went through the entire thing, deleting every entry that had anything to do with Plex media Server.

There were a couple entries in:

HKEY_LOCAL Machine\System\Controllset001\Services\bam\state\UserSettings\3941865856-2525692362-3284853253-1001

The entries in here would not let me delete them. No idea why. So after I reached the end of the registry, I rebooted my system, and once back up, I used regedit one more time to go back to that key that would not let me delete the entry to try to delete it again. I had hoped that it just wouldn’t let me delete it because it was in use that first attempt, but it still would not let me delete it. There are actually 3 entries having to do with Plex media Server in that key. none of them could be deleted.

Then I rebooted one more time, and once back up, I reinstalled plex media server.

When I started plex up, it once again went to the page that said it could not find, and I had to click the home button. On the home page the server listed my IP in the URL as 127.0.0.1:32400

And I did not have the button to add my own media.

So I changed the IP to the IP address for my local machine, so that the IP address read:

192.168.1.113:32400

And on THAT home page, I did have the + button to add my own media. But when I clicked on it, it just gave me a page telling me to get Plex media Server (which I already have and was running it on) with the orange button to take me to the download page.

I went ahead and clicked that, to do the repair, and afterwords it required me to restart my computer. Once back up, I went back into plex, and once again it was at the default IP address, with no button to add my own media. So once again I plugged in my machines local IP address, and now I had no button to add my own media there either.

And in all instances, opening the settings page, there was no “Manage Librararies” section on the left side menu.

I have tried everything.

There has GOT to be a way to delete the ENTIRE thing so that there is no trace, and you can start the process over clean, like it has never been installed on this system.

If there is a way to do that, can someone please tell me how?

If there is NO way to do that, can one of the Plex developers tell me why this was not made possible?

Is there any server info from my machine stored on Plex’s server side that may be preventing me from doing a new, clean install?

And if so, can someone there please delete that info so that I can start this process over?

Please, I am completely at a loss and do not know what else to do.

Gonzo

6

127.0.0.1 is a loopback referring to the “localhost” (=this machine).
If Plex can load the web app from the actual IP address but not through the localhost addressing, it sounds like something is a bit fishy about your setup.

Ignoring that for a sec… the behavior your got from using the local IP address is what you get when you access a server that’s (a) already claimed or (b) from outside the same subnet. Is your machine by any chance running all this through some VPN or do you have different network interfaces connecting to different subnets?

To get to the setup wizard you need to access the machine “locally” from within the same subnet and/or using a RFC1918 IP address (“local network”). With your given local IP address, you’re certainly good on the “local network” part.

7

Ok, finally figured it out, and was able to completely wipe out Plex, and reinstall clean, from scratch, Such a total noob move on my part. I never thought to check for hidden files and folders.

I did everything I tried before. Uninstalled Plex, manually deleted the Plex folder left in Programfiles (x86), went into the registry and namually deleted all Plex entries I could find… and when doing that, I suddenly thought about hidden files and folders.

So after I finished with the registry, I took a look inside:

C:\Users<Name>\AppData\Local\

And low and behold, I found the folder: Plex Media Server, which had about 35 or 40k files in it. And wouldn’t you know, when I deleted that folder, and rebooted my system, it allowed me to run the Plex Media Server as if it had never been run on this system before.

I am now back up and running, and now I am working on setting the artwork and sorting order of my 3633 Movies and 66 Television Series.

So thank you for all the help, and all the links and suggestions, without going through all the stuff you were telling me to look at, there’s no telling when or IF i would have even thought to check for that one hidden folder that was stopping my efforts all along.

I think I am going to make a post detailing the steps and the keys I deleted to get this to work, so that anyone else running into a similar problem and wants to delete everything and start fresh from scratch will have an easier time.

Very much appreciated! :slight_smile:

Gonzo

8

Maybe this will save you and them that effort
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201941078-uninstall-plex-media-server/

9

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