Duplicate servers & can’t use any of them

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.30.0.6406-f3f2fcc0a
Player Version#: n/a

Plex was working well, until I…

Decided to sign up for Plex Pass, and wanted everything to be fresh and clean. So…

Wiped the OS partition.
Installed macOS, (Mojave 10.14.6) totally fresh.
New user. No old data. Everything spanking clean and new at my end.

Videos are on external drives, waiting to be added to new Plex Media Server. But I cannot get that far. (woe is me!)

So Plex Pass has now been canceled until I can get things working. (Thought perhaps that might be part of the problem.)

Downloaded Plex Server (fresh everything!) from Plex website, & installed.
I get to the Server Setup screen. Orange bar above Name. Click Next, and orange box with spinner appears, spinning endlessly. Forever and ever, amen!

So, after waiting and waiting, decide to try other options.
Clicked Plex Server icon in the top mac menu bar.
Selected Preferences.
Selected user, entered pin.
Plex screen appears, but Server settings are unavailable. (Well, duh! It’s not set up yet! Still back there spinning.)
Clicking new server name at left shows green lock icon. Old servers also listed, dimmed and Unavailable.

Can you folks maybe erase everything at your end, so I can try a totally fresh install this time? I would be happy to erase and reinstall macOS. Whatever it takes to get things running, I’ll do.

One concern I have, unrelated to this install, is….
In my prior install (back when it worked) the video could get jittery. Brief pauses in playing. Affecting only video, but quite annoying. CPU well over 100%. So I tried playing with Movist Pro, to compare. With hardware GPU acceleration enabled, the video is almost as smooth as the original blu-ray, and CPU well under 100%. My hope is Plex Pass will enable hardware acceleration (for real, rather than a check box that seems to do nothing) and the videos will be okay.

All my disc videos are MKV, ripped using MAKEMKV. No conversion whatsoever.

Thanks!!

2

The servers associated with you account are in the Authorized Devices settings on the top left. Click on the X to remove any old ones.

3

Could you be a bit more specific? The top left of which screen? Plex preferences? There is nothing on the top left of that screen. You must mean somewhere I’m not looking. Can you perhaps direct me to a screen image showing an example of what you’re referring to?

4

However you normally access your server settings

top right of web browser or Plex for Mac app
Screenshot (742) <–settings

then top left
Screenshot (818)

5

Direct Link: https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/devices/pms

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Removed all authorized devices.
Just to play it extra safe, erased OS again, so we’re starting with a totally 100% clean slate.

Signed on to plex.tv using Safari 14.1.2 with macOS Mojave 10.14.6
Spent several minutes waiting, while “Initializing Plex Media Server” displayed.
result: “Something went wrong” message displayed.

So now I’m right back where I started before asking for any help.
Cannot add libraries or do diddly squat.
“Server settings are unavailable”.

I would like advice from a qualified Plex Employee, as this should not be happening. I’ve spent a week researching and trying every suggestion for this issue. None of them worked, which was why I went to the extreme of wiping the OS and starting totally from scratch. Installing only the OS and Plex. There should be no problems, unless Plex is doing something screwy I don’t know about. Maybe something odd with my Plex account? Does Plex require any sort of special security access within macOS that needs to be set? I’m just guessing here, as my system should be fully functional at this point.

7

I recall reading something around here about this type of problem on Mac with the latest version of Plex but I don’t see it now.

I believe the solution was to roll back to an earlier version

Sorry to bother you @nibbles, but do you think you might be able to help with this?

Edit: This was one post you might want to look over

8

This could be a combination of 2 issues. First, you may need to claim the server first. See New Server Claiming Requirement for MacOS - #5 by MovieFan.Plex for more info.

If that part works but you still can’t get to the settings, then you also have the second issue, which you can read about in the link mentioned in the previous comment. We don’t have a fix for that yet. Revert back and use PMS 1.29.

If you started this process with 1.29, then you should only need to follow the first issue above.

9

I’m happy to share what I’ve learned and to expand on what MovieFan.Plex said.

I have a Mac mini with Mojave 10.14.6, and I know exactly how to install PMS on it., as I’ve done it maybe 20 times in the last few months for testing. Those are step by step instructions, and it won’t be long now :slight_smile:

And in case you like tables (and who doesn’t? we eat on them all the time)

Plex Media Server for Mac – Version Matrix

Mac Version The Last Known Working Versions Status as of 20 Nov 2022
≤ 10.14.6 1.28.2.6151 1.29.0.6244 If you upgrade beyond this version, you get an error, Settings are unavailable.[1] If you fresh install beyond this, Setup will fail at the Friendly Name step.[2]
≥ 11.0.0 current At version 1.29.2 Plex increased security on MacOS with mandatory claiming during Setup where you’re required to authenticate online.[3]

So now that you have the exact steps to uninstall and install, use 1.29.0 with them, and you should be up and running pretty soon.™ It’s not often on a Mac we have to be so pedantic, but here we get an opportunity to learn some tricks.

  1. A longer topic about Setting Unavailable is here. ↩︎

  2. PMS returns HTTP Error 500 when asked for /:/prefs? ↩︎

  3. mostly mandatory according to the topic on the forum, where it explains nearly everyone will install PMS on a Mac and not notice any change. That’s because during install, when you’re directed to a Plex Sign-in screen, you expect to see one. So if 95% of people don’t notice or are unaffected is it worth mentioning? I think that’s why Jesus made footnotes. ↩︎

1 Like
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What wonderful people you are! I can hardly wait to try these great suggestions. (Currently making backups and such. Getting all my ducks lined up.)

But I couldn’t wait any longer to thank you. All of you.

Thank you
Thank you
Thank you all!

P.S. Today signed up for lifetime Plex Pass…$89. Just can’t resist a good deal. (I figured I’d get one eventually anyway.) I have total confidence my Plex will be working soon, better than ever. Now with a new and improved login, just for Plex. YAY!

P.P.S. Yes, I love tables. And databases. I’m retired, but a geek forever.

2 Likes
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Installing 1.28 seems to have fixed everything. YAY!
Is upgrading to 1.29 necessary/recommended?

Still can’t thank you enough!!

1 Like
12

:woohoo:

Isn’t it great? You should be okay at 1.28.2, but in case you’re curious what happened in the next version, the announcement mentioned a few bug fixes. If you think you might run into those, upgrading to it should be easy (quit PMS, drop the new one into /Applications and beer).

Have a great week!

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