Have to claim server daily, usually fails

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: 1.15.3.876
Player Version#: 3.83.1

I am losing remote access to my server and being told I need to claim it multiple times a day. 9 times out of 10, when I attempt to claim the server the icon will spin for a while, and then return to the same message telling me “the server is unclaimed and not secure” without an error message. I have spent maybe 10 hours total over various days at this point attempting to fix this. Occasionally it will actually claim the server and work for about a day, but inevitably it returns to this state.

Things I have done/tried, in no particular order:
-Signing out and back in from both the server and my account.
-Confirming that all my servers and players are the most recent version.
-Uninstalling and reinstalling Plex Media Server.
-Purging all caches and files.
-Setting up port forwarding on my router.
-Calling my ISP to confirm that my modem is in bridge modem and that I don’t have a double NAT issue.

I’ve read every support article I could find here on Plex’s site, and online. Happy to provide logs if helpful, but I’m about ready to give up at this point.

Thanks for any help.

2

Did you try to create a new Preferences.xml file? Just move the old one and restart plex, it will generate a new one. Then claim it again. After check that only the new server is listed as a server in the device tab

3

I had tried that before and forgot to list it, but I tried again. Same behavior, PMS still boots if launched locally, but tells me the server is unclaimed and won’t let me claim it.

4

In player settings add Manual server LAN IP address and port, just a guess

5
  1. Stop Plex
  2. sudo chown -R plex:plex /var/lib/plexmediaserver
  3. Start Plex

most daily claiming problems are because something in /var/lib/plexmediaserver isn’t owned by user plex:plex. The above command fixes that

6

I stopped Plex and then tried running that command, only to find out that’s not where Plex is installed on my machine. Instead, I had to run:
sudo chown -R plex:plex /var/snap/plexmediaserver

I tried launching Plex after that, only to encounter the same behavior.

I’m not sure why Plex isn’t in the directory you specified, I haven’t moved it and that’s where Ubuntu installed it to automatically. If it matters, I’m on Ubuntu LTS 18.04, Bionic Beaver.

7

Your log files will be of help at this point. See what it does’t like.

Settings - Troubleshooting - Download Logs

Attach the ZIP file it gives you

8

For some reason since yesterday I kept getting an error message that server settings weren’t accessible. I deleted Plex and reinstalled. Now I can access them again, but I’m still getting the same behavior, so I’ve attached those logs.

Plex Media Server Logs_2019-04-19_08-14-49.zip (91.2 KB)

9

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.