Impossible to RUN Plex Media Server on Synology

[danette59]

Hi everyone,

I’m contacting you because it’s been 4 days now that i’m not able to play my videos by PMS.
Nothing on my TV, I checked from a browser and the classic message “Your server isn’t available” (Serveur indisponible).

On my NAS (Synology) I checked in the Package Center to check the PMS package and it’s not running.

And the issue is the next : every time i tried to click on “RUN”, i have the same message “Failed to run the package service”.

I tried to uninstall PMS from my NAS and install again but even if the installation run correctly I have the same “failed to run the package service” at the end.

I cheked all autorisations to be sure and it seems to be fine with me.

Please, can someone help me ? Thanks a lot.

PMS version : 1.16.1.1291-158e5b199
Synology : DS218+
Current DSM version : DSM 6.2.2-24922 Update 2

[ChuckPa]

Please check:

1. Control Panel - Shared Folders - EDIT the Plex share - Permissions - User Plex has R/W to the Plex share
2. If yes, Add your username to that list (if not already present)
3. FileStation -> Library … Stop when you see “Logs”
4. Right-click Logs and Compress to Logs.zip
5. Download that file and attach here.
6. Also look at the DSM log (upper right corner). I report errors there.

[danette59]

Hi @ChuckPa, thanks for your response.

For the permissions, User Plex has R/W and mine too.

For the logs, here there are :
Logs.zip (3.6 MB)
DSM log.zip (22.8 KB)

Thanks

[ChuckPa]

That is strange. There are no errors.

I see a normal shutdown of PMS in the Plex logs and nothing in the DSM logs.

Let’s try this:

1. Uninstall the package (your data is safe)
2. Reinstall the package (do not auto-start after installation)
3. Restart DSM
4. Start Plex.

[danette59]

@ChuckPa where can i block the ‘auto-start’ after installation please ? It doesn’t ask me anything.

For information, i will try to reinstall from the Plex package that i found in the Package Center from Synology (not from a manual install). Ok for you ?

[ChuckPa]

When you install a package, DSM presents you with the option to “Start after Installation”.
Uncheck that box.

As always, to prevent any package from starting at DSM restart, simply “stop” the package.

[danette59]

@ChuckPa i tried your thing.
I installed manually a package that i found on PMS download (PlexMediaServer-1.16.1.1291-158e5b199-x86_64) and i unchecked for the auto-start, then restart et run … still the same message.

[ChuckPa]

To avoid reinstalling DSM, let’s see what is wrong

Control Panel - Shared Folders - Terminal & SNMP - Enable SSH
Control Panel - Users - make certain the admin user is Enabled and you know the password to it.

Using Putty or SSH, Connect to the Synology as user admin and sign in

Now type the following and Copy/Paste the output back here.

sudo -su root
cd "/var/packages/Plex Media Server/scripts"
./start-stop-status start

[danette59]

Hi @ChuckPa

I tried my best to make it work (not a professional ^^).

I shared it with a friend at work (IT job) and he was surprised by this.
We tried something ‘easy’ : change the name of the plex user on the NAS, it was ‘Plex’ and we modified it to “plex”.

And now, everything is working fine …

But it’s still strange, i don’t really understand why i’ve got this issue and i hope it won’t back again…

Ps : the package in the package center, it’s still indicated like “not launch” because i’ve still the button “RUN”. Strange …

[ChuckPa]

back up a moment please.

• It has always been user plex. The share is “Plex” but the user is “plex”. Look at postinst and you will see how I create it and the environment I require

• Build 1291 was flawed. Please install 1297 or higher.

most important.

get up to current

[Rhubarb_home]

Xpenology equiv. DS3615xs has been running Plex successfully for a couple of years. It was running v1.16.1.1291 (downloaded 1 July). Attempted to update to v 1.16.2.1297; update failed - maybe I didn’t stop the application first).
Package Centre now only shows Plex Media Server [Installing…] never completes and no option to uninstall.
This has been going on now for about 4 days. Anyone able to give instructions on how to kill the current job and completely remove from my system to enable a fresh install?

[ChuckPa]

What is an XPEnology equiv > or do you mean you’re trying to install on XPE?
There is Synology (OEM Hardware) and there is XPEnology (their public version for COTS hardware)

Which DSM version is this running on?

It is possible (and allowed) to remove the package and the Plex user after uninstalling but would first like to determine best course of action.

[Rhubarb_home]

Hi ChuckPA, it says it’s a Synology DS3615xs using Xpenology’s loader and running DSM 6.2.2-24922 Update 2. System is usually very stable and has been running Plex Media Server successfully until the recent updates. At the moment, I’m trying to completely kill the install process; remove PMS completely, then do a reinstall.
System has an Intel Xeon E3-1241 V3 Quad core processor in a Supermicro motherboard (X10SL7-F) with 16GB ECC RAM and 10x8TB Disks in RAID 6 config.

[Rhubarb_home]

I’m currently SSH into the system with full sudo -i privileges; just not sure about identifying the running install process, how to kill it, and remove the software from the system.

[ChuckPa]

the scripts are in “/var/packages/Plex Media Server/scripts”

the one script you want is start-stop-status

It has the 3 expected functions:

Start, Stop, and return current status (running or not)

./start-stop-status status

As for 1297, get rid of it. We just pushed (hotfix) 1.16.2.1321 to public. Let’s work with that through the normal gui.

If you cannot get an install out of it, you may have to do a DSM reset because the SynoPackage DB itself is munged (it happens).

[Rhubarb_home]

Thanks for reply. While waiting for your reply, I actually told system to shutdown. Then restarted. Plex was uninstalled. I did a manual install of 1.16.3.1402 and then Package Center offered me to Open PMS. It opened and is now running OK.
Thanks for your help ChuckPA

[ChuckPa]

Thanks for getting back to me. I got put onto another fire before getting back to you.
Glad you’re running.