Lost connection to server and unable to recover or claim it

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Server Version#: 1.30.0.6442-5070ad484

I’ve had a server hosted on a ts-433 QNAP nas thats worked fine for months. Last few days I’ve had some friends complain that things keep buffering or not loading properly. I did notice that the drive the Plex server was installed on was basically full, so this afternoon I moved some files off and also tried to migrate the plex app on the nas to a different drive that had plenty of room.

Since then, I have been entirely unable to connect to my server, when I open Plex it says the server is “currently unavailable” and under the settings menu it says it “is unreachable”

I have tried:

  • shifting the plex app back to the original drive
  • Restarting the NAS, stopping the plex app then restarting the nas and starting the plex app again
  • updating the plex app
  • changing account password and force sign out on all devices, then signing back in
  • Uninstalling and reinstalling plex app
  • Uninstalling the new version (1.40.5.8921-836b34c27), and reinstalling the old version (1.30.0.6442-5070ad484)
  • Updating the NAS
  • various things to try and “claim” the server

nothing is working. When I now try to install and launch the app from within the qnap system, it seems to be under the impression there is no server associated with my account and starts me through the process of setting one up. If I try to claim a server, it thinks I want the new one its just made, and not my old server with all my stuff. I have no idea what else i can do, I just want my server back. Please help

2

Once you installed 1.40 you are limited on how far you can roll back. git repo of past Plex urls : GitHub - axlecrusher/plex_download_urls: Archive of Plex mediaserver download URLs

PLEASE NOTE: This version makes changes to the database which will make it compatible only with server versions 1.31.2 or higher (released March 14). You will not be able to use your database on Plex Media Server versions lower than this after this update.

In order to roll back a database to an older version than 1.31.2 you would first need to downgrade to 1.31.2 (up to 1.32.8) and then downgrade from that version afterwards.

We have bumped the server version right up to 1.40.x to signal this change.

3

When PMS is in the process of upgrading the database, it will not respond to anything

At most, http://LAN.IP.ADDR.QNAP:32400/web will return a 503 maintenance message.

If you see this, you must wait.

4

it can connect at that address fine, but it tries to make a brand new server rather than connect to my old one

5

I’m not attached to any server version, I only tried to go back to 1.30 because I hoped restoring the exact same server version as before might fix it. I’ve upgraded again to 1.40, but I still have no access to my old server

6

Did you Uninstall the Plex package from the QNAP when you changed version or did you simply install the different version?

  • If you installed the different version, QNAP will allow you to downgrade without issue.

  • If you uninstalled Plex then installed the different version (like Synology requires) then your old server was deleted by QNAP. QNAP deletes all app data during uninstall. There’s nothing we can do about it.

  • If you are seeing it want to create a new server AND you still see your movie library sections being presented in the Wizard, THEN it’s found the old server and will create a new server instance while using that existing server data.

QNAP is the only vendor I know of which is destructive in this manner.

7

I originally installed the 1.40 version over the 1.30 one, so did not uninstall and just updated directly. After an hour where I still could not access the server, I did uninstall the plex app from qnap and reinstall it.

When loading into plex through qnap, the new server has zero data for libraries, it’s as if I’ve never connected to plex before.

Since I have uninstalled and reinstalled, does that really mean qnap has wiped all server data? Is there no way to get any of it back?

8

Starting here the database files were probably corrupt and would have needed to be repaired or restored. Check the default location and where you moved it to.

You can search for these files to see if you have any with a date appended to use as a backup.

com.plexapp.plugins.library.db
com.plexapp.plugins.library.blobs.db

QNAP

The exact data directory location can vary from system to system. To access it, connect to the Console of QNAP via SSH and then enter:

getcfg -f /etc/config/qpkg.conf PlexMediaServer Install_path

From the result given to you, then add /Library/Plex Media Server to the end of it. You might end up with a path like the following (this is just an example!):

/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/Library/Plex Media Server

Related Page: Forums: QNAP FAQ

9

Here’s where the problem originated:

  1. Upgrading to 1.40 requires a major database overhaul.
  2. PMS will not respond while it’s updating the DB. (1-2-3-4 hours is not uncommon)
  3. Stopping and restarting – makes it start over from the beginning

FATAL ERROR: Uninstalling PMS.

  1. QNAP App Center forcibly deletes all application data (your server) during uninstall. QNAP is the only major vendor to do this.

  2. After this point, you will be required to start over

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

  4. REMOVE the QNAP server from the list

  5. Now setup a new server

10

Thank you for the information. I have an expansion enclosure attached to my NAS, once a week it backs up everything from the NAS. Is there anyway a backup would have a copy of the application data I could use to restore the server? QNAP doesn’t display any information about the appdata so I’m not sure if it would be included in the backup

11

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