Media server stuck on "Starting"?

annoying1 · June 13, 2018, 8:15am

@sa2000 said:

@annoying1 said:

That is the plex client app.

Would need to see the Plex Media Server logs.

What happens when you launch Plex Media Server ? Does it show up in Tools / Activity Monitor ?
Look for the logs - see this support article for the location of the logs folder

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/
See section headed Manually Find Log Files
Please copy out and zip and attach

look please

Thank you for the server logs
You appear to have multiple plex.tv accounts - you need to make sure that the plex client apps eg Plex Media Player or Plex Web are signed in to the same plex.tv account that the server is signed into

The server is signed in to annoying1899 - is this the account the Plex Media Player and Plex Web signed into?

If you wish to change the account the server uses, you need to sign into plex.tv/web to the same account and then select settings / server / general and sign the server out. Then sign plex web out. and close browser. Then sign in to plex.tv with the account you want to use and claim the server for that account

I see you are trying different versions of the server - please stick to the latest - available from https://plex.tv/downloads

Dear,

I use one account in Plex web and Plex media server. I have download latest version - but there are not changes.
and I can’t select settings / server / general and sign the server out. - I haven’t this in setting.. =(
please look.

sa2000 · June 13, 2018, 1:31pm

Thanks

Was Plex Media Server app showing in Activity Monitor ? I could only see Plex Media Player

Can you make sure it is running and showing.

If it is running, try to sign out and in with Plex Media Player and then click on the Home icon top left and if there is still a problem, get both the screenshot and note the time and also get Plex Media Player and Plex Media Server logs

See https://support.plex.tv/articles/207338748-plex-media-player-logs/

and separately with the server showing in Activity Monitor (Plex Media Server), open browser on the server and go to this url http://127.0.0.1:32400/web and see what happens?
and then get the logs from the server again

If Plex Media Server is not showing in Activity Monitor, launch it in Terminal and see what we get back

cd /Applications
./Plex\ Media\ Server.app/Contents/MacOS/Plex\ Media\ Server

gasoline13 · June 14, 2018, 4:57am

Hello.
My Plex Media Server is stuck on starting on my iMac since yesterday. I did not run any updates or changed anything on the computer. I already restarted the iMac and installed the PMS again, but it still does not start. Any ideas what to do?
MacOS Sierra 10.12.6
PMS 1.13.2
Thanx a lot.

sa2000 · June 14, 2018, 10:02am

@gasoline13 said:
Hello.
My Plex Media Server is stuck on starting on my iMac since yesterday. I did not run any updates or changed anything on the computer. I already restarted the iMac and installed the PMS again, but it still does not start. Any ideas what to do?
MacOS Sierra 10.12.6
PMS 1.13.2
Thanx a lot.

The logs show a corrupt database

Jun 14, 2018 06:28:56.412 [0x7000056bb000] ERROR - SQLITE3:0x7000056ba590, 11, database corruption at line 62365 of [fc49f556e4]
Jun 14, 2018 06:28:56.412 [0x7000056bb000] ERROR - SQLITE3:0x7000056ba590, 11, statement aborts at 4: [select max(max(metadata_items.changed_at),max(metadata_items.resources_changed_at)) from metadata_items] database disk image is malformed
Jun 14, 2018 06:28:56.414 [0x7000056bb000] ERROR - Database corruption: sqlite3_statement_backend::loadOne: database disk image is malformed
Jun 14, 2018 06:28:56.414 [0x7000056bb000] ERROR - Error: Unable to set up server: sqlite3_statement_backend::loadOne: database disk image is malformed (N4soci10soci_errorE)

The following are your options

Try to repair the database
If the repair does not clear the problem, look for a backup of the database to restore from
If there is no usable backup, the only option that remains is to delete the database and recreate your Plex Media Server setup

I will outline the steps below

The database file is
/Users/frank/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins.library.db

1. Attempt to Repair the corrupt database

The related support article is https://support.plex.tv/articles/201100678-repair-a-corrupt-database/
However, a change needs to be made to these instructions which I am going to give below

Make sure you quit/exit your Plex Media Server so that it is not running. The following commands are run in the Terminal application. When running the commands, you need to escape any spaces in paths. First, simply switch over to the directory containing the database.

cd ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/
or
cd /Users/frank/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/

No need to do the check for corruption step - as we already know it is corrupt

Run the repair in Terminal (includes 2 extra steps needed to be added)

sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db "DROP index 'index_title_sort_naturalsort'"
sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db "DELETE from schema_migrations where version='20180501000000'"
sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db .dump > dump.sql
mv com.plexapp.plugins.library.db com.plexapp.plugins.library.db.original
sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db < dump.sql

Prior to restarting your Plex Media Server, you should also delete or backup and move elsewhere the following two files if they exist alongside the original database:

com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-shm
com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-wal

2. Look for backups to restore from

(only if step 1 is unsuccessful)
See support article https://support.plex.tv/articles/202485658-restore-a-database-backed-up-via-scheduled-tasks/

3. Start with a fresh installation and new database

(only if steps 1 and 2 are unsuccessful)
See support article https://support.plex.tv/articles/201941078-uninstall-plex-media-server/ to remove the existing installation
See support article https://support.plex.tv/articles/200288586-installation/ for a new install

annoying1 · June 14, 2018, 3:16pm

@sa2000 said:
Thanks

Was Plex Media Server app showing in Activity Monitor ? I could only see Plex Media Player

Can you make sure it is running and showing.

If it is running, try to sign out and in with Plex Media Player and then click on the Home icon top left and if there is still a problem, get both the screenshot and note the time and also get Plex Media Player and Plex Media Server logs

See https://support.plex.tv/articles/207338748-plex-media-player-logs/

and separately with the server showing in Activity Monitor (Plex Media Server), open browser on the server and go to this url http://127.0.0.1:32400/web and see what happens?
and then get the logs from the server again

If Plex Media Server is not showing in Activity Monitor, launch it in Terminal and see what we get back
cd /Applications
./Plex\ Media\ Server.app/Contents/MacOS/Plex\ Media\ Server 

dear,

look please

sa2000 · June 14, 2018, 6:58pm

Thanks for the logs

The screenshot of Activity Monitor just shows Plex Media Player running - so Plex Media Server is not running and that would explain the errors on the http://127.0.0.1:32400/web page and on Plex Media Player

The logs show the the last time the Plex Media Server app ran was 11th June 2018 at 20:45 and was shut down 20:55 on the 11th

Logs also show you have been trying different versions - even obsolete unsupported versions that would not work anyway. Please stick to one version - the current and lets get that to work. Going back and forth running obsolete and unsupported versions could compromise the integrity of the Plex Media Server database

Logs show
Jun 07, 2018 22:25:13 Launched Plex Media Server v1.13.0.5023-31d3c0c65 and shut down at 22:44:09

Jun 07, 2018 22:45:16 Launched Plex Media Server v1.13.0.5023-31d3c0c65 and shut down at 22:45:34

Jun 07, 2018 22:45:38 Launched Plex Media Server v1.13.0.5023-31d3c0c65 and shut down at 23:27:51

Jun 07, 2018 23:50:23 Launched Plex Media Server v1.3.4.3285-b46e0eafd and shut down at 23:51:57

Jun 11, 2018 20:36:07 Launched Plex Media Server v1.9.3.4290-9798172d4 and crashed on launch?

Jun 11, 2018 20:36:13 Launched Plex Media Server v1.9.3.4290-9798172d4 and shut dowm 20:41:31

Jun 11, 2018 20:42:35 Launched Plex Media Server v0.9.1.2 and crashed with database error

Jun 11, 2018 20:42:41 Launched Plex Media Server v0.9.1.2 and crashed with database error

Jun 11, 2018 20:42:54 Launched Plex Media Server v0.9.1.2 and crashed with database error

Jun 11, 2018 20:45:08 Launched Plex Media Server (an old version?) and shut down 20:55:32

I do not know what state your database is in now after all this switching of versions

The launch on June 7th at 22:45:38 was the longest you kept going and did not abort it for almost an hour. I cannot see any issue in the logs for this period 22:45:38 to 23:27:51 on 7th June

The logs show that you continued to run Plex Media Player between 11th June and 14th June but there was no supported version of Plex Media Server running. The oldest Plex Media Player log starts at 2018-06-11 21:07:53 - after the shut down of Plex Media Server

I would advise you to stick to the current version of Plex Media Server and best now to start afresh with a new installation as you subjected your database to old and obsolete versions of Plex Media Server

Download the current version - Plex Media Server - version 1.13.2.5154 from https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/

For a fresh install - see
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201941078-uninstall-plex-media-server/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200288586-installation/

gasoline13 · June 15, 2018, 4:35am

@sa2000 said:

@gasoline13 said:
Hello.
My Plex Media Server is stuck on starting on my iMac since yesterday. I did not run any updates or changed anything on the computer. I already restarted the iMac and installed the PMS again, but it still does not start. Any ideas what to do?
MacOS Sierra 10.12.6
PMS 1.13.2
Thanx a lot.

Make sure you quit/exit your Plex Media Server so that it is not running. The following commands are run in the Terminal application. When running the commands, you need to escape any spaces in paths. First, simply switch over to the directory containing the database.

cd ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/
or
cd /Users/frank/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/

Hi.
What exactly do you mean with “When running the commands, you need to escape any spaces in paths.”?
I tried to reach the directory in Terminal, but it is not possible (see screenshot).

sa2000 · June 15, 2018, 11:42am

@gasoline13 said:
Hi.
What exactly do you mean with “When running the commands, you need to escape any spaces in paths.”?
I tried to reach the directory in Terminal, but it is not possible (see screenshot).

Sorry - i should have given exact syntax. If there are spaces they need to be escaped - like this

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Plug-in\ Support/Databases/

Thanks for sending me a copy of the database - There is actually an issue with getting it repaired. Being looked into at the moment

gasoline13 · June 17, 2018, 8:05am

@sa2000 said:

@gasoline13 said:
Hi.
What exactly do you mean with “When running the commands, you need to escape any spaces in paths.”?
I tried to reach the directory in Terminal, but it is not possible (see screenshot).

Sorry - i should have given exact syntax. If there are spaces they need to be escaped - like this

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Plug-in\ Support/Databases/

Thanks for sending me a copy of the database - There is actually an issue with getting it repaired. Being looked into at the moment

Hi sa2000.

Thanx a lot for your great help and support.
I repaired my database like you described in Step 1 and it worked out fine. All is good again.

Thank you very much!!!

Best regards
//gasoline13

annoying1 · June 18, 2018, 4:19pm

I reinstalled Plex but problem not solved.

sa2000 · June 18, 2018, 11:25pm

@annoying1 said:
I reinstalled Plex but problem not solved.

I do need to see logs like before. The last set of logs you provided of Plex Media Player not finding the server showed that the Plex Media Server was not launched for 3 days and of course the Plex Media Player would not connect to the server. There was not a running server to connect to.

I need you to start afresh. Best reboot the computer. Check that Plex Media Server app is running in the Activity Monitor. If it is not running then there is no benefit in trying to connect to it from Plex Media Player. If the Plex Media Server App crashes out on launch and nothing is written to the logs, then try to launch it manually in terminal as i specified before and copy the responses you get back into a text file. Also manually collect the server logs and zip and attach

annoying1 · June 19, 2018, 3:56pm

@sa2000 said:

@annoying1 said:
I reinstalled Plex but problem not solved.

I do need to see logs like before. The last set of logs you provided of Plex Media Player not finding the server showed that the Plex Media Server was not launched for 3 days and of course the Plex Media Player would not connect to the server. There was not a running server to connect to.

I need you to start afresh. Best reboot the computer. Check that Plex Media Server app is running in the Activity Monitor. If it is not running then there is no benefit in trying to connect to it from Plex Media Player. If the Plex Media Server App crashes out on launch and nothing is written to the logs, then try to launch it manually in terminal as i specified before and copy the responses you get back into a text file. Also manually collect the server logs and zip and attach

Dear Friend!

thats great! thanks!

system · December 20, 2019, 8:45pm

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Media server stuck on "Starting"?

1. Attempt to Repair the corrupt database

2. Look for backups to restore from

3. Start with a fresh installation and new database

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