Media server stuck on "Starting"?

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
161

It looks like you’re using an external drive or some other volume for your home directory? This might have something to do with the problem. :confused:

162


hummm.... That's so bad, don't you think this should be reported as a bug... actually I hate to have my stuff in the same volume that I have the OS....

But, actually, Plex finds all the other paths (as far as I understand from the logs)...

Well, I'll create a new user with the "standard" home folder and let you know....

Thanks!!
163

Well I’m not sure if that’s the problem but it seems fairly nonstandard so I thought it was worth a try. If that fixes the problem then I could see it being considered a bug, yes.

164


Well, you where right, I created another account, installed plex and it works.... any way to solve it? can I help any way?

Thank you very much!!

Pablo
165

Maybe there’s a permissions issue with the external drive? I’m not familiar enough with plex to know what exactly is breaking in this setup, but I’m glad we found the problem.



EDIT: Perhaps we could start a new topic to work on a solution as it seems like a separate issue from most users. :confused:

166

OK, here is the new topic… thank you very much!!

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/31144-plex-server-stuck-at-starting-when-home-directory-in-a-different-volume/

167

Thanks… i was figuring out were it all went wrong… this msg saved my allot of time!

168



what if it is your first time installing plex media server mine is still stuck at starting just downlaoded it today (mac mini running, lion ,intel 3gb ram)
169

If it's still stuck on starting, please quit it. Start up the Plex Media Server, wait a couple of minutes (to see if it finishes), and if not, please zip up and attach these logs to a reply here:

Plex Media Server.log
PMS Plugin Logs/com.plexapp.system.log

See the link in my signature for info on finding the logs.
170

i recently downloaded the plex media server and installed it on my macbook air whic is currenlty running osx lion and its been trying to start for the past 2 hours ive tried turning off little snitch restarting doing everything possible but i can’t seem to get it to work help? I also don’t know where to find these log files you guys mentioned as there is no Plex folder in the application support folder.

171

Sorry to hear you’re having problems!



There are two Library folders - one in the root of your system drive, and one in your home folder. The Plex logs are stored in the one in your home folder, but Apple chose to hide this on OS X Lion.



To access it, go to Finder, click on the Go menu, then hold down the option (alt) key. You’ll see a “Library” item magically appear in the menu :slight_smile: Click on it, then go to the “Logs” folder, then “PMS Plugin Logs”. Your com.plexapp.system.log file will be in there. Please upload it here, and we’ll try to help you get up & running.

172


thanks for those great instructions...i sort of did a work around where i installed and used the older version of plex to establish the database and then installed the new one. Before i did this though i followed your instructions and there was no log file named "com.plexapp.system.log" however there were com.plexapp."something i dont remember".

Anyways thanks for the help
173

No problem! I’m glad you got it working. Come back again if you have any other issues.

174

Same problem here with 9.2.7, 9.3.4 and 9.5.2. I’ve tried everything in the thread (re-installing, computer name, etc.) but nothing seems to work.



Including the log file for PMS 9.5.2 running on OSX 10.7.2. Appreciate any help you can offer!

175

The log indicates lots of errors with various Plex system components and plugins. My initial guess would be some odd sort of file/directory permissions going on somewhere inside "~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/". I'd recommend making sure that your logged-in user has read/write permission for that directory and its subdirectories. If you're unfamiliar with doing so:

1. In a Finder window, go to "~/Library/Application Support/"

2. Highlight the "Plex Media Server" folder

3. CMD-i or right-click and "Get Info"

4. In the window that pops up, look at the bottom for "Sharing & Permissions". Ensure that your user account is listed as "Read & Write" - if it isn't, change to that.

5. In the little gear icon at the very bottom, select it and choose "Apply to enclosed items"

If you're unable to change those options, there should be a lock icon around the same area - select that and authenticate with your admin password to be able to make changes.
176


A good suggestion, Chris, but no luck. I even tried giving full permissions to 'staff' and 'everyone'.

Any other ideas?
177

I ran it by one of the devs. He said it looked suspiciously like perhaps this was a system that was upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard (as opposed to a clean Lion install) and has some sort of custom python installation that's interfering with things.

EDIT: Take a look [at this post](http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/17557-media-server-stuck-on-starting/page__view__findpost__p__135564) and the few after that, too.
178


Problem fixed! I copied python 2.5 over from Snow Leopard and that did the trick. Stock python on this machine, so I'm not sure what the problem was. Thanks for all the help!
179

Hi folks! I’m trying to run Plex Media Server 0.9.5.2 on my MBP (I had Plex installed on this beast over a year ago but removed it). As soon as I run it, I just get the perpetual Starting… panel and spinner. It’s 10 minutes and still going. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, no dice. My OS is Snow Leopard (10.6.8), 8 GB RAM.


  1. I tried the issue at the start of this article, but that did not help. (there was no frameworks bundle there)
  2. Is there a log file somewhere I can tail to see what it’s trying to do?
  3. What other common problems are there with Plex where it gets stuck here? I remember trying to install Plex a few months back and it would just crash immediately and they told me to try to delete all of these files, which I did, but it never worked – now at least with PMS it tries to start, but it just never gets anywhere.



    Thoughts?



    Thanks!

    Futureboy
180


First off, go open your OS X "System Preferences", go to Sharing, and check to make sure you have a Computer Name set. If not, set that and then try to start the Plex Media Server again.

If that doesn't work, getting some log files would be useful. Try to start up your Plex Media Server then zip up and attach the following logs to a reply:


Plex Media Server.log<br />
PMS Plugin Logs/com.plexapp.system.log

See the link in my signature for info on getting log files.