Nightmare with synology ds 918+ since last ubdate

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Hi,

It’s been a nightmare those last three days. With the last Plex version my Synology NAS DS918+ did not work anymore. I’ve read several thread with the same problem in the forum.
I tried to delete the last version and install an oldest one. It did not work.
I erased every thing even the plex shared folder (and the files that I can not find anymore) and reboot several times. Nothing worked.
When I try to reinstall plex I get always the same message (port 32400 already used). I am not very good with computing but I tried to ssh as recommended in many forums without any success.
Can please someone help :

  • to recover my plex shared folder
    -reinstall plex

Please if you need any infos (log, …) tell me what I need to do to run those things.

Thanks!

2

You forgot the long thing. A nprmal reboot clears most things.

The shared folder cannot be recovered. It is gone. Not even Synology can recover it

3

Thank you for your answer ChuckPa. I thought so for the shared folder. Luckily I had a copy.

The normal reboot is not working.
I did several reboot (manually and via admin option of my Synology) the problem (32400 still used) remains. Any other idea? I really would like to be able to use plex.

4

Let’s back up and get things into a known status.

Wherever your backup is, There is one thing I will need out of it; “Library”
With that safely kept somewhere, for now. I would like you to do the following:

  1. Sign out of Plex/web (upper corner of the browser)
  2. Uninstall PMS
  3. Delete user plex (Control Panel - Users)
  4. Restart DSM
  5. Install PMS but UNCHECK the box to start after installation.
  6. Control Panel - Shared Folders - EDIT Plex - Permissions - Give your username R/W permission
  7. Open file station
  8. Plex share
  9. Rename “Library” to “Library-unused”
  10. Copy your backup “Library” into the Plex share
  11. When complete,
  12. Right-Click Library -> Properties
  13. Set the Owner -> plex , check the box “Apply to this folder, sub-folders, and files.”
  14. This will also take a bit of time to complete.
  15. When complete, Start PMS
  16. Give it a full 60 seconds to startup and restabilize to the new environment.
  17. Open an incognito brower window
  18. Open http://ip.addr.of.syno:32400/manage (different endpoint)
  19. Report your progress
5

Thank your for your time and support ChuckPa!
I only had single movies and TV show in a copy version on another drive. So there is no back of the entire Plex folder. Is that a problem for the next steps? I am ready to start from the beginning, I just need the port 32400 to be free.
Trying to follow your steps and I have the first difficulty : how can you stop it to automatically lunch Plex? I did not find anything under properties. I tried to click everywhere when the file is installing to prevent it to lunch with no success. I read on other threads that there is a box to uncheck but I cannot find it.
Cheers

6

In Package Center, where you install PMS,

At the bottom of the page is a checkbox “Start PMS automatically after installation”

Uncheck that box.

Since you do not have a Plex directory, it’s ok to let it start automatically.

As for port 32400 being free, Restart DSM. It does occasionally think the port belongs to PMS after PMS has been removed. Restart clears it

8

I strongly urge NOT running in docker.

  1. Native app does more for you than the Docker will
  2. I am the packaging author and here to support it in multiple ways.
  3. Docker is abused technology when a native app already exists. (it’s purpose is to provide a capability when no native does but here a native does. Also, do people ever relocate their docker containers? no.)

EDIT: In the past, long ago, the binaries were different. As of PMS 1.15.0, the actual binaries used are the same. Only the packaging is different.

9

OK I already did steps 1-4.
I did not find the box, but you said it’s not a problem to install automatically.
I’m still sucked at step 5 (therefore my thread). I Still get the same message after 8 restart despite having done step 1-4. What should I do next?

10

If I am clear (please do correct me if wrong).

  1. You don’t have a backup of the “Plex” directory
  2. You only have backup of the media which is on the NAS now and ready to go.

If this is true, then we need to install fresh
Steps 1-4 have prepared for this.

Now, Install PMS as you normally would.
Don’t do anything special.

While it is setting itself up – which does take some time on a Syno –
Verify your media shares grant user ‘Plex’ permission to read the media .
(The installation will have created a new user “plex”)

11

You are clear. I’m just not able to install fresh Plex.
Because when I try to do it, I get the message error : your port 32400 is already used or needed for a package. Therefore I can not install Plex. I guess we need to find an other way (retsarting DSM do not work) to free the port?

12

Do you have the firewall active?
If so, please look in there.

There is a way to find out what is occupying port 32400 if Plex isn’t installed but it will require you to sign in at the command level and type (copy/paste) one command.

Let me know how you wish to proceed is

The command we need to execute is: netstat -tulpn | grep 32400

The output, if Plex is running, will look like this:

[~] # netstat -tulpn | grep 32400                                                                                            
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:32400           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      19410/Plex Media Se
[~] #
13

OK. It’s wired when I try to lo in admin I get this message : Could not chdir to home directory /var/services/homes/admin: No such file or directory

Than I typed your command and I am getting : (Not all processes could be identified, non-owned process info
will not be shown, you would have to be root to see it all.)

I am unable to go in root mode (it does not let me type my password…)

14

You should be able to sign in as admin with whatever password you assign for admin.

Once there, the command will work for that too.

(apologies for the delay. A bit crazy for me)

15

Hi ChuckPa

I contacted the synology and gave them total control over my NAS. Here are the respond after checking.

“Thank you for contacting Synology support.

We have found PLEX check port method is a little bit not good.

If the port set but disable still count in service occupied.

So I changed the port of SFTP which make it can work again.

Since PLEX is not developed by us, you can contact them to report this situation.”

I will check in two hours when I am back home if it works and will report back to you

EDIT : it works, I have plex again!

The problem now : it is not showing in the web browser.
Can you help me to make the browser recognise / finding my plex library? I follow the step above until point 18 (which does not work).

17

As with anything, there are exceptions.

I recognize those two are exceptions.

Also, look at the distinction between what they are:

PMS is a server application where Sonarr, Radarr, and Nzbget are pure receive-only clients.

I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear in my past statements;

  1. PMS in docker makes no sense. It’s available and up to date.
  2. How likely is someone to move their PMS installation to another host? It’s big and bulky. Aren’t containers supposed to be light-weight?
18

I am through with it. I’d like to thank your ChuckPa for the effort even if it did not really help.

For me the two lessons (for potential readers) : do not install the latest plex version plexMediaServer-1.18.6.2368-97add474d-x86_64.sp if you have a synology 918+.

Change port of SFTP if a restart DSM do not free the port (or ask help at synology).

19

Had you previously installed SFTP or other app (a proxy) which connected to port 32400 or one of the Plex ports?

I am a bit confused by Synology’s findings.
If there is a problem, I want to understand it so I can get it fixed.

20

Allow me to add to my post above,

I am primary support and deployment engineer for the Synology systems.
If there is a problem, I need to know what it is so I can fix it. I don’t like having misbehaving machines out there for any reason.

21

I do not have your skills.
I do not even know what is SFTP, so I do not think I did something with it.
I understand your concern. Would you like to know the name of the person at synology who supports me so you can eventually reach out to him?

22

No, that’s not necessary but thanks for offering.

I will do some experimenting here.

If I come up with something that looks likely, and screen capture what I did in the GUI, would you be able to look and see if it looks familiar ?