no success installing plex media server on qnap ts-251+

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

this is a new machine. 4.3.3.0229 build 20170624 intel cpu J1900
i initially tried the Plex Media Server that’s in the qnap app store.
removed that, tried manually installing PlexMediaServer_1.7.5.4035-313f93718_x86_64.qpkg
removed that, tried manually installing PlexMediaServer_1.7.3.3937-70f781325_x86_64.qpkg

all of them behave the same: when i go to ip.address:32400/web in my browser, i am prompted to sign in to Plex. if i use my existing Plex account, i see my other Plex servers. if i create a new account, i see no servers. it seems to only be running the web client. i don’t see any obvious errors in the Plex Media Server log files, and there is a “Plex Media Server” process running.

it is pretty much nothing like any installation process described on the site that i have found. i think it is supposed to put me into a form to set up a server? or something like that?

in any case it doesn’t work and i am stuck.

2

i did a firmware upgrade from Qnap, may or may not be related to anything

i got ssh tunneling working by sshing into the box and running

setcfg LOGIN “SSH AllowTcpForwarding” TRUE

reboot, install Plex from the Qnap App Store thing

ssh in, go to /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer and ran
./plex.sh stop
then
./plex.sh start

using ssh tunneling, i accessed 32400/web as if i was doing it on a browser on the qnap box itself

and that got me to the screen to set up a new server

i don’t know how much of all of that is necessary or relevant.

3

@tatere said:
using ssh tunneling, i accessed 32400/web as if i was doing it on a browser on the qnap box itself

Most likely this one, since initial setup req. that the workstation doing it is on the same IP net as the PMS server

4

All machines involved are on my local network here at home. I’ve noticed before that some things about PMS won’t work anywhere other than localhost. This all is nothing like the supposed process, it seems well broken to me.

5

If you are on the same IP net, then it should work out of the box though

6

yet it didn’t. that’s why I’m here. if someone from Plex is interested we can work on figuring out why it didn’t work.

7

I take it you can’t reproduce by now?

8

no i just did reproduce it. removed Plex, installed my downloaded copy of 1.7.5.4035. going to the qnap IP:32400 all i get is the web client. the previously defined server is now unreachable.

9

and this time tunneling in has the same results, it does not start up the server definition forms, just launches the web client

10

also manually stopping and starting Plex Media Server with plex.sh does not make a difference, it still does not create a server instance, only the web client (tunneling or not)

11

now i am unable to get it working again at all. this seems wrong.

12

Need debug logs here

13

these are the logs there are. i don’t know what you want when you say that.

1 Like
14

What puzzles me is that you’ve posted logs for PMS 1.5.3 but you say that you have PMS 1.7.5 installed.

Your logs contain this sequence several times:

Jul 08, 2017 13:54:20.028 [0x7f938e3ff700] ERROR - XML: Entity: line 1: 
Jul 08, 2017 13:54:20.029 [0x7f938e3ff700] ERROR - XML: parser 
Jul 08, 2017 13:54:20.029 [0x7f938e3ff700] ERROR - XML: error : 
Jul 08, 2017 13:54:20.029 [0x7f938e3ff700] ERROR - XML: Start tag expected, '<' not found
Jul 08, 2017 13:54:20.029 [0x7f938e3ff700] ERROR - XML: status=ok
Jul 08, 2017 13:54:20.029 [0x7f938e3ff700] ERROR - XML: ^
Jul 08, 2017 13:54:20.029 [0x7f938e3ff700] ERROR - Error parsing content.
Jul 08, 2017 13:54:20.029 [0x7f938e3ff700] ERROR - SSDP: Error parsing device schema for http://192.168.42.75:9080

I’ve seen this before but I don’t know what’s causing it (probably a corrupted install). I suspect that you have to remove PMS, delete the /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer folder manually, and install PMS manually using PlexMediaServer_1.7.5.4035-313f93718_x86_64.qpkg

This will loose all your metadata, but as this is a new install probably you can do it. Otherwise a backup of /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/Library/Plex Media Server is needed.

15

i’ve tried multiple versions, the logs reflected whatever the most recent one was

yeah, i could not get it installed again, eventually deleted that directory manually after uninstalling it, then repeated the process described above and got it running

i guess somehow i managed to get a completely unique situation and the normal defaults all work fine for everyone else? or hardly anybody buys this NAS and installs Plex? it’s working now for me, i’ll just leave it at that.

16

@tatere said:
yeah, i could not get it installed again, eventually deleted that directory manually after uninstalling it, then repeated the process described above and got it running
We have seen cases of pre-QTS 4.3.3 to QTS 4.3.3 migrations that broke file/folder authorizations, forcing the same process that you have experienced.

But the normal (>95%) case is that PMS installs Ok without need for such actions.

17

this still doesn’t work. everytime i restart the qnap machine plex is dead.

18

Greetings,

I have the exact same issue as described by the thread opener on my QNAP TS-251+ running version 4.3.3.0262 (2017/07/27) with an Intel Celeron CPU J1900.

I never had Plex installed before. It’s a clean installation from the App Center with Plex Media Server v1.7.5.4035.

The Plex App redirected me to the login page and I created a new Plex account. I can login with the account, but it doesn’t prompt me to setup a new server, but it never does. The wheel at the top left corner keeps spinning "looking for servers… " and that’s it.

I did follow the suggestion above to remove the PMS and delete the PlexMediaServer folder (it was no longer there after removing the App) and the manually installed this version PlexMediaServer_1.7.5.4035-313f93718_x86_64.qpkg.

Unfortunately it behaves the exact same way. I can login to the website, but it wont present the page to setup a new server.

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!

19

Please install this -> https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/234641/create-a-share-for-plex-library-directory

Then, using QNAP’s File Station, you should have access to a Plex shared folder. One of its subfolders contains the logs. Please upload, zip the whole Logs folder, and post the zip here.

20

Thanks very much for your reply. Please find the requested logs file attached .

Thanks for your help!