Know why my Nvidia ShieldTV Plex server would just suddenly be gone?
I can see the external hard drive on my network, so I know that it is connected.
any help would be appreciated.
Server Version#: Don’t know, cuz it’s missing
Player Version#:
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My Plex Server is missing on my Shield as well.
The title for the row “PLEX MEDIA SERVER” is there in the plex settings, but there’s no buttons/toggles under it. It’s just an empty white space and then the “ADVANCED” row beneath it.
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Same problem here 
Same problem.
I have the same problem.
I have tried with no luck:
I copied all the files elsewhere, cleared everything, started a new server (which worked), stopped server, returned all files, restarted server. Now it looks the same as before: No server even listed in settings–and, of course, we can’t access any server setting or see the console without the server going.
I tried to use SQlite to see if the server is corrupt/repair database and got this error: “no such collation sequence: icu_root”
Found this from a Plex Team member on another post: " You need to use /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server --sqlite on Linux.
This will invoke the sqlite shell which is built into PMS and give you the additional plug-ins for sqlite."
I don’t use Linux at all and really have no experience with servers outside doing this the last time and I don’t have the time to get a degree in using databases this week. (sure wish I knew I’d need one to use this program when I paid for a lifetime member subscription!)
5 people with the same problem…seems like someone from Plex could help us out?
Me too. Stopped the server to unplug hard drive and now i cant start it back because the setting to turn it on isnt there anymore
Having the exact same issue! Only see the Plex Media Server heading in the Plex options on my Shield.
Here’s an older thread with many more complaints of the same issue (but no resolution):
Hello,
Same issue for me. After the upgrade, my plex server was down. I uninstalled and reinstalled the application, but since then, the server was not operational. Restarting the Shield console now takes a very long time, the server is still down and I can’t activate the database on the USB stick.
Sometimes when I do plex updates, if it stops working, I restart the Shield and it solves the problem, but not here.
Same here, happens every 2 weeks or so. No Idea. Plex Database on external SSD, content on NAS. SSD sometimess needs to be scandisked and error corrected after this happens but not allways
My server has been working great for a month. I decided to turn off auto updates in an attempt to maintain this rare utopia and right after that the shield home screen started to stutter. Next thing I know the server was gone.
same issue here. I am trying to limit power consumption so I am decommissioning my server gear and wanted to use my shield as my PMS but much to my chagrin, it appears I no longer have that option. I am willing to bet it’s not a bug but a feature and in order to use the Shield as a media server rather than client, you’ll have to have a plex pass.
Same issue.
My server is gone.
Why no reply from the Plex team here?
No reply from Plex because they KNOW this is THIER error, and don’t wanna own up to it.
Update: I was able to restore my database by using the backup files. Didn’t really lose much. Did a scan and everything updated. The most important thing is that I didn’t lose the precious library info I manual entered–especially for music!
Keep an extra copy of backup files! Mine were not updating in the plex folder, I had spare copies I saved earlier.
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I have been having the same issue for months, but restarting my Shield always seemed to resolve it.
Now, after having upgraded my 2TB drive to a 5TB drive (following the steps to ensure that I named my drive the exact same as the previous one and copied everything over as-is), I have not been able to get my Plex server back up and running for the past 24 hours.
I am currently trying everything from uninstalling and reinstalling updates from Plex Media Server on my Shield, clearing cache, force quitting both the frontend Plex app and the Plex Media Server app, restarting my Shield, etc - nothing has worked at this point in time.
Through my searching, I have found numerous forum threads on this website that talk about this same issue - I even saw one from 2017 that was never “resolved”. It sounds like this has been a long-standing issue and nobody from Plex is interested in giving any input on the matter - leaving many paying customers in the dust.
EDIT: My issue has been resolved by updaiting the drive letter on my new hard drive to match the drive letter from my old hard drive. After doing that, my server started right up and the settings for Plex Media Server are visible once-again in the Settings page for the Plex app.
C_Hag,
This is probably a different issue because it likely due do with your upgrade rather than the server suddenly disappearing for no reason.
One thing you can check is to make sure that the directory names and structure are absolutely identical to the old one. (So even if your old drive was named 2TB, you’re going to need to name your new one that so the database can located everything). I see you mentioned that you did do this, but double check with the structure and the directory as it appears in Plex where you add libraries.
Additionally, in the past, the tutorials on moving storage location this way ultimately didn’t work for me and I had to figure out how to manually edit individual directory structure entries in the database, but they changed how the database works and I can’t do this kind of editing anymore.
All of that said, despite all of this your server should still be online. If directory structure were your problem, Plex would be online and simply try to rescan all of your libraries. That would be annoying especially if you’ve done manual edits that you don’t want to see reverted. Have you tried using backup files of your database? Worth a shot.
However, if you haven’t done a great deal of manual editing, you can always start from scratch with a fresh install. Clearing your data and cache in the Plex Server App on your shield will allow you to start everything from new. This is annoying if your library is large.
I really appreciate your help, danielkrenton_gmail_com. You were absolutely right!
I had given up for a couple of days, and after reading your reply I went back to take another look at both the old and new hard drives to find see if I could find a mismatch somewhere. Sure enough, I noticed pretty quickly that my new drive had a drive letter of (F:) and my original 2TB drive had a drive letter of (E:) - so I did not have the new drive setup to be identical.
As soon as I changed the drive letter to (E:) on my new 5TB drive and plugged it into my Nvidia Shield and turned it back on, my Plex server started right up! The Plex Media Server settings are also visible once-again on the Plex app Settings screen. I don’t know why I didn’t notice that beforehand…let’s just say I had tunnel vision during my first several attempts at troubleshooting. I just needed to take another look with fresh eyes and the drive letter mismatch showed itself right away. Oops…haha.
I didn’t see any resolutions completely devoted to solving this issue, but I think I found the solution.
If you visit the Google Play Store and type in Plex, there are actually two apps that appear. One is the Plex app and the other is the app for Plex Media Server. When selecting the Plex Media Server, I found that the app needed to be updated. Once I updated and restarted both the Plex app and the Media Server, my server was up and running again.
I hope this helps someone else.
@abuff0916_gmail_com thi sdoes not solve the issue of plex server suddenly disappearing. In settings under the G´Heading Plex Media Server there is empty space. I have it now once again. This time the server is however avaialable obviously as media shows up, but only in Wifi not outside network. This is all strange and I would expect some plex guys such as @anon18523487 commenting on it…
I have the same issue for the second time. t
his time it has been a week. rebooting device does not seem to fix anymore. It is up to date. was this issue fixed? very frustrating.
