Password reset led to "Not authorized /do not have access to this server."

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#:7
Player Version#:latest
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>
I’ve followed some guides and suggestions by others to fix this issue, but I think it comes down to my previous Plex server that ran off my Windows PC.

I’ve been running Plex with very little issues from my Unraid Server for over 6 months. I realized my password was very weak and old so changed it. Then I got kicked out.
Turns out it’s a common issue and I need to reclaim.
Problem is, I’ve tried deleting the entries in the preferences.xml, uninstalling plex media server app from my pc, clearing out all browser cookies, removing chrome, deleting the app data on the windows pc, removing the old server and browsers as authorized devices (multiple times) etc.

It keeps wanting to pull up the old server. I think it must get the info from Plex’s servers. So I can never get the option to add a server or claim a server.

2

Try the User Credential Reset Utility.

1 Like
3

This is what I get when I try to point it to the path

[root@Mxxxxx /]# [/tmp] # ./UserCredentialReset.sh -p “/mnt/user/appdata/binhex-plex/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml”
bash: [/tmp]: No such file or directory

this is what I get when I just try to make it executable
chmod: cannot access ‘UserCredentialReset.sh’: No such file or directory

4

I’m just completely lost and frustrated. I’ll try again tomorrow.

5

I run Plex on bare metal Ubuntu, so no experience using it on Docker installations.

Looking at the readme, it seems there are two options:

One, run it inside the Docker container, using Docker exec.

Two, run it outside the container, but give it the path to the preferences.xml file.

It looks like you might be using the binhex container, which has limited support, so you may have to use option two.

WRT chmod, cd to the location of the file. With Ubuntu, chmod a+x UserCredentialReset.sh works (as root). You might also try chmod a+x ./UserCredentialReset.sh. AFAIK it is the same on other distributions, Docker, etc.

6

@c416Hpl

Let me look at the UserCredential scipt.

It’s not been updated in a while.
I don’t think it supports all the containers.

I’ll update it now as needed.

1 Like
7

@c416Hpl

While I update the tool, here’s the manual method (using the -p switch)

[chuck@lizum tmp.2022]$ scp UserCredentialReset.sh root@192.168.0.16:/tmp
UserCredentialReset.sh                                                                        100%   11KB   6.1MB/s   00:00    
[chuck@lizum tmp.2023]$ ssh root@192.168.0.16
Last login: Tue Jun 24 22:14:42 2025 from 192.168.0.13
root@Gerbil:~# uname -a
Linux Gerbil 6.6.78-Unraid #2 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Feb 20 13:33:15 PST 2025 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7100U CPU @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
root@Gerbil:~# chmod +x /tmp/UserCredentialReset.sh 
root@Gerbil:~# df
Filesystem                 1K-blocks        Used   Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs                      16364612      661136    15703476   5% /
tmpfs                         131072         828      130244   1% /run
/dev/sdb1                   60556768     1279104    59277664   3% /boot
overlay                     16364612      661136    15703476   5% /usr
overlay                     16364612      661136    15703476   5% /lib
tmpfs                         131072         380      130692   1% /var/log
devtmpfs                        8192           0        8192   0% /dev
tmpfs                       16382572           0    16382572   0% /dev/shm
efivarfs                         128          55          69  45% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
tmpfs                           1024           0        1024   0% /mnt/disks
tmpfs                           1024           0        1024   0% /mnt/remotes
tmpfs                           1024           0        1024   0% /mnt/addons
tmpfs                           1024           0        1024   0% /mnt/rootshare
/dev/sda1                  976284620    75769488   900515132   8% /mnt/main
/dev/loop2                  52428800      436448    51478816   1% /var/lib/docker
/dev/loop3                   1048576        6240      926112   1% /etc/libvirt
192.168.0.20:/vol/media 117181523968 75531957248 41649566720  65% /mnt/remotes/192.168.0.20_media
tmpfs                        3276512           0     3276512   0% /run/user/0
root@Gerbil:~# find /mnt/main -name Preferences.xml
/mnt/main/appdata/Plex-Media-Server/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml
root@Gerbil:~# /tmp/UserCredentialReset.sh -p "/mnt/main/appdata/Plex-Media-Server/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml" 
 
          Plex Media Server user credential reset and reclaim tool (User-Defined)
 
This utility will reset the server's credentials.
It will next reclaim the server for you using a Plex Claim token you provide from https://plex.tv/claim
 
Using given Preferences path:  '/mnt/main/appdata/Plex-Media-Server/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml'
Please enter Plex Claim Token copied from http://plex.tv/claim : claim-rvZX3yHTiWv48EfwYxEx
Clearing Preferences.xml
Getting new credentials from Plex.tv
Claim completed without errors.
 Username: ChuckPA
 Email:    ChuckIsCrazy@Loonies.com
 
Complete.  You may now start PMS.
root@Gerbil:~#

Other examples in the README

8

ok I think I’ve got it now - thanks

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