Server Version#: 1.31.2.6757-39d3abef1
Player Version#:
I’ve been running Plex for 5 years without issue on various Macs. I never had an issue until 3 days ago.
Simply put: whenever I try to launch Plex Media Server on my Mac Mini, Plex opens for less than a second and then crashes. It generates a new crash report each time. I’m not competent enough to know how to read those crash reports; I only know to find them in the Application Support folder. I was running the latest beta version of Ventura OS at the time. Plex was running fine for every iteration of MacOS beta up until 3 days ago.
Here’s what I’ve tried:
delete the Plex app and reinstalling.
delete the Plex app and the associated folder in Application Support, then reinstall Plex
reinstalling the Ventura beta operating system
wiping my hard drive and rolling back my operation system to Monterey
I waited until today to post in case a newer version of Plex Media Server would solve the problem
When I rolled back my operating system I did have to use a pretty recent backup (one created after the Plex issue) of my system. I’m at the point where I just wipe my system clean and start fresh. Obviously I’d rather not do that. Anybody have any ideas?
Technically the Time Machine backup was made on Ventura. I installed Monterey and then applied the Time Machine backup.
I’ve tried restoring a database backup. But also, since I’ve removed any trace of Plex from my system and tried to launch it clean… wouldn’t that negate any corrupt database?
edit: I’ve also attempted to restore database backups as far back as 2021-01-03, to no avail.
I understand that. At this point I’m willing to start from scratch. My issue is that upon launching the Plex Media Server app, it crashes immediately. Like I said, I reckon I could just wipe my whole desktop back to factory settings, but that seems a little intense.
i.e. it blips onto my Mac’s menu bar for half a second and then generates a crash report. This is how it’s been behaving as of 3 days ago, before I took any action to try and get it running.
I’ve been using Plex since about 2017 without issue. So it not even running at all––even after doing a “clean install”–– is definitely odd.
I really appreciate your replying. I gave this the weekend to see if I could fix it myself or if an update to the Plex software would fix things. However…
Yep, I’ve done all that… deleting the app from the Applications directory and the Plex folder from the Application Support directory. Honestly, I’ve done that multiple times over the weekend; before and after reinstalling my OS.
I’m not totally sure what you mean by opening it “using a browser and ip address, just to see if there’s anything left”…? Are you referring to the 127.0.0.1 address? And what leftovers would I be looking for?
I have .dmp crash report files if that’d help you diagnose this. I wish I knew how to read them but I’m afraid that’s a little above my tech-weight class. And in terms of debug logs… I’m not sure the app stays open long enough to generate them.
I have backups of the entire /Application Support/Plex Media Server folder from the day this started happening and from 2021 if that helps…? But I’ll tell ya, I’m grasping at straws.
I took your offhand thought to heart i.e. maybe it’s running in the background without showing up. Were that the case then the Plex server should still show up if I opened it in a browser, right?
Anyway, I pulled up Activity Monitor. Plex doesn’t even run long enough to pop up on the list of running activities there. I do see flash onto the menu bar, where it usually sits.
If the Plex Media Server won’t start and doesn’t even get to the stage where it’ll be writing to the server logs, you can attempt the following procedure to see if there’s any error messages on the OS level:
Open Finder and navigate to /Applications
Select Show Content from the context menu of the Plex Media Server.app item
Navigate to Contents/MacOS
Open the Terminal app
Drag the Plex Media Server executable from the Finder window (#3) into the Terminal Window and press Return to execute it
This is no different from running the app, so it won’t succeed – but you should get a more specific error message about what’s causing it to fail starting.
/Applications/Plex\ Media\ Server.app/Contents/MacOS/Plex\ Media\ Server ; exit;
libc++abi: terminating with uncaught exception of type boost::wrapexceptboost::system::system_error: listen: Address already in use
****** PLEX MEDIA SERVER CRASHED, CRASH REPORT WRITTEN: DCD15055-2CC7-4FC3-8756-461598059949
Saving session…
…copying shared history…
…saving history…truncating history files…Error in command line:the argument for option ‘–serverUuid’ should follow immediately after the equal sign
Crash Uploader options (all are required):
–directory arg Directory to scan for crash reports
–serverUuid arg UUID of the server that crashed
–userId arg User that owns this product
–platform arg Platform string
–platformVersion arg Platform version string
–vendor arg Vendor string
–device arg Device string
–model arg Device model string
–sentryUrl arg Sentry URL to upload to
–sentryKey arg Sentry Key for the project
–version arg Version of the product
–allowRetries arg Whether we will allow retries
…completed.
Deleting expired sessions…none found.
[Process completed]
I’d actually tried this earlier and saw the “Address already in use” bit, figuring it was maybe an IP address conflict. I’d assigned my Mac running Plex a designated address already but I figured I’d check my router anyway to see if there was a conflict. And there wasn’t. But maybe I’m off base with what “Address” the Plex crash is referring to.
Still no luck. Gave my computer a new IP address, rebooted the modem & router… even if those were issues surely they wouldn’t prevent the app from running right?
