Plex Disappeared from packages and is not running

Plex Media Server
1

Had an issue with high ram utilization so did a hard reboot. When the server came back up Plex was not running. Looked for it in the package center (installed manually via download originally) and it was not there. Attempting to reinstall throws an error that the ports are occupied. Any ideas?

Server Version#: DSM 7.1

Player Version#:

2

Restart DSM.

If that fails to clear it, you will need to SSH into the Syno and see what’s actually running that DSM isn’t reporting.

If DSM corrupted itself (which is possible), you’ll need to reinstall DSM (you won’t lose your data)

Hard Reboot (holding the power button) is NEVER safe on a NAS. It corrupts the filesystem VERY quickly.

3

Hey Chuck,

Happen to know the command to see what’s running ?

Also with a DSM reinstall am I expecting Plex to magically reappear or am I looking at having to reinstall Plex and everything else that is running?

Agreed on hard reboot, box was hung and didn’t have any other options…

4

Sure,

SSH into the NAS and type ps -ef | grep -i plex will tell you if ANY Plex processes are running.

You can also look, using the UI of Resource Monitor → Processes.

Screenshot from 2022-05-11 22-13-42
Screenshot from 2022-05-11 22-13-42944×526 74.9 KB

5

Chuck, ended up doing a full DSM Reinstall. Upon attempting to reinstall Plex I get the below error, any thoughts?

Screenshot 2022-05-19 075837
Screenshot 2022-05-19 075837704×510 13.8 KB

6

@vincebalsamo

I have never seen that.

What I do recognize here –

  • /volume1/@apphome/PlexMediaServer – is where the Package Center (BETA) plex package used to store metadata (version 1.21.0.3744)

  • /var/packages/PlexMediaServer/shares/PlexMediaServer/AppData – is where metadata is now stored.

This is a DSM error but we can fix it.

  1. Do you still have your PMS metadata in the PlexMediaServer shared folder ?
  2. Which PMS version did you install? (or did it do that for you?)
7

There is meta data in this folder - Volume1/Plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Metadata

I manually installed this package - 1.26.2.5797-5bd057d2b Intel 64

8

@ChuckPa - friendly bump

9

@vincebalsamo

I’ve not forgotten.

I’ve tried to replicate here and cannot.

I did create a way for us to completely uninstall (unwind everything)
and start fresh

WITHOUT losing your existing server data

Here’re the steps

  1. Create a new shared folder (call it “ChuckSave”)
  2. Stop Plex
  3. Move (don’t copy) AppData from PlexMediaServer to ChuckSave
  4. When it’s complete –
  5. Uninstall Plex with ERASE option.
  6. DELETE the PlexMediaServer shared folder

Now for the part internal part.

  1. Task Scheduler
  2. Create a User-script task
  3. Runs as user root
  4. Emails you the results.
  5. Does the following:
#!/bin/bash
rm -rf /var/packages/PlexMediaServer

synouser --del PlexMediaServer
sed -ie '/PlexMediaServer/d' /etc/passwd
sed -ie '/PlexMediaServer/d' /etc/group
sed -ie '/PlexMediaServer/d' /etc/shadow

This script makes certain the package and System Internal User are removed

After this is complete, restart DSM

Now install the package manually again.
Let it do a normal install.

If there is an error – then DSM is indeed damaged.

If not, we will move your data base to PlexMediaServer and fix the ownership values (they will have changed)

10

Awesome thanks for the fine detail here! I’ll get on this tonight/tomorrow and circle back either way.