Plex Media Server Bug

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: 1.18.5.2309
Player Version#: NA
OS#: Windows 10

Steps

  1. Have plex library and cache on a drive other than %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\ (for example D:\plex)
  2. D: drive containing plex files fails (or is removed)
  3. Uninstall plex
  4. Reinstall plex with D drive removed

Issue
@step 3 uninstall doesn’t remove registry values in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server. On launching media server is still looking for the location of the dead drive and doesn’t launch. Easiest fix for this would be to remove the registry keys on uninstall.

Fix is to navigate to the registry location above and change the following values to a valid drive location:

  • ButlerDatabaseBackupPath
  • LocalAppDataPath
  • TranscoderTempDirectory
2

That is as-designed.
Otherwise uninstalling Plex would nuke all metadata Plex (and you!) have been working to collect, generate, edit and curate.

1 Like
3

All the metadata is already nuked on the failed drive. Maybe when plex media server launches, if it can’t connect to the data-store show the user some kind of feedback instead of just crashing and running as a process in the background. Also, because the drive is gone, no crash logs are created, so there is literally no way for the user to investigate the problem.

or… on uninstall or repair, give the user the option to reset\remove metadata\library\settings.

4

The instructions on how to do a complete uninstall of Plex are documented in this support article:

5

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.