# Plex Media Server is not starting anymore (Mac)
**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095
**Category:** Plex Media Server
**Tags:** server-mac
**Created:** [August 22, 2020, 12:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095 "2020-08-22T12:20:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Thierry-B](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Thierry-B)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2020, 12:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095/1 "2020-08-22T12:20:16Z")
Server Version#:1.20.1
Player Version#:
Hi,
Since Thursday night, PMS won’t start.
This happened to me a few months back.
At the time I just recovered a recent backup for the server and things got better.
However…
This time for a reason I still don’t get, my Time Machine backup has been disconnected since May.
So no recent backup. I also discovered yesterday that Crashplan doesn’t backup Plex Server data.
Tough luck.
So…
I’ve reinstalled. No change.
I’ve tried repairing the db with the instructions included here.
> **[Repair a Corrupt Database | Plex Support](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201100678-repair-a-corrupt-database/?_ga=2.6956727.402170275.1597993266-527770059.1597993266)**
>
> Though rare, it is possible for your main Plex Media Server database to become corrupted. For instance, it might happen...
but… I get error messages like :
“Error: no such index: index\_title\_sort\_naturalsort” for the 2nd check and 2nd repair items.
and
“Error: no such table: schema\_migrations” for the 3rd check and 3rd repair items.
It seems doing this has deleted everything in the db. But I am really not sure as I don’t know anything about SQL commands.
I still can’t launch PMS.
And I don’t know what to do…
in the Databases folder, it seems there are old backed up versions but… while there are 4, they are all from 2016 !
So now I am at loss.
Anybody can help please ?
---
### Author:  [@SE56](https://forums.plex.tv/u/SE56)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2020, 12:28pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095/2 "2020-08-22T12:28:50Z")
How did you uninstall?
> **[Uninstall Plex Media Server | Plex Support](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201941078-uninstall-plex-media-server/)**
>
> Warning!: Following the instructions below will completely remove your Plex Media Server, including all library metadata, viewstates, etc. If you...
---
### Author:  [@Thierry-B](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Thierry-B)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2020, 1:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095/3 "2020-08-22T13:02:50Z")
I didn’t uninstall.
I just reinstalled.
Uninstalling with this method deletes everything (metadata, viewstates…) which is definitely not what I want to do.
---
### Author:  [@SE56](https://forums.plex.tv/u/SE56)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095/4 "2020-08-22T13:03:53Z")
Ok, good luck
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### Author:  [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2020, 1:15pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095/5 "2020-08-22T13:15:15Z")
> [@Thierry-B](#):
>
> in the Databases folder, it seems there are old backed up versions but… while there are 4, they are all from 2016 !
There’s two explanations for this:
1. you had disabled Plex creating database backups as part of its scheduled jobs sometime in 2016
2. Plex recognized issues with the database and stopped overwriting the good backups… this would mean your database has been corrupted since then – apparently without immediately impacting your user experience – and the corruption has grown since then.
#
If the database has been corrupted over such a long time and so bad it cannot be repaired, you might indeed end up having to start over with that server of yours.
**Edit:** … or at least you’ll need to bite the bullet and restore everything you added since 2016 if you choose to attempt restoring your server to one of those 2016 backups.
---
### Author:  [@Thierry-B](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Thierry-B)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2020, 1:33pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095/6 "2020-08-22T13:33:49Z")
😭
well…
I guess it’s what I’ll have to do.
I feared I would have to start from scratch anyway as I plan on migrating my server from my mac to a NAS, but I had really hoped I would be able to keep all my viewstates, collections and so on…
thanks for the advice anyway
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### Author:  [@SE56](https://forums.plex.tv/u/SE56)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2020, 1:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095/7 "2020-08-22T13:49:49Z")
Don’t fear, the new Movie Scanner is a lot faster. Just make sure you have your Naming and File structure as per Plex support articles.
> **[Naming and Organizing Your TV Show Files | Plex Support](https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/)**
>
> The scanners and metadata agents used by Plex will work best when your major types of content are separated from...
> **[Naming and organizing your Movie files | Plex Support](https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-movie-media-files/)**
>
> The scanners and metadata agents used by Plex will work best when your major types of content are separated from...
If your relying on Downloaded metadata, move Active local assets agent to bottom of stack
> **[Metadata Agents | Plex Support](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200241558-agents/)**
>
> “Metadata Agents” (or just “agents”) are the server component that’s responsible for taking the information from the scanner and then...
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### Author:  [@Thierry-B](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Thierry-B)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2020, 3:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095/8 "2020-08-22T15:02:19Z")
yes it’s faster but…
multiple versions of same movies (director’s cut, theatrical), playlists, viewstates (especially for tv shows), user restrictions (for my kid).
Naming, tagging all the family home videos (lots of them !)…
All of this will take a significant amount of time that I would have liked to be able not to waste.
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### Author:  [@SE56](https://forums.plex.tv/u/SE56)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095/9 "2020-08-22T15:18:40Z")
Ok, I’m not in that boat as my Children are now adults. So you will need to invest in some time sorting it out. I just recently bought a new iMac and decided to start afresh, so it was good time making sure it all good.
Might be a good idea of making some solid planes of backing up those needed files, just in case the unforeseen visits again.
Cheers
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### Author:  [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server-is-not-starting-anymore-mac/626095/10 "2020-11-20T15:18:51Z")
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