My Plex Media Server’s web interface indicates that the server is not claimed.
Clicking the Claim Server button does nothing.
The icon at the top-right of the window does not show that it recognizes that I am logged in. Clicking this offers a Switch User, which also does nothing.
I have tried uninstalling/rebooting/reinstalling, but no improvement.
I have also moved the Plex Media Server folder out of C:\Users(username)\AppData\Local\ - so that the next launch of the app would create a new profile. The issues continue after this, however.
I have also cleared registry entries from HKCU\Software\Plex - no improvement.
Via a Reddit post, I also tried the external utility ClaimIt. It is unable to improve matters.
I have also tried different web browsers, using different computers on the home network. Same issue follows.
Another oddity: From Settings > General, next to where the version displays, it appears to be checking for an update. It then gives up, with a message: Something went wrong. Please install manually.
From the Server Update Channel drop-down at the bottom of Settings > General, the only item listed is “unknown”
I just performed a clean installation of the Plex Media Server, and this is happening despite that measure.
I just performed a clean installation of Plex Media Server 1.25.5.5492. I then restored my backup of the contents to C:\Users(username)\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\ (with the Logs sub-folder empty to begin).
I then launched Plex Media Server for new log files to generate.
As directed, I used the Claim Server button from Settings > General (again, seemingly no activity happens from that click).
One other observation to contribute - a weird one, but something that has me thinking the problem may exist outside of the Plex Media Server installation: from the PC where I have had Plex Media Server installed up to this point, if I try to visit Plex’s for available downloads (https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/), after a few seconds, the site drops out to an error: “Oops, looks like we can’t retrieve downloads at this time, please return later.” This happens with all web browsers on this PC. However, different computers I have on my same home network load the site and show its available downloads with no issue when using all browsers. Unclear at this time if this is related to the core issue I have reported here or not.
After some further digging, I thought to check the HOSTS file for Windows. I didn’t expect to find anything significant here, but figured it would be something to cross off the list of possibilities.
I found that an app that had been used months ago had added entries here for Plex. It is called VPNBypass. This was originally tried as a solution for another issue where I was unable to reach my Plex Media Server from a local client on my network if the host PC running the server was connected to ExpressVPN.
After removing these entries, my Plex Media Server immediately returned to working state. In addition, the web site for Plex Media Server downloads began working.
Prior, the user profile at the top-right corner of the web interface of Plex Media Server only offered choices for Switch User (which did not work when clicked). Not all choices are there, including most importantly the one to Sign In.
After signing in, I was then able to use the Claim Server button successfully.
The version check was also able to run, whereas prior it had the Unable to Connect state.
@dane22 - thank you for taking a look along with me. Glad to put this to rest!
