Plex Media Server will not start since latest upgrade - tried everything

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.20.4.3517-ab5e1197c
Player Version#: N/A

I have been unable to use Plex Media Server for coming up to three days now, I have been participating in another thread but it doesn’t seem to be getting much attention and i’ve been brushed off by the twitter account.

Essentially, post upgrade this is the error I get in browser

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Troubleshooting steps taken - Repair install, uninstall Reboot. Reinstall. Delete device from account on plex account. Wipe all metadata. Registry entries and reinstall. Repair install again. And Again. And Again.

I have checked my network and firewall configuration and all necessary Ports are open, both on my router and PC firewall.

I cannot think of anything else I can do.

In the PlexMediaServer log file I am seeing this error

Nov 05, 2020 17:24:29.202 [0300] DEBUG - HTTP 401 response from GET https://plex.tv/media/providers?X-Plex-Token=

In com.plexapp.system.log am I seeing errors such as this on startup

2020-11-05 17:24:30,801 (5834) :  DEBUG (runtime:1117) - Created a thread named 'ensure_agent_info_exists_inner'
2020-11-05 17:24:30,801 (67c) :  CRITICAL (core:579) - Error info (most recent call last):
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\Resources\Plug-ins-ab5e1197c\System.bundle\Contents\Code\storeservice.py", line 495, in update
    log_msg = "Updated information for plug-in '%s' (class: %s) to a stable version"
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\Resources\Plug-ins-ab5e1197c\Framework.bundle\Contents\Resources\Versions\2\Python\Framework\api\runtimekit.py", line 403, in MachineIdentifier
    return self._core.get_server_attribute('machineIdentifier')
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\Resources\Plug-ins-ab5e1197c\Framework.bundle\Contents\Resources\Versions\2\Python\Framework\core.py", line 514, in get_server_attribute
    root_xml = self.data.xml.from_string(self.networking.http_request('http://127.0.0.1:32400'))
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\Resources\Plug-ins-ab5e1197c\Framework.bundle\Contents\Resources\Versions\2\Python\Framework\components\data.py", line 150, in from_string
    ud = UnicodeDammit(str(string), isHTML=isHTML)
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\Resources\Plug-ins-ab5e1197c\Framework.bundle\Contents\Resources\Versions\2\Python\Framework\components\networking.py", line 220, in __str__
    self.load()
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\Resources\Plug-ins-ab5e1197c\Framework.bundle\Contents\Resources\Versions\2\Python\Framework\components\networking.py", line 158, in load
    f = self._opener.open(req, timeout=self._timeout)
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\urllib2.py", line 429, in open
    response = self._open(req, data)
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\urllib2.py", line 447, in _open
    '_open', req)
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\urllib2.py", line 407, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\urllib2.py", line 1228, in http_open
    return self.do_open(httplib.HTTPConnection, req)
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\urllib2.py", line 1201, in do_open
    r = h.getresponse(buffering=True)
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\httplib.py", line 1148, in getresponse
    response.begin()
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\httplib.py", line 448, in begin
    version, status, reason = self._read_status()
  File "F:\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\httplib.py", line 412, in _read_status
    raise BadStatusLine("No status line received - the server has closed the connection")
BadStatusLine: No status line received - the server has closed the connection
2

Move(or Delete) the Plug-ins-ab5e1197c folder.

3

Done that, and followed up with a repair install.

Installer replaces those files and those errors persist.

4

Did you have any success at fixing yours?

I’ve been using Plex now for 5 years and 75% of the time it’s fine.

This incident and problem has me stumped.

I do not want to delete my database or metadata so can someone else please chime in and help?

I have posted my log output on the other thread:-

5

No progress at all, I’m stumped and desperately need some support from Plex staff as it’s clear the community has no clue either.

6

I hate to say it but this could be the nail in the Plex coffin for me.

I’ve been using Emby for the last 2 days without Plex and while it’s not as polished, it’s small, simple and works. Sure it only does 1 thing - stream your files - but that’s all Plex used to do 5 years ago.

I’ve got the Emby app installed on my 2 Roku players and my iPhone.

No crashes so far!

Google for Emby and just give it a go - point it to the same folders as Plex. It runs on a different port and won’t touch your old Plex data at all.

I hate change, but I just want to watch my stuff.

7

I’ve been using plex with a lifetime pass since 2013, if I have to change platform it will be disappointing as it’s served me well

8

Plex Media Server 1.20.4.3517-ab5e1197c has been available for 3 days now. This may not be a co-incidence. Have you tried downgrading?

[edit: sorry, I can see you mentioned post upgrade in your opening post. Downgrading might still make sense as a next step though]

9

Yep, I noticed the issue the evening after installing that version. I went to watch a tv show on my tablet and the server was reporting as having an indirect connection - but nothing would load.

I have tried downgrading, full uninstall and reinstall but no luck. This is very weird.

Because of all the troubleshooting I have done I have no server configured to even connect to at the moment.

10

agh, sorry - did not see that you had already tried downgrading.

11

I’ve even tried downgrading and then doing a repair install with a newer version!

Installing on different disc drives, resetting my firewall windows settings to default so Plex has to request access again.

I’ve genuinely tried everything I can think of.

12

It’s crazy. Surely something else has changed?

13

I used it since the last windows patches were released, so it can’t be OS related

14

perhaps @OttoKerner can advise?

15

I’d say the OP’s issue is that he didn’t install Plex on drive C:
Try that.

Installing the program files of Plex server has nothing to do with the location of the data folder of Plex. (The latter is the one which gets rather big, so it is desirable to move it away from a small system SSD.)

So once you are back on drive C: with the program code, inspect the Windows registry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server\
the content of the key LocalAppDataPath.
Make sure it does indeed point to a storage location that is both existing & accessible.

1 Like
16

@zacnaloen I have just realised that this a sub forum for the Windows version.

I have the same problem with the Linux version so I will post my entire thread in there too.

Hope you find a solution.

17

Thank Otto, My C:\ drive is small that’s why it’s not installed there, I try to avoid installing there if I can.
That said, I have now installed plex on there, latest version.

As part of my troubleshooting I made sure I did a full uninstall, that included wiping my plex registry folder.
As things stand these are the plex reg entries

Localappdatapath isn’t a configured reg entry

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18

This has led me down a new path and i think you are right Otto, because of my disc drive issues my %appdata% location is not on my C:\ either. It’s on my d:\ , again for space reasons and I have symbolic link configured. However, plex is not playing ball with that. I am going to manually configure that location in reg now and see what happens.

19

Which means that Plex is now using the default location on drive C: for its data.
You might want to change that, after you have gotten it to start up properly. [HowTo] An extended guide on how to move the Plex data folder on Windows

20

I reset to use C:\ for everything, logs look exactly the same, with identical errors for the python lines in com.plexapp.system.log, and the http 401 on the Token Get.
All that’s different is the file paths have changed.

To make sure fresh everything, and rule out anything dodgy with my appdata folder on C:\ (as this is what Plex was using until about 10 minutes ago) Plex data folder and Plex are now installed side by side (not a folder I will be scanning, that’s another disc entirely) and the Localappdatapath is now a configured entry in my registry. I can see from the logs this change is being picked up correctly.

Attaching Plex Media Server.Log and com.plexapp.system.log

(File removed) (File removed)