Server Version#: 1.19.5.3112
Player Version#:
History
My Plex server has been running for a few years now. I am running on Ubuntu 16.04. About a week ago I ran updates, which included the latest general release of Plex Media Server. My normal cleanup after running updates is to edit the plexmediaserver.service file to map the PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR to a new location, since using a override.conf didn’t seem to use my adjusted location. I noticed a warning at the top of plexmediaserver.service to not edit the file directly, and to instead use override.conf. I hadn’t noticed this before, so I thought I would try override.conf again. I looked at the file and it still had my customizations, so I left it as is and rebooted the server. Everything came up fine and I just assumed something had been fixed during a previous update and that is why override.conf was now working.
Tuesday night I noticed when playing from the Plex server the playback would stop for some reason. It was late so I didn’t look into it. Last night I noticed the same thing, so I figured I would reboot the server. I did notice there were a few security updates for Ubuntu so I ran updates again and rebooted. Since that time Plex Media Server will no longer start.
One additional item I found while troubleshooting this last night, a drive had dropped from my array. I reseated the drive and it rebuilt overnight. The array is now optimal again. I will watch the array and if it fails/drops again I will go ahead and replace the drive with a spare I have on hand. The media and /Library/Application Support are both located on this array, while everything else is on the primary boot drive.
Troubleshooting
I read a lot last night, but I didn’t try a lot other than rebuilding the array and going back to edit the plexmediaserver.service file since I thought maybe the override.conf didn’t work after reboot, but the server still won’t start. All of the file owner, group, and permissions look right to me, but I can certainly provide those as necessary. I am guessing it is something I am overlooking, so I am turning to the forum for help. Below are details of the errors I am seeing.
Output of systemctl status plexmediaserver
username@servername:~$ systemctl status plexmediaserver
● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d
└─override.conf
Active: failed (Result: start-limit-hit) since Thu 2020-08-20 06:48:30 CDT; 19s ago
Process: 5658 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_VENDOR="$(grep ^NAME= /etc/os-release | awk -F= "{print \$2}" | tr -d \" )"; export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_DEVICE="PC"; export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_MODEL="$(uname -m)"; export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_PLATFORM_VERSION="$(grep ^VERSION= /etc/os-release | awk -F= "{print \$2}" | tr -d \" )"; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/lib; exec "/usr/
Process: 5654 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/test -d "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" || /bin/mkdir -p "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 5658 (code=exited, status=255)
Aug 20 06:48:25 plexus systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Unit entered failed state.
Aug 20 06:48:25 plexus systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 20 06:48:30 plexus systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Aug 20 06:48:30 plexus systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.
Aug 20 06:48:30 plexus systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Aug 20 06:48:30 plexus systemd[1]: Failed to start Plex Media Server.
Aug 20 06:48:30 plexus systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Unit entered failed state.
Aug 20 06:48:30 plexus systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'start-limit-hit'.
For some reason I can’t seem to get all of the log to show for Process: 5658.
Output of journalctl -xe | grep -i plex
username@servername:~$ journalctl -xe | grep -i plex
Aug 20 06:48:14 servername systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished shutting down
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished shutting down.
Aug 20 06:48:14 servername systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server...
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has begun start-up
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has begun starting up.
Aug 20 06:48:14 servername systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished start-up
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished starting up.
Aug 20 06:48:14 servername sudo[5598]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Aug 20 06:48:14 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=255/n/a
Aug 20 06:48:14 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Unit entered failed state.
Aug 20 06:48:14 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 20 06:48:19 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Aug 20 06:48:19 servername systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished shutting down
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished shutting down.
Aug 20 06:48:19 servername systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server...
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has begun start-up
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has begun starting up.
Aug 20 06:48:19 servername systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished start-up
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished starting up.
Aug 20 06:48:19 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=255/n/a
Aug 20 06:48:19 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Unit entered failed state.
Aug 20 06:48:19 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 20 06:48:24 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Aug 20 06:48:24 servername systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished shutting down
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished shutting down.
Aug 20 06:48:24 servername systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server...
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has begun start-up
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has begun starting up.
Aug 20 06:48:24 servername systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished start-up
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished starting up.
Aug 20 06:48:25 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=255/n/a
Aug 20 06:48:25 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Unit entered failed state.
Aug 20 06:48:25 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 20 06:48:30 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Aug 20 06:48:30 servername systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished shutting down
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished shutting down.
Aug 20 06:48:30 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Aug 20 06:48:30 servername systemd[1]: Failed to start Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has failed
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has failed.
Aug 20 06:48:30 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Unit entered failed state.
Aug 20 06:48:30 servername systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'start-limit-hit'.
File details just inside the array.
username@servername:~$ ls -l /canister/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 5 nobody nogroup 62 Jan 3 2019 loading_zone
drwxrwsr-x 5 root plex 70 Jan 3 2019 media
drwxr-xr-x 3 plex plex 21 Jan 10 2018 plexmediaserver
drwxr-xr-x 10 plexpy nogroup 4096 Aug 11 23:11 plexpy
