so I’ve set up plex on 2 new devices, 1 on my MacBook which is fine, when I launched the app It automatically detected my server, but on my new pc running windows 7 it doesn’t and therefore I can’t add anything from that pc to my library, but I can see someone else’s library and when I go to edit the library it allows me to add stuff from the device to this “Ryan’s plex’s” library, but I can’t watch any of his content as it says the drive is not mounted, which is fine, I don’t want, all I want is for plex to add this new server the same way it did on my MacBook and I really don’t want to see anyone else’s library, is it just cause he’s recently shared his library and is close to me?
Are you running the client on the Windows PC? If so you won’t be able to add anything to it in any case. Most of the desktop style clients don’t support that.
There are 2 pieces of software within the Plex Ecosystem. On is the Media Server (which is required.) and the other is a client app (for playing the media from the server.) It sounds to me as though you might not have a server app installed on a device, or if you do, it’s not installed on the device you are trying to add media to.
You have to move the media from the desktop machine to a folder that is scanned by your library in Plex Media Server. All of the media you have in your libraries need to be on drives the PMS machine has access to. (IE. Mounted by that machine and not on another machine without at least a network connection by the PMS machine.)
Now, if your desktop machine is running PMS, that’s a different issue. As long as the PMS machine can see the media in the folders, you should be able to add the media to a library by pointing (editing) the library to that folder. If you can’t see the media from the PMS machine, either you don’t have the permissions set up right, the media isn’t in the paths you think its in, or the PMS machine networked to it (if networked)
Rather than replying in the thread you started here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/272808/do-i-have-to-just-keep-creating-threads-until-someone-from-plex-actually-provides-some-support#latest reply directly IN THIS THREAD. I’ve got it earmarked and will look in on any replies you make.
As for the thread I linked to above. Do NOT start making a new thread because you aren’t getting support. You have had some of the more knowledgeable users in the community already offering you help. They can’t be sitting in front of your PC’s to see what’s going on, nor can they type things into your keyboard. That means YOU are the eyes, ears and hands they will be using to resolve your issues. Be kind to them. They are users just as YOU are! (And some of the users in this community know as much or more about how Plex works than the programmers do.)
I have installed the app, many many times, I’ve deleted and reinstalled so many times I can’t keep count
I totally agree an I haven’t been unkind to anyone nor do I intend to, there was a misunderstanding but if you read my response I totally apologised for it and I appreciate anything and everything, but I think maybe I’m not phrasing the problem correctly because I keep getting answers to questions I don’t believe I’m asking,
so to be clear, when I install the app on my win 7 pc it isn’t discovering my ip like it does when installed it on my MacBook and on my win 10 pc and therefore I can’t add anything on that device.
Which app, though? The client app or the server app?
It sounds to me as though you are trying to run the client app as though it’s the server. Plex isn’t like that at all.
You have a server (which can play media through your browser) or a client (which has a dedicated player running in it.) It’s possible you have BOTH, but I’m not going to say one way or the other until you confirm it.
At this point, I’m going to suggest you start with deleting the entire suite from the one machine. (PC) Refer to here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201941078-Uninstall-Plex-Media-Server and here for further for instructions: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/207336318-Uninstalling-Plex-Media-Player
Keep in mind, the first link is for Plex Media SERVER. The second one is for Plex Media PLAYER. (They are as different as night and day!) Follow the instructions for the app you have installed. If you have both, REMOVE BOT H!
EDIT (See the little gear icon above the post? Use this! It allows you to edit a post to include more information.)
pls disregard the part of the post about seeing someone else’s plex, thats the least of my issues,
again the issue is when I install the app it isn’t detecting the server on that device and therefore I am unable to create any libraries, but for some reason It sees my server when I try to add content to whoever plex that is shared that I can see.
ok ill remove it or both, I wasn’t aware there was a player and server, as mentioned before I have plex on 2 other devices and it works perfect, I was pretty sure I followed the same procedure to install it on my win 7 pc, but what you are suggesting does make sense to me and you obviously know a lot more than me so ill go ahead and delete and get back to you, once agin thank you so much for your help
Next up, I want you to stop referring to different machines ambiguously.
You should have Plex Media Server running on only ONE machine, period at this point. Adding in 2 or more is only confusing the issue, which is what we have going on right now. If you have PMS installed on your Mac, turn the Mac off. If it’s installed on the Win10 box, leave it on.
Next up, Teamviewer is a free to use desktop support tool that can be sued to help someone in situations like this. You install TeamViewer on your PC, and then PM me the machine ID and password. I log into it, and then I can see what we have going on. I will help you out just this one time for free. Any additional help needed is going to cost you. And my rates are double what you have already been quoted in another thread. (Yeah, that’s right, DOUBLE. I’m that fricking good!)
ok I don’t understand why I can’t have it running on seperate devices, seems to work fine, especially when mywin 10 is full and running slow and I can’t add media unless I have it running on that specific server, but its highly possible I’m not articulating myself correctly since my knowledge on the subject is extremely limited
I already have team viewer, but as I’m uninstalling plex, it says plex media server not player, I could be wrong but to me that suggests its the server not the player, but in case I am wrong how do I know? should I just follow both uninstalling steps?
You want ONE server and a number of client devices that play the media. And I’m not going to troubleshoot 2 or 3 PMS installs.
HDD’s are cheap, so adding in more disk space should be pretty straight forward. Just get external drives that can use your USB3/2 connection and add more space. Keep the media off of the main system drive. (Usually C:/) Filling this drive up with media can really hamper a good Plex Ecosystem.
I run 1 PMS machine and have 10-12 clients I access the media through. (Remotely or locally) As well as a number of friends I share my media with. They all access the media through Remote connections. This is with over 5K movies and another 10K+ TV episodes spanning over 30TB of drives… (And no, I only share with people I personally know, or can reach out and “touch”, so don’t bother asking for an invite anyone…)
@MikeG6.5 Can I have an invite?? LOL Just had to ask, hopefully, made you smile.
Just spent a couple of hours working through the OP’s issues on this via TV. it seems he was trying to edit the PMS install on his MacBook and not on the WinServer 2008R2. Once we got the other 2 boxes shut down, we could do what he wanted to do. (That and the drive he was running the OS on had an install of PMS on it once upon a time, so the libraries it was pointing to weren’t there any more…)
Tweaked things up, got it all working and he should be happy now…
and NO!!! No cookies for you @sGarver !!! 
(I actually did smile a bit, you smarta$$)
haha very grateful for the help, glad I could be involved in putting a smile on both your dials, although I wasn’t trying to edit from the MacBook, that was just the server I had viewed at that time,it was just the old install that had me baffled, I thought I was seeing someone else’s server and mine wasn’t showing up, but either way I’m very very appreciative and happy now thanks a million @“MikeG6.5”
I have the same problem! Already have the server on an iMac appearing on the TV app but when I try to add the server on my Windows computer it sees it but can’t access it. Says I need to be logged in yet I am! I’ve lost count how many times I’ve checked the IP on my Windows computer and what I’ve entered. The Firewall is no issue. There is a password on my computer and if that’s the issue I can’t see how to get around it.
