Plex not working after power outage

Server Version#: 1.28.2.6151-914ddd2b3
Player Version#: 4.90.1

Hi everyone,

Last night after a 5-minute power outage, Plex stopped working. I backed-up the plexmediaserver folder before uninstalling Plex Media Server and reinstalled it to its latest version, but it prompted me to create my libraries again, losing all my metadata and collections. The old server is still there, with a warning that says it’s not available. What can I do to turn it back up?

Thanks in advance.

Did you already have a look at the (old) server logs?
Could be the power outage resulted in some database corruption that might (or might not) be repairable.

How do I do that, I’m not that savvy sorry

see the support articles linked in the two highlighted sections of my post (orange links).

I can’t seem to find the “Manage” option within the settings…

Screenshot 2022-09-04 193924

The support article also highlights how you can obtain your server logs if you can no longer connect to the server via the web app.

Oh yes, let me know if this helps
Plex Media Server.log (540.3 KB)

Si I attepmpted to follow the repair instructions but get this error when trying to run any SQLite command:

Error: attempt to write a readonly database

What should I do?

You need to make sure plex is closed/not running prior to doing the repair

Hi, thanks for jumping in, I did stop the process from the terminal before trying to run the command.

Hey so since I can’t get past this error I went ahead and created a new server. All of the metadata, collections and watched history of my previous server is still there in the folders (and I’ve since backed it up) but it’s not showing up on my new server… do I need to move the data to a different folder?

Can anyone help?

I’m not exactly sure what you did… if you actually wiped the old server, there won’t be any data left for the new server to use. (as in: not just uninstalling the server app but also deleting the server’s data directory).

What folder do you mean when you write “All of the metadata, collections and watched history of my previous server is still there in the folder”?

I did not wipe the old server, I simply created a new one pointing to the same files. The folder I meant, containing all metadata for the old server (which is now inaccessible) is located at:

/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server

The new server doesn’t seem to be able to access that data…

If you’re using a plain PMS install on your Linux (e.g. no separate VM or container), there’ll be only 1 PMS per instance, pointing to the same server data directory.

Yes, but the new server is the only one on right now… Should I delete everything including that folder (I’ve already backed it up) and start over?

Is it filesystem corruption that mounted it read only? boot a live USB and run fsck on the drives to try and recover the filesystem.

I’m sorry I’m not really sure how to do that

Please make a tar.gz or zip of the Logs directory under Plex Media Server.

This will give us a starting point.

Sure thing! Here’s the file: Logs.zip (744.2 KB)