Plex Server Become Unclaimable

Plex Media Server Remote Access
1

Server Version#: v1.43.5.11079-b3b13e506
Player Version#: Plex Web Version 4.163.0
I’m looking for help with a Plex Media Server that appears to have entered a broken ownership/authorization state.

Yesterday I updated the vulnerable 1.42.2.10156 with 1.43.5.11079 (direct install, Ubuntu), afterwards I reset my password with signing off on all devices. After that I successfully reclaimed both my Plex servers (local network and global network) and ensured everything works perfectly fine.

Overnight, my local server became unclaimed while the global server lost remote access and became unavailable through plex.tv. Local server got reclaimed with no issues, but the global one remained unavailable.

The server itself remained healthy:

  • Plex Media Server process was running
  • Local web access worked
  • The server could reach Plex cloud services
  • DNS/networking appeared normal

At that point the server was still my existing claimed server.

Reclaim attempts

While troubleshooting, I signed out of the server and attempted to reclaim it.

After doing so, the server became effectively unclaimable.

The claim workflow behaves as follows:

  1. Sign-in succeeds.
  2. The setup wizard starts normally.
  3. The server briefly appears under Authorized Devices.
  4. The wizard proceeds to server setup.
  5. During setup (usually around the “Add Library” stage), the UI reports “Not Authorized”.
  6. The server disappears again and is no longer associated with the account. It is still present in the Authorized Devices however.

What I have tested

I tried to make PMS to regenerate local settings - didn’t help. I then nuked the install completely and re-installed fresh - this time in Docker. However, the fresh Docker deployment reproduces the exact same failure.

Certificates

During troubleshooting I reviewed the Plex certificate recovery documentation because logs contained certificate-related entries.

However:

  • Plex successfully downloaded replacement certificates
  • Plex successfully installed replacement certificates
  • The authorization problem remained unchanged

Additional detail

I have another Plex server on the same Plex account.

That server was successfully claimed and is functioning normally, which makes me think this is unlikely to be a general account issue.

Question

Has anyone seen a server lose its claim/ownership state in a way that survives:

  • fresh Plex configuration,
  • and even a completely fresh Docker deployment?

Any ideas on what to investigate next would be appreciated.

2

What do you mean by this? It is at some hosting provider? We would likely need the server logs to see how it is trying to connect to plex.tv

3

Sorry, my communication skills elude me after hours in the terminal. By global I mean a server not in my local network and available remotely as opposed to my other server…

Does raw “Plex Media Server.log” contain any sensitive info if uploaded as-is? Or do you need some specific entries? I just reinstalled it and the log is already 8Mb

4

It can have your email and IP address.

You can click on my username/avatar to message it directly to me.