Hi tkunchick, as this solution is covered within many places within this forum, this was the simplest answer someone came up with to explain a Plex problem that in it’s concept is not a solution. This file can not effect, interact with, change or alter the app in question… It is at it’s base, nothing more than an ON / OFF switch for a service to start or not.
I do appreciate the effort made to offer help on this matter… However, I will attempt to explain in simplest terms as to why this is not a solution and probably never really was. If this worked for you, it was yet another problem of Plex not adding the service to auto start which should have happened during install. This was a bug in Plex, not a fix for the auto start issue.
The .servicerc is basically a text file with a simple function… Each app is either YES or NO to auto start the service when the Drobo starts. If one went through the trouble of un-hidding the file and open it… You will see this.
(In my case)
perl5_enable=“YES”
apache_enable=“YES”
plex_enable="YES"
python2_enable=“YES”
myDrobo_enable=“YES”
locale_enable=“YES”
mysql_enable=“YES”
You see plex_enable=YES.
Problem 1: This would normally tell the Drobo 5N that this app along with the others is supposed to auto start when the Drobo restarts. Here is where it lets you know there is another, deeper issue preventing this action from happening.
Problem 2: As in the case of most users with this issue, even when you try to start Plex manually it will take a few times of clicking start before Plex will actually start.
In short, there is an issue making the auto start and the start function not work correctly in Plex. Thus, if the manual start does not work correctly… The auto start will fail and not work even though it is set to do so.
In simple terms… An app has a process it must go through to include error control upon start up. If this process is flawed, it will fail. If this process has bad error control, it will fail. At some point one could by-pass the error in error control and start the app anyway as a default action.
In the case of Plex, it would seem that this is more likely the case. If you manually start Plex, it will in most cases and for most users take a minimum of two - three clicks before Plex starts and in many cases, it stops again for no apparent reason and must be started again. This is an indication of a problem preventing the start function in Plex from working correctly.
Care to test this?
Pick any other app in your Drobo that you know works properly, click on stop and then start… It should stop and start in one click each time. This would be the correct action and what should happen, thus also allowing the auto-start function to work properly.
Plex does not as stated and shown above.
Best guess, there is a core issue within Plex either in the start-up process and/or within the error control functions that make Plex fail more than not at start-up.
What we need is for someone at Plex to address the issue and have someone discover, troubleshoot and correct this failing process once and for all. This is what is NOT happening!
Someone at Plex: I have tried to help by showing the flaw and perhaps the location of the failed process… Please address this issue so it can be corrected.
