PLEX server does not start anymore on MacOS Monterey

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.42.2
I doubleclick the icon of the Plexserver and it does not load.

It suddenly stopped working 2 weeks ago.

I changed nothing on my side on the computer.

What to do to get it running again?

2

If the Plex Media Server won’t start and doesn’t even get to the stage where it’ll be writing to the server logs, you can attempt the following procedure to see if there’s any error messages on the OS level:

  1. Open Finder and navigate to /Applications
  2. Select Show Content from the context menu of the Plex Media Server.app item
  3. Navigate to Contents/MacOS
  4. Open the Terminal app
  5. Drag the Plex Media Server executable from the Finder window (#3) into the Terminal Window and press Return to execute it

This is no different from running the app, so it won’t succeed – but you should get a more specific error message about what’s causing it to fail starting.

1 Like
3

Hi @tom80H ,

Thx for the fast reply!

I followed your instruction.

This is the message i got in the Terminal: Error: Unable to set up server: sqlite3_statement_backend::loadOne: database disk image is malformed (N4soci10soci_errorE)

4

Looks like your database has been fried. This can happen if you restore a Time Machine backup or Plex gets shutdown while writing to the database.

You can try to repair it, following the official guide or using the more advanced/automated script:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/repair-a-corrupted-database/

If that doesn’t work, you can attempt to restore a working version of the database (if you configured Plex to create those as part of its scheduled jobs):
https://support.plex.tv/articles/202485658-restore-a-database-backed-up-via-scheduled-tasks/

1 Like
5

This is weird… my database is just sitting on my iMac. No restore from a Time Machine whatsoever. The Same kind of thing, the Plex database could not be read anymore’ happened last year on the same machine and it also happened to me on my computer at home.. database could not be read.

This time the problem is a little bit different, but with the same result.

I am afraid it is not me, i did not change anything, just used the Plex software… but it is something in the server software that corrupts it… not OK. I am afraid it will happen again in the future, and solving it cost a lot of time and effort. I am going to look at my (or other) options in this, i need something stable.

nb: the Database repair software is Windows only, i am on a Mac

Thx for the help @tom80H !

6

Allright @tom80H .. i got one of the backup databases in the same folder… renamed it tot the main one and voila… it works again. Still a weird problem. Maybe Plex must add a function in their software to restore an older version!

7

There’s a dedicated subfolder with a Windows specific version of the script. On a Mac, just use the DBRepair.sh script. Instructions on how to run / use it are in the Readme page.

1 Like
8

Awesome! I will check that also out… for the next time :wink:

9

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.