Plex server missing even after full VM restore

[StealthAssassin]

Server Version#: 2016
Player Version#: 1.22.1.4275-48e10484b

having issues when I installed 1.22.1.4275-48e10484b. It now says the server is unavailable. Running Server 2016. I accidently logged in as a second user but I exited the server, and deleted the Plex registry key for the current user then signed back in as the appropriate user and launched Plex.

I also gave it a whole day in case it had to upgrade the DB after the update. Someone said to try removing it from authorized devices and sign back in. After doing that, it won’t show back up. I did a full VM restore back to when it was working and the server still doesn’t show up in Plex, not sure if it’s something the mods need to help with on the back end?

[MonsterMaxx]

I changed from having Plex on Win7 metal to being a Win10 VM on WinSrv19.

It was a total pita to get running due to me reusing the same server name for Plex Server. Once I fixed that and Plex was resolving the server name correctly, the rest of the setup was easy.

Go to settings and Authorized Devices and see what’s there. Look for the Plex Server, if more than one plex server, delete the old one.

They removed the setting location where you tell plex where it’s data structure is. Now you have to edit the registry if you are using it in anyplace but the stock location

That was a month ago. There was some other tinkering I had to do, but I’ve forgotten already.

My $.02, run plex in a clean Win10 VM on your server, use plex as a service. Since you already have server, you have everything you need.

That’s my setup and it runs great. 10x better than the old way I was doing it.

[StealthAssassin]

Thank you for your reply. There was another post that had suggested I remove it from Authorized Devices then sign out and back in. I removed the old and correct server names then signed out and back in but it’s not finding the correct one. How do I bring that back?

For telling where the data structure is, where in the registry do I edit that? I checked under HKCU\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server but didn’t see a location for path. There is a PubSubServer key, do I need to change that to the IP of where my data is stored (on my synology server)?

I agree using plex as a service was nice, I did that awhile ago but had stopped because every update would break it and you’d have to wait for the person that made the plex as a service file to update it before it’d work again. Maybe I’ll give it another go to avoid all the confusion.

[MonsterMaxx]

here’s the whitepaper on editing the location.

[HowTo] An extended guide on how to move the Plex data folder on Windows

By default, Plex server stores all its own data on the system drive, in the AppData path of the Windows user. You might want to change that location, if your system drive is a small SSD or you are simply having capacity issues. Moving Plex data to a dedicated drive also makes it easier to retain your Plex server data when changing machines or re-installing Windows from scratch. For larger servers/collections, I recommend a dedicated, internal SSD drive. Exit/End/Quit/Close plex, using the t…

I did the same thing with mine, deleted both, and I forget how I solved it. Maybe stop and restart plex server itself.

I did the plex as a service method where you use task scheduler. Works perfectly every time.

You need to get plex server running perfectly before you do plex as a service. It will only do what it’s already doing.

Make sure you are using the \\servername\share method for linking your movie/tv locations.

[StealthAssassin]

So I followed that article, I did find that under HKU default the key there for the local app data path was set to the user I accidently logged in as. I exited the server, stopped the service, modified that key, and added the one under HKCU for local app data path even though the server isn’t stored on the synology, just the movies are. Restarted the server > signed out of the app and back in but it still shows the server templates and doesn’t show my server “shadow”

[StealthAssassin]

I don’t like articles that end without the solution, it’s so frustrating when the original person who made the post comes back and says I figured it out but doesn’t post the solution. So hopefully this helps someone else out.

Basically I kept getting a template server popping up but couldn’t find my original server even after a full VM restore. I thought I had Plex setup under my service account however it was actually under another Windows username that I had logged in with back when I originally set it up. I thought I had transferred over the files but apparently I didn’t.

I noticed this when I checked all the user profiles under %appdatalocal%\Plex Media Server and my personal one had a much larger file and I noticed more of my folder structure under the Metadata folder.

To transfer it over to the correct account, all I did was sign out of Plex on the personal account, exit the PMS, stop the Plex service, then deleted Plex Media Server folder on the service account (or you can rename the folder to .old at the end I guess), then copied over the correct Plex Media Service Folder to the service account. After that I launched PMS on the service account, signed in, claimed the server, deleted the old one from authorized devices, and renamed the claimed server to my desired name. It maintained the watch history as expected.

Hopefully this helps someone, it was a pretty simple fix in hindsight knowing what the issue is now but it was pretty frustrating before.