Plex Server on WD My Cloud PR2100 Not Claiming / Not Appearing on Plex Account

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

I’m running Plex Media Server on a WD My Cloud PR2100 NAS, using the latest .bin from Plex’s official download page. The server starts and is reachable via http://192.168.4.20:32400/web, but no matter what I do, it will not appear under my Plex account at https://plex.tv/servers. It seems to ignore all valid claim tokens and never sets the PlexOnlineToken.

This all worked fine until I upgraded my HDDs from 2x 6TB to 2x 14TB. I had some issues initially after restoring my media backup and thought I might simply need to rebuild the server from scratch, so I deleted the server from the web app, but now the MyCloudPro server won’t appear at all locally. I’ve been troubleshooting this for many hours, and I’m stuck. I did get a message that said if the server came back online it would automatically be re-added, but I can no longer see it. I have another server running on my PC using the same media share, which is fine. But the MyCloudPro server has vanished.

:wrench: What I’ve Done:

  • Reinstalled Plex using the official .bin for My Cloud PR2100
  • Cleared all Plex config files (Preferences.xml, Info.xml, etc.)
  • Reapplied claim tokens via both:
    • Preferences.xml (with PLEX_CLAIM="claim-xxxxx")
    • Environment variable injection at runtime
  • Waited up to 2 minutes after applying token
  • Confirmed NAS can reach https://plex.tv (tested with curl)
  • Verified system time is accurate via date
  • Confirmed Preferences.xml exists and is writable
  • No PlexOnlineToken ever appears after any startup attempt
  • No server shows on my Plex account (despite many reclaims)
  • Created clean config folders, reset permissions, and tried multiple reinstall cycles
  • Local server UI is accessible, but always reports:

“The server you’re trying to access doesn’t seem to exist.”

:test_tube: Environment:

  • WD My Cloud PR2100
  • Server hostname: MyCloudPro
  • Latest .bin downloaded from plex.tv/downloads
  • Plex version: 1.41.6.9685

:white_check_mark: Things That Are Working:

  • Local Plex dashboard loads at http://192.168.4.20:32400/web
  • NAS can reach the internet (curl https://plex.tv returns 200)
  • Local network access is fine
  • Claim token is inserted correctly, both via XML and environment variable
  • Plex launches cleanly and shows expected processes via ps

:cross_mark: What’s Not Working:

  • Claim token is never applied
  • No PlexOnlineToken is generated
  • No server appears in Plex account
  • No server identity links between NAS and https://plex.tv/servers

:magnifying_glass_tilted_left: My Theories:

  • The .bin file may have a bug or be misconfigured (despite being the latest)
  • There’s some silent failure in Plex’s internal claim mechanism
  • My original server identity (MachineIdentifier) may have become orphaned in the cloud

:megaphone: What I Need:

  • Help diagnosing why no claim token is being applied
  • Confirmation from Plex if my original server identity (MachineIdentifier=356bfd79-f352-46d2-841e-0e59dc826367) is in a bad or locked state
  • Advice on how to manually rebind the NAS instance to my Plex account
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I’d like to add some important context to my previous comment.

While troubleshooting why I was getting a “Not authorized” page when accessing Plex on my WD PR2100, I mistakenly believed the issue was caused by a conflict between an old server/device registration and my current environment.

At the time:

  1. I was unaware that the problem was actually caused by being on a different IP subnet than the NAS.

  2. In an attempt to fix this, I removed the PR2100 from my Devices list and also removed the Plex server from my account via the web interface, expecting that I could just re-set it up again cleanly.

  3. I had also swapped in new drives and restored media from backup — but the NAS hardware and hostname (MyCloudPro) remained the same.

Since doing this:

Plex starts and is reachable at http://192.168.4.20:32400/web

But no new server is generated (Info.xml and PlexOnlineToken are never created)

Claim tokens have no effect — whether injected via Preferences.xml or runtime

The UI reports “The server you’re trying to access doesn’t seem to exist.”

It feels like the server identity is now orphaned or blocked from being rebuilt or reclaimed.

Could you please advise:

Whether my old MachineIdentifier might be blocked or invalidated

And whether there’s a way to reset the server linkage on your end so the PR2100 can re-establish a valid server instance

I really appreciate any help resolving this!

3

@treat_yourself Can you please try using the current Beta release 1.41.7? There is a fix for WD devices around signing which may be helpful to your situation. Seeing as you have a Plex Pass, you should be able to check out this build.

I don’t see that your MyCloudPro device holding the MachineIdentifier=356bfd79-f352-46d2-841e-0e59dc826367. I do see that you’ve removed it but it is only “soft” removed. After some time this machine will be removed. I also saw that you had a rather old PMS linked to your account that was last seen over 5 years ago. I have removed this device.

Please check out the beta release and let me know how it goes. It seems like you have SSH access so if you are still having issues can you grab your PMS logs and share them?

1 Like
4

Thank you for the response. This is now resolved.

I was able to spin up a temp Plex server in Docker, claim it and then transfer preferences.xml across to the PR2100 instance. This has resolved the issue. Unfortunately, I’ve lost the info.xml so I’m rebuilding the server and metadata now from scratch.

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