I am a Plex Pass user experiencing a critical and persistent issue with Plex Media Server on my M1 Mac Mini, now running macOS Sequoia 15.5.
The problem: the web interface fails to load, displaying an infinite spinning circle, even when accessed directly via http://127.0.0.1:32400/web. This has persisted since macOS Ventura 13.6, through to a clean update and reinstall under Sequoia.
Here’s a complete list of what I’ve done so far:
Originally encountered the issue on macOS Ventura 13.6 — web UI spinning, no logs generated.
Performed extensive troubleshooting on Ventura:
• Checked all permissions and privacy settings
• Tested in Safe Mode
• Validated the main Plex database (PRAGMA integrity_check) — returned “ok”
Decided to upgrade macOS to Sequoia 15.5 to rule out system-level issues.
Completely uninstalled Plex, including:
• ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/
• ~/Library/Caches/
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.plexapp.plexmediaserver.plist
• Emptied Trash and restarted Mac before reinstall
Reinstalled the latest Plex version (v1.41.9) downloaded directly from plex.tv
Removed quarantine flags and manually installed via Terminal
Tested on a brand-new macOS user account — same behavior
Granted Full Disk Access and Files & Folders permissions under System Settings > Privacy & Security
Ran the following command:
tail -f ~/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Logs/Plex\ Media\ Server.log
Result: “No such file or directory”
Verified manually — the entire Logs folder is missing, even after fresh install
Not using VPNs, third-party firewalls, or security tools
Plex fails to generate any logs, even during startup
Request for Support:
Given that this issue has persisted across:
Multiple macOS versions (Ventura and Sequoia)
Multiple user profiles
Clean reinstallation of both Plex and macOS components
…it seems to point to a deeper compatibility or permission-level failure. I would really appreciate:
• Suggestions for advanced diagnostics or environment tracing
• Recommendations to manually force Plex logging
• Any experience from others with missing Plex log folders
Hello @aiqbal
its been a while since I worked on testing PMS on MacOS where I was repeatedly installed it several times a month and needed a surefire method to make it work, at which point I wrote a detailed howto and shell script to help.
there have been two issues for years,
steps to a complete uninstall
infinite spinner during install.
What I suggest is search the forums for posts / replies made by me where I attached my script called delpms.sh to solve the first problem. My script was based on the Plex support article about this which you should also have a look at in case you haven’t already.
Second problem, the infinite spinner during install is maddening, and took me quite a while to solve asking for help here and making a bug report that flew under the radar, was fixed once by their Safari expert, then emerged again because Apple changes Safari. You will probably be a bit shocked like I was about what’s happening, but I’ll try to remember from memory while I eat some lunch. Let’s say you ran delpms.sh or manually did the steps and rebooted, cleared cache cookies and have Safari running again, and then logged into the plex.tv website (not app.plex.tv just the plex website itself), then dragged the current PMS from Downloads into Applications and double clicked it. What happens iirc is you get very soon to the infinite spinner trying to access the localhost address you listed in step 9 above. I think I wrote about it my bug report that I assumed it was spinning because it was doing something, but it turns out that’s not true. It simply never tries to load the page you told it to. Yes it’s spinning but not actually doing anything, and the solution iirc was to click into the URL location bar in Safari and hit the Return key on your keyboard to actually load the page.
Crazy I know. I hope I remembered correctly. I’ll try to do the procedure again today and double check it still is as I described.
Thank you for your reply and for taking the time to help.
You’re right, using the terminal was likely overkill. I was just trying to be thorough and ensure all permissions were correctly set during the reinstall.
Regarding Activity Monitor:
• Threads: The main Plex Media Server process shows 35 threads.
• CPU Usage and Time: CPU usage remains low (under 1%), and CPU time increases very slowly.
In addition, I ran the following command to check runtime and confirm the version being launched:
ps -eo etime,pid,command | grep -i “Plex Media Server”
This confirmed the currently running version is:
–server-version 1.41.9.9961-46083195d
Despite this, the local web UI continues to show the spinning circle, and no logs are being generated.
Hello Nibbles,
Thank you so much for your detailed reply and for sharing your expertise.
I tried the Return key trick in both Safari and Chrome, but unfortunately it didn’t solve the issue; the spinning circle persists.
I also located your delpms.sh script, and thank you for making that available. I can confirm that during my troubleshooting, I had already manually deleted all of the paths your script targets, along with some additional system-level folders left behind from an old .pkg installation.
It seems my issue is one of those rare cases where the problem persists even on a completely clean system, user profile, and OS. I really appreciate you taking the time to help.
At this point, I’d be very interested to see what happens when you install and attempt to use another similar server type software that has a web UI to access it on the same machine, without launching Plex.
I actually use Radarr, Sonarr, and Prowlarr on the same machine, all of which are similar server type apps with web UIs. They all run without any issues, and their web interfaces load correctly in the browser. This spinning circle problem appears to be isolated exclusively to Plex.
Okay I’ll try a PMS install and see if I can recreate the issue and the workaround.
While I work on it, you might read my bug report from a while back that included detailed steps to reproduce. The issue required me to be pedantic with the details for success.
btw, the last part of delpms asks you to delete the server from Plex’s list of Authorized Devices, but I didn’t see you mention whether you did that as part of the uninstall. If you’re unfamiliar with it, you would use app.plex.tv (or Plex for Mac) and go into Settings > Authorized Devices to find and remove it.
The fact that it’s spinning but not actually loading any webpage is why there are no logs.
Good luck!
@aiqbal - In case you’re still stuck, I tested this out and got PMS to install on my M1 Studio with the current macOS.
I faced the same problems as you, the spinner and failing to launch Setup. I overcame them following this procedure I copied from my previous bug report and updated:
Steps to Uninstall PMS for Mac
Prerequisite (makes life easier) - have a working Plex for Mac installed, the client player.
run delpms.sh a script I’ve posted to the forums a few times.
In Plex For Mac click into the wrench icon Settings → Authorized Devices → Server and remove any left over PMS for Mac if it’s listed.
quit out of Plex for Mac.
Empty Mac trash.
In Safari close any tabs and do History → Clear History → All History → Clear History
Restart the Mac → Reopen windows not checked
Steps to then Install PMS for Mac
Extract PMS from the zip and drop it into /Applications.
Start Safari and (⇧⌘N) to open a new Private Window.
Close the non-private window.
Double click the Plex Media Server app in /Applications
Accept the popup message telling macOS that you want to run PMS which was downloaded from the Internet.
Accept the popup message allowing PMS to find devices on the local network.
Dismiss the Notifications popup for now. You can allow them later if you desire.
PMS runs and Safari loads the Plex Sign-in page.
Sign in to your Plex account by choosing Continue with Email, entering the username & password and clicking Sign-In
Here is where the install goes awry as Safari tries to load
app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/server/1234758590abcdefghijklmnopqrs/await which is not a functional URL for this procedure on macOS.
you also see Initializing Plex Media Server and the dreaded spinner.
but if you look up at the right side of the URL bar, you don’t see an X as if it’s loading.
Don’t panic. You are one step away from making this work.
The spinner may eventually stop with an error message “Something went wrong,” but you don’t have to wait for that.
The correct URL you need to visit is as follows:
Click into the URL bar in the same tab and change it to say only this by typing it in:
