Plex service not starting

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

I’ve been running Plex on an Ubuntu server for many years with only minor issues. Today I can’t get Plex to start at all and the service is failing. I’m a Linux novice so troubleshooting it is not easy for me. I’ve tried reinstalling it a few times but still no luck. I always keep everything running the latest updates, so I’m the latest version of everything. One thing of note is that I have been having to do a manual fsck a few times recently on my SSD when rebooting for some reason, and I had to do that today when starting the machine. Since where I normally run this doesn’t have a monitor, when I troubleshoot it I run it from my desk and the main change is that I then use wifi instead of the normal eithernet cable. Doubt that matters and I’ve run Plex this way before, but just adding all the variables.

Below is the result of sudo journalctl -xe | grep -i plex

Jul 22 12:40:56 peter-nuc sudo[5510]:    peter : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/etc/systemd/system ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/service plexmediaserver start
Jul 22 12:40:57 peter-nuc systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server...
-- Subject: A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has begun execution
-- A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has begun execution.
Jul 22 12:40:57 peter-nuc systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished successfully
-- A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished successfully.
Jul 22 12:40:57 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=255/EXCEPTION
-- An ExecStart= process belonging to unit plexmediaserver.service has exited.
Jul 22 12:40:57 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
-- The unit plexmediaserver.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Jul 22 12:41:02 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
-- Automatic restarting of the unit plexmediaserver.service has been scheduled, as the result for
Jul 22 12:41:02 peter-nuc systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: A stop job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished
-- A stop job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished.
Jul 22 12:41:02 peter-nuc systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server...
-- Subject: A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has begun execution
-- A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has begun execution.
Jul 22 12:41:02 peter-nuc systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished successfully
-- A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished successfully.
Jul 22 12:41:02 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=255/EXCEPTION
-- An ExecStart= process belonging to unit plexmediaserver.service has exited.
Jul 22 12:41:02 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
-- The unit plexmediaserver.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Jul 22 12:41:08 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 2.
-- Automatic restarting of the unit plexmediaserver.service has been scheduled, as the result for
Jul 22 12:41:08 peter-nuc systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: A stop job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished
-- A stop job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished.
Jul 22 12:41:08 peter-nuc systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server...
-- Subject: A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has begun execution
-- A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has begun execution.
Jul 22 12:41:08 peter-nuc systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished successfully
-- A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished successfully.
Jul 22 12:41:08 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=255/EXCEPTION
-- An ExecStart= process belonging to unit plexmediaserver.service has exited.
Jul 22 12:41:08 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
-- The unit plexmediaserver.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Jul 22 12:41:13 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
-- Automatic restarting of the unit plexmediaserver.service has been scheduled, as the result for
Jul 22 12:41:13 peter-nuc systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: A stop job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished
-- A stop job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished.
Jul 22 12:41:13 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Jul 22 12:41:13 peter-nuc systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
-- The unit plexmediaserver.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Jul 22 12:41:13 peter-nuc systemd[1]: Failed to start Plex Media Server.
-- Subject: A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has failed
-- A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished with a failure.
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Please navigate, using the shell, into /var/lib/plexmediaserver and down until you see Logs.

Now create a tar.gz or ZIP of the Logs directory and attach it.

1 Like
3

Logs.zip (1.9 MB)

4

As I feared, your database is corrupt. (abrupt power off/failure).

Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.216 [0x7faad3158700] INFO - Plex Media Server v1.19.5.3112-b23ab3896 - Ubuntu PC x86_64 - build: linux-x86_64 debian - GMT -05:00
Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.216 [0x7faad3158700] INFO - Linux version: 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa), language: en-US
Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.216 [0x7faad3158700] INFO - Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7100U CPU @ 2.40GHz
Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.216 [0x7faad3158700] INFO - /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server
Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.217 [0x7faad3ecd180] DEBUG - BPQ: [Idle] -> [Starting]
Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.217 [0x7faad3ecd180] DEBUG - FeatureManager: Using cached data for features list
Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.218 [0x7faad3ecd180] DEBUG - Opening 20 database sessions to library (com.plexapp.plugins.library), SQLite 3.26.0, threadsafe=1
Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.219 [0x7faad3ecd180] ERROR - SQLITE3:(nil), 11, database corruption at line 66053 of [bf8c1b2b7a]
Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.219 [0x7faad3ecd180] ERROR - SQLITE3:(nil), 11, database disk image is malformed in "PRAGMA cache_size=2000"
Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.219 [0x7faad3ecd180] ERROR - Database corruption: sqlite3_statement_backend::prepare: database disk image is malformed for SQL: PRAGMA cache_size=2000
Jul 22, 2020 12:41:08.219 [0x7faad3ecd180] ERROR - Error: Unable to set up server: sqlite3_statement_backend::prepare: database disk image is malformed for SQL: PRAGMA cache_size=2000 (N4soci10soci_errorE)

The best remedy here is to use (copy) one of the backups as shown in this procedure.
I suggest going direct to the ‘copy the backup copy’ step. attempting to repair the other database is often unsuccessful.

Once copied, Refresh all metadata and you’ll be back in sync with any media you added. If you 've made other changes, please check them.

1 Like
5

Thank you for this! I ran into a corrupt database last month too for some reason after doing a full refresh of metadata and the repair had failed at the time. At the time I wasn’t aware of the automated backups so had to start from scratch. You just saved me a ton of effort since there was apparently a backup from last night. I just restored it and it worked. Thank you so much!

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