Hardware: Synology DS416Play
DSM: 6.2.2-24922 Update 4
PMS Version#: PMS 1.19.3.2831.181d9145d
(I’m actually slightly confused on this, because as I wrote this post, I applied the latest update direclty from Plex, PMS 1.19.3.2843.e3c1f7bcd. However, under Package Manager, it still reports Plex as the version listed above, 2831.
Paging ChuckPa… He looks like the dude that knows his stuff and has solved many a problem! (Of course, I don’t wish to exclude anyone else that’s able to help!)
I’ve got an odd problem running Plex on my Synology NAS. Lately, after running for a while (days? weeks?) I find that Plex is no longer running. When I try to start it from the Package Center, it takes a while and then I get the message: “Failed to run the package service”. No matter what I do, I can’t get it to restart. I’ve applied updates to PMS when they are available, and though they install fine, Plex won’t start. In other words, this problem has persisted across versions. After rebooting the NAS, however, Plex comes right up and seems to work fine for a time. Then one day, the problem is back.
I tried following the steps in the forums to get the logs, but for whatever reason, I could never see the /Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/ folder in File Station. [shrug…] I was able to SSH in, stumbled around through the hierarchy, and make a zip file of /Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/.
I have attached this zip file to this post.
I’d be extremely grateful for some help understanding what’s happening and how to fix it. Also, would it helpful to find some Synology logs showing what’s happening when I try to start Plex? If so, what logs should I get and where do I find them?
Thank you both for your suggestions! I’ve followed your instructions and it’s appeared to fix things. Plex starts right up now. I do have some remaining questions though.
First, I’m naturally concerned that the database became corrupted. Is that normal? Any ideas what would cause it?
Second, I’m confused why rebooting the server would fix it. If the database is corrupt, then wouldn’t a reboot still leave Plex unable to start? Yet it would, and it would stream. Then after some period of time, it would be down again.
Third, and this seems the most baffling to me, I restored my database from a backup made 14 May 2020. After doing so, Plex started right up. But I am almost certain, like 99.99999% certain, that all the symptoms I’m describing in my original post started happening months ago. Certainly long before 11 days ago. If the database had become corrupted, it seems like the copy from 14 May would be corrupted too. In fact, the oldest backup I have is 5 May, which is after the problem started. So that confuses me and even makes me wonder if I had another problem occurring earlier? Seems like an unlikely coincidence. Still, it’s hard to argue since your instructions got everything working.
The last comments I’ll add are that I followed the instructions not through the GUI but through ssh. I’ve been trying to get better at that skill. The oddities I noticed are:
My user account didn’t have permission to the Plex directory. Yet my user account is an administrative account. I thought it would have permissions. So through DSM, I gave my account read/write access to the Plex directory. Is it OK to leave that way? This shouldn’t be a security risk, right? (I realize that giving the Plex user access to my personal directories would be, but since I care far more about my personal data than the files in Plex, I’ve got bigger problems my user account should get breeched.)
Is there not a way to give the admin group access to the Plex directory, so that my user or any other admin users would get also inherit access?
While connected via SSH, I was not able to change the owner of the copied Plex db to be the Plex user (instead of my user that I was logged in with). When trying to use chown, I got a message along the lines of “chown: operation not permitted”. Again, this struck me as odd because my user is an admin on my Synology, so I thought I’d have permission to make changes like this. (I quickly gave up and just went in via the GUI to change ownership).
I realize these last three questions are veering away from Plex and more towards the basics of operating my Synology. My apologies if that’s off topic. But I figured I’d ask. Sometimes the most frustrating thing is having a bit of knowledge that comes up just short of being able to fully solve the problem without resorting to help, Googling, or GUIs.
So for what it’s worth, the NAS on a UPS. I’m not using any of the DSM apps, nor is Plex running off media in their folders. I’ve not added or removed files ‘constantly’. Sure, I do occasionally add or remove files, but I’d say that I tend to have longer periods of inactivity between these events. I will try to make optimizing the database part of my routine, though I’d hope Plex can last well enough between optimizations.
Man, it’s amateur hour over here, and I’m the amateur! Yes, you are of course correct. I had forgotten about the music because I initially setup Plex for video only. So I have /volume1/plex/Movies and /TV Shows. Only later did I point Plex to the existing music directory, which was already in place. Sorry about that.
So then, my question is, how should I move the music into Plex? Is it as simple as just making a subdirectory – plex/Music and dragging and dropping? Maybe optimize the db afterwards?
Or is there anything else I should be thinking of?
)
