Plexmediaserver will not start

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: Ubuntu Server 24.04
Player Version#:

I’m trying to install and setup a plex server on my home server. I attempted to set it up through docker first, but it wouldn’t even spin up a container (as far as I can tell). I cleared out all the directors and files that I tried to use to setup the docker container, and I pruned all the containers.

Now I’m trying to go through the process of installing and running through the repo. When I check systemctl status plexmediaserver.service, it shows that it’s not running, and no matter how many times I try to start it, it will not start. I looked and I don’t show any containers for plex. I’m not even sure if that’s the issue.

I’m banging my head against the wall at this point because I’ve pored hours into this and I can’t even get to setting it up…

To be upfront, I’m pretty beginner at all of this. I’m not even good enough to be a script kiddy, so you’ll have to kind of hold my hand through this… lol

2

This is what it kicks back when I check the status.

× plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2025-03-02 18:22:48 UTC; 2min 57s ago
   Duration: 71ms
    Process: 16123 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/test -d "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" || /bin/mkdir -p "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 16125 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c  export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_VENDOR="$(grep ^NAME= /etc/os-release | awk -F= "{print \$2}" | tr -d \" )";  export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_MODEL="$(uname -m)";  export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_PLAT>
   Main PID: 16125 (code=exited, status=255/EXCEPTION)
        CPU: 77ms

Mar 02 18:22:48 void systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
Mar 02 18:22:48 void systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Mar 02 18:22:48 void systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 02 18:22:48 void systemd[1]: Failed to start plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server.```
3

Server logs might give you some more detailed insight on what’s going wrong.

4 
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.581 [133883186129720] INFO - Linux version: 24.04.2 LTS (Noble Numbat), language: en-US
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.581 [133883186129720] INFO - Processor: 6-core Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-9500 CPU @ 3.00GHz
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.581 [133883186129720] INFO - Compiler is - Clang 11.0.1 (https://plex.tv 9b997da8e5b47bdb4a9425b3a3b290be393b4b1f)
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.581 [133883186129720] INFO - /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.582 [133883277224592] DEBUG - BPQ: [Idle] -> [Starting]
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.582 [133883277224592] DEBUG - FeatureManager: Using cached data for features list
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.584 [133883277224592] DEBUG - MyPlex: mapping state set to 'Unknown'.
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.584 [133883277224592] DEBUG - Relay: read 0 cached entries from hosts file
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.584 [133883277224592] DEBUG - Opening 20 database sessions to library (com.plexapp.plugins.library), SQLite 3.39.4, threadsafe=1
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.609 [133883277224592] DEBUG - MyPlex: no cached data to load for request for https://plex.tv/api/v2/server/users/features
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.626 [133883277224592] DEBUG - HttpServer: Listening on IPv6 as well as IPv4.
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.626 [133883277224592] ERROR - HttpServer: Error binding acceptor: Address in use
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.626 [133883277224592] ERROR - HttpServer: Error opening acceptor on IPv6, falling back to IPv4: Address in use
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.626 [133883277224592] ERROR - HttpServer: Error binding acceptor: Address in use
Mar 02, 2025 19:00:11.626 [133883277224592] DEBUG - Exiting due to bind address already in use```
5

Bind address already in use. I assume the port is already being used. Which makes sense. I trying to setup a docker container and ran into issues and spun it down and deleted everything. But I imaging there is still a container running… But I can’t find it. I have a thread open on docker trying to figure that out…

6

sudo lsof -i tcp:32400

may give you some interesting results.

7 
[sudo] password for void: 
COMMAND     PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
Plex\x20M 20515 void   51u  IPv6  88339      0t0  TCP *:32400 (LISTEN)
8

you have a duplicate process running is what I’m assuming. So plex is already running via a different instance.

9

That’s absolutely the issue… I just don’t know how to fix it because I can’t find the other instance.

10

do ps aux | grep -i plex

11

Did you already stop and remove your failed Docker container attempt?
sudo docker ps -a # List all containers

If the status shows ‘Up’ it means the container is currently running. To stop it:
sudo docker stop container_name

To subsequently remove it:
sudo docker container rm container_name

The last two commands assume you started the container initially with docker run. If instead you used docker compose up (with a docker-compose.yml file), then you simply need to change to the directory where your docker-compose.yml file lives and run docker down.

After doing this, you may want to restart the host to ensure everything is cleaned up. It shouldn’t really be necessary, but…

12

You already know it, it’s PID 20515 that has the port open. It’s right there in the lsof output.

13

I’m having an issue with docker right now also. I can’t see any of my containers when I run docker ps -a but I still have access to the web UI of the containers I have running.

I’m nearly at the point that I’m going to backup all my files and rebuild my server…

14

are you running sudo? you need sudo.

15

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