I have a desktop tower which had a working Plex for a few years. I decided to update some drivers. Something went wrong, so I decided to convert the system to Win 10, which I did successfully. But Plex no longer works properly. I have around 5 devices which have a Plex app, but none of them allow access to my media (which is on an external 3TB drive). I have tried several things to get Plex up and running, but to no avail. I have seen a few comments about this kind of problem on the forum, but so for nothing works. I believe I have the latest Plex Media Server (PMS) on my desktop, but I have done nothing to the external devices. I really miss having Plex in my house. Can anyone guide me to restoring this system?
Does this mean you had a different OS before? If so, which?
Your server hasn’t been seen by plex.tv for 12 days now.
Make sure that the network connection of your Windows machine is classified as “private” and not “public”.
If you updated your Windows version from 7 or 8 to 10 while Plex server was already installed on it, uninstall Plex server first, reboot, then install Plex server again.
Make sure not to run “registry cleaners” or “uninstaller” software while doing that.
It might also be necessary to perform this procedure https://support.plex.tv/articles/204281528-why-am-i-locked-out-of-server-settings-and-how-do-i-get-in/
Avoid 3rd-party anti virus software, VPNs, torrent clients, or “internet filter”-type of software.
Otto, the machine was Win 7 while the Plex was usable.
How do I uninstall and reinstall while “not using uninstaller”? I usually use Revo Uninstaller.
Windows has its own list of installed apps from which you can uninstall them.
It used to be called “Control Panel - Software”.
Otto, I did the following: Uninstalled PMS from desktop using Windows apps, rebooted, installed PMS from Plex.tv site. After Plex opens, on the left panel is Plexserve with an explanation mark under it. If I click on it, the right panel says “Plexserve is currently unavailable”. Do I have to follow your suggestion “Why am I locked out of server settings…”? It looks lengthy.
If you want your server back without data loss, yes.
I’m trying to backup a piece of the registry. As I drill down in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, I try to find plex, Inc., but the only thing I see is plex.tv. I can never get to Plex Media Server. What now? Should I backup the whole registry instead of only a piece of it?
Are you logged in as Administrator? Because then “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” is pointing to the Administrator, instead of the actual user account wherein the server is running.
Otto, Have patience with me - I’m old and have forgotten much. How do I log in NOT as an administrator? I believe that is what you are suggesting I should do, correct?
As far as I know, I ordinarily do not log in as Administrator. If I follow the procedure as shown in “Why am I locked out of Server Settings and How do I get in?”, and try to edit the Registry, I cannot reach "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server. Therefore, I’m dead in the water! Can anybody tell me how to change the Registry so I can get beyond “Plexserve is unavailable”?
You must do this on the very same machine which has the Plex Server software installed. It won’t work if you do this on a client machine.
If you are indeed on the same machine, then the registry branch
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server
must exist – if the Plex server software has at least been running on it once.
But maybe this is the crucial difference.
Have you installed Windows 10 as an update of the older Windows or have you been performing a full wipe and a “clean” install of Windows?
The machine is the same one which had a working version of PMS when it also had Win7. I recently upgraded the machine to Win10 by downloading the software from Microsoft. It was a free upgrade, and all the other installed programs (several of which I had to reinstall) work just fine. However, it was Not a clean wipe and a fresh version of Win10 (as far as I can tell). But the Registry doesn’t allow me to get to \Plex Media Server (at least I don’t know how).
How are you accessing the registry?
Calling up regedit.exe should be enough.
Have you created a new user account after installing Windows 10?
Have you given in to Microsofts nagging and created a Microsoft account?
I access the Registry by calling regedit.
I have not created a new user account after installing Win10 (if I remember correctly). Do you think I should create a new account?
I have not been nagged by Microsoft, so far.
It is worth a shot at least. Just try to start plex server under that user account and see if it removes itself from the tray immediately.
If it does that, there is no need to keep this user account.
When PMS was working under Win7, there was always a plex icon in the system tray, but today there is no icon there. Is this what you would expect?
I have an email account with google (gmail). Should I start a new account with the gmail email? Is there a way to remove or disable the present account which uses my pauldb2@comcast.net account?
No. If the tray icon is not there, Plex server is not running.
Have you ever tried to start it manually (per the windows start menu), or are you solely relying on it auto-starting upon login?
(Sorry for the basic question!)
Changing plex.tv accounts will usually bring even more problems.
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