PMS always needs to be restarted after boot and reboot

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version: Latest Stable
Player Version: Latest Stable

Of late after a server boot or reboot the web interface is blank and no media is available. A status check and I see

Aug 05 12:51:13 systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server…
Aug 05 12:51:13 systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server.
Aug 05 12:52:01 Plex Media Server[1275]: connect: Operation timed >
Aug 05 12:52:03 Plex Media Server[1275]: connect: Operation timed >

systemctl restart plexmediaserver seems to set things right. Media is available for playback in the web interface, the linux app and the android apps.

NB: I’ve deleted references to plexamp issues I was experiencing. These were resolved by reinstalling with flatpak.

Thoughts?

Thanks…

2

That doesn’t tell us anything.

Please make a tar.gz of the Logs directory under Plex Media Server and attach it.

3

Thanks. I’ll do that if the following does not check out:

Media files are on another local server. I’m using autofs. I made some network changes a few weeks ago, which corresponds to the current situation. I’m now thinking PMS is starting before the media file server shares are mounted.

I’ll report back once I can check it out.

4

I’ve never had much luck with autofs.

The specific issue is the timing in plexmediaserver.service does not know it must be dependent on another service.

Normally, /etc/fstab and NFS/CIFS are always finished before other services are started.

This is the usual timing dependency to check.

The cause “After=” will help you get the sequencing right if needed,
You can create an override file (/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf) if needed.

5

Solved. As always, my fault-

The time outs were being generated by PMS looking for the TV USB dongle that used to be connected. I no longer use it. Live TV in PMS is disabled, but it seems on boot PMS will continue to look for the hardware associated with LiveTV.

6

Found the problem in the log:

Aug 05, 2025 12:52:01.531 [140507478186808] ERROR - DVR:Device: Error refreshing existing device device://tv.plex.grabbers.tunerservice/dvb%23v4l%23%2fsys%2fdevices%2fpci0000%3a00%2f0000%3a00%3a14.0%2fusb2%2f2-6%3a003, marking as dead.
Aug 05, 2025 12:52:28.246 [140507549358904] ERROR - [EventSourceClient/pubsub/45.118.132.58:443] Retrying in 15 seconds.
Aug 05, 2025 12:53:07.925 [140507522616120] WARN - [EventSourceClient/pubsub/45.118.132.58:443] NAT: PMP, timed out waiting for response.
Aug 05, 2025 12:53:08.951 [140507473967928] WARN - [EventSourceClient/pubsub/45.118.132.58:443] NAT: PMP, timed out waiting for response.

This seems related to LiveTV - the hardware was removed awhile back when I did the network changes I mentioned. LiveTV is disabled but it seems PMS remains excited about it. Unless I’m wrong. Which often I am.

7

My bad; The DVR should have been deleted along with the hardware removal.

All good now.

8

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