Preferences.xml empty, how to get my server back?

[zdimension]

Server Version#: Plex Media Server v1.28.2.6151-914ddd2b3 - Debian GNU/Linux PC x86_64 - build: linux-x86_64 debian
w/ Plex Pass

After (cleanly) rebooting my server today for routine maintenance, Plex has not been able to start because the Preferences.xml file is empty. The database doesn’t seem to have been affected (wouldn’t have been a problem, I have backups for it), but the server is unusable at this point. Is there a proper way to get my server back? I’ve heard of things about it getting marked as “unclaimed” and people having to re-send invites to all the accounts, will I have to do this?

[ChuckPa]

With PMS stopped…

Grab a tar.gz of the Logs directory and attach it please.

Something went wild on your machine. The logs should give a hint

Also, while in the Plex Media Server directory, please get a ls -la so I can see all the files and directories.

[zdimension]

@ChuckPa there you go

Logs.tar.gz (6.5 MB)

drwxr-sr-x plex plex 1.0 KB Fri Sep 30 11:50:53 2022 .
drwxr-sr-x plex plex  34 B  Thu Feb 27 02:23:53 2020 ..
drwxr-sr-x plex plex 4.9 KB Thu Sep 29 22:00:18 2022 Cache
drwxr-sr-x plex plex 138 B  Thu Sep  1 23:57:40 2022 Codecs
drwxr-sr-x plex plex 2.8 KB Thu Sep  1 23:56:39 2022 Crash Reports
drwxr-sr-x plex plex   0 B  Thu Feb 27 02:29:32 2020 Diagnostics
drwxr-sr-x plex plex 2.9 KB Thu Sep 29 22:23:24 2022 Logs
.rw-r--r-- root plex 6.5 MB Fri Sep 30 11:51:03 2022 Logs.tar.gz
drwxr-sr-x plex plex  18 B  Mon Mar  2 23:00:43 2020 Media
drwxr-sr-x plex plex  50 B  Thu Apr  9 00:20:59 2020 Metadata
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   5 B  Sat Sep 24 23:18:31 2022 plexmediaserver.pid
drwxr-sr-x plex plex 100 B  Thu Feb 27 02:23:57 2020 Plug-in Support
drwxr-sr-x plex plex  52 B  Sat Mar  7 00:09:01 2020 Plug-ins
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep 29 21:49:12 2022 Preferences.xml
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep 29 21:49:12 2022 Preferences.xml
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep 29 21:49:12 2022 Preferences.xml
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep 29 21:49:12 2022 Preferences.xml
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep 29 21:49:12 2022 Preferences.xml
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep 29 21:49:12 2022 Preferences.xml
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep 29 21:49:12 2022 Preferences.xml
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep  9 03:16:14 2021 Preferences.xml.tmp.0569feeb-86dc-466b-9b0d-088a7e0ab462
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep  9 03:16:16 2021 Preferences.xml.tmp.11f1ab18-abb6-47c1-8db2-8a30310ff693
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep  9 03:00:01 2021 Preferences.xml.tmp.30f9c8cc-0a90-49c8-ab35-7e54054a68b6
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep  9 03:00:01 2021 Preferences.xml.tmp.48b91d10-3e43-48fb-a13c-1cc88063aaeb
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep  9 02:43:12 2021 Preferences.xml.tmp.565242f1-f35b-4053-b0fb-279e976fc231
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep  9 02:57:58 2021 Preferences.xml.tmp.7720a27e-3872-4606-a303-88c8bbd1ca03
.rw-r--r-- plex plex   0 B  Thu Sep  9 02:57:57 2021 Preferences.xml.tmp.bdf6c086-d387-48ab-a983-a4547e52d021
drwxr-sr-x plex plex  12 B  Sat Mar  7 00:09:53 2020 Scanners

[zdimension]

Okay so after backing everything up I tried deleting the empty Preferences.xml file and restarting Plex, I first got greeted by a “You don’t have access to this server” page, then after a short time, I got the initial setup screen, although it was already filled with the server’s infos (since those are stored in the database). I went through the pages and got the Plex home page, but then I had two instances of my server (old one & new one). I then got the old server’s ID by going in the preferences and displaying its page (the ID is the long GUID in the URL) and then edited Preferences.xml to put the old ID in the ProcessedMachineIdentifier field. I restarted Plex and now everything works.