Server Version#: 1.43.3.10828-00f62d37d
Player Version#:
There was a power outage this evening and ever since I cannot connect to my headless Plex server and I get the error “Failed to load preferences at /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml”. I’m not sure how to look at this .xml file to see what’s wrong with it (maybe corrupted because of the rough shutdown?), and I’m not sure how to restore it. I don’t have backups (lesson learned, would love to figure out how to generate a backup and download it to my tower).
I’m not terribly competent with this stuff. I did buy a lifetime pass; if I need to make a new server because of this, will I still have that pass? If you need I’d be happy to send a log if you can tell me how to generate one in the terminal. Thank you!
I had that happen to me once after a power outage. Permisssions.xml had a file size of 0 bytes. Had to reclaim the server and setup a lot of stuff.
Since you’re on linux, it should be here
/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server
A quick ls -l shows that Preferences.xml has 767 bytes in it.
I don’t know how to actually look at that file and see what’s in it, though. The group and owner are right, but maybe it’s lacking permissions somehow?
Most likely it got corrupted due to the power being cut.
You can rename it Preferences.xml.old and start plex and it should generate a new one and then you’ll claim your existing server. You won’t have to create a new server. It will appear as new, so if you had shared libraries, you’ll have to reshare libraries with people. But all your metadata/db will still be there.
What does your server run on, what OS? If it’s docker, you have to grab a new token and add it to your compose so it claims it that way: https://account.plex.tv/claim
If it doesn’t claim on it’s own when you start it, you can look into using this tool: https://github.com/ChuckPa/UserCredentialReset
I changed the name of the old Preferences.xml file to Preferences.xml.old and it indeed created a new Preferences.xml. I also ran the claiming utility. Running uname -a, I get this:
I don’t think I’m using a docker. Unfortunately, the server is still down.
Ope, it’s working now! Thank you for the tech support. Next step is figuring out how to back this stuff up. Appreciate it!!
