I’ve been trying for about two weeks to get my server migrated to new hardware, and I just cannot get it to work. For reference, the instructions that I am using are from this link:
I have migrated all of the data over from one system to the other. On the original system, I logged out and then stopped the service. On the new machine, I installed the latest download of the software for Ubuntu 18.04 and started it. If I try opening the app, it says “Unable to connect” to http://localhost:32400/manage. If I go in through the Plex site in my account, it says that it cannot connect to [old server name].
I’m obviously doing something wrong in the instructions that I’m following, but I can’t figure out what. After all of this time of trying, I’m hoping that someone on here can point me in the right direction. The only two things that I can think of are that the old system is on Ubuntu 16.04 and this one is 18.04, and the server version on the old system is one release behind the one on this system - but I don’t think that either of those things is the issue here.
Also, the instructions say to “Sign out of your account under Settings > Server > General in Plex Web App,” however, there is no option directly there, only from the drop-down in the upper right hand corner of any page in the app.
● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server for Linux
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor
Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-01-25 13:35:44 EST; 5min ago
Main PID: 4269 (sh)
Tasks: 5 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/plexmediaserver.service
├─4269 /bin/sh -c LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver "/usr/lib/
└─4270 /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server
Also: I physically went to the machine the old install was on, and yes, the sign out button was where it was supposed to be in the browser there…but clicking it did nothing. Just spun once and then still showed me signed in.
Additional: I rebooted a few times and was finally able to sign out. Rebooted the new server and tired to go to the web interface and it still won’t connect. Status in terminal still shows as active.
When systemctl status plexmediaserver shows only those processes, PMS is waiting to be claimed.
There are several points the above guide does not mention when moving to linux.
Has ownership of /var/lib/plexmediaserver and all files & directories below it been set to plex:plex ?
One should sign out of Plex/Web (the web client only) before attempting to manage the server. This makes the client neutral which will match the state of the newly transferred server.
Where has the server been transferred from ? If Windows, there are additional steps required to address known metadata issues but those can be addressed after making the server operational again.
Thanks. I’ll give that a try as soon as I get home.
Yeah, I was just double checking to make sure there wasn’t something different this software needed in the syntax, given the other problems I’ve had.
Just as a subtle FYI , I’ve been using Linux as my primary OS for about 15 years - I just hit a snag on this one, which is why I came here.
This did, in fact, get me able to connect to the server, but it looks to be completely fresh - none of the libraries or anything appeared.
For this part of the instructions for migrations, it says:
Edit Your Libraries
In order to update the content location for your media, you’ll need to Edit a library and then add the appropriate folder for where your content is located on the destination system. Leave the existing/previous folder location in there for now.
You’ll need to do this for each of your libraries, but you should probably complete the process for one at a time.
Does this mean that I will have to manually recreate all of them? What I expected from that was that my library list would be there (Shows, Series, Movies, Etc) I would just have to update the path to them. I want to make sure that I was mistaken about this before I set about recreating them, because I don’t want to overwrite anything in the DB.
Basically, my hope was that I’d be able to just move the old install over here and pick up where I left off in regards to shows that I was watching, etc.
When I checked the status of the server, it is active, but does have an error line:
Jan 25 18:59:22 ********* systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server for Linux.
Jan 25 18:59:24 ********* sh[7129]: Error in command line:the argument for option '--serverUuid' should follow immediately after the equal sign
Jan 25 18:59:24 ********* sh[7129]: Crash Uploader options (all are required):
Jan 25 18:59:24 ********* sh[7129]: --directory arg Directory to scan for crash reports
Jan 25 18:59:24 ********* sh[7129]: --serverUuid arg UUID of the server that crashed
Jan 25 18:59:24 ********* sh[7129]: --userId arg User that owns this product
Jan 25 18:59:24 ********* sh[7129]: --platform arg Platform string
Jan 25 18:59:24 ********* sh[7129]: --url arg URL to upload to
Jan 25 18:59:24 ********* sh[7129]: --help show help message
Jan 25 18:59:24 ********* sh[7129]: --version arg Version of the product
Figured it out! When I was about to pull the logs for you, I noticed that I’d had a typo when I transferred the files over, and had the “Application Support” folder nested inside itself, and then Plex had recreated the “Plex Media Server” folder. Once I deleted/moved everything to the right spot - and since I’d stored everything on the new machine in matching paths - everything worked.
Moving to Linux will require mastering some skills.