Server setting UX quirks

[mcandre]

Overnight, Plex completely broke. All attempts to connect on the LAN now trigger:

Unable to connect to “bart” securely

I had unchecked a checkbox concerning remote access, which resolved a red warning triangle. Plex continued to work for serveral hours, but overnight, it now refuses to connect.

% snap info plexmediaserver
name:      plexmediaserver
summary:   Your media on all your devices.
publisher: Plex, Inc. (plexinc✓)
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/plexmediaserver
contact:   http://plex.tv/
license:   unset
description: |
  Plex makes it possible to enjoy all of your media, whether in your living
  room, the car, or on a boat in the South Pacific!
  .
  You can manage your media by browsing to http://localhost:32400/manage
commands:
  - plexmediaserver.pms-web
services:
  plexmediaserver: simple, enabled, active
snap-id:      85SmCU9pNtVq5DHmKJwbZsgbNqkG7wPR
tracking:     latest/stable
refresh-date: 51 days ago, at 11:02 CST
channels:
  latest/stable:    1.43.0.10492-121068a07 2026-02-11 (512) 94MB -
  latest/candidate: ↑                                            
  latest/beta:      ↑                                            
  latest/edge:      ↑                                            
installed:          1.43.0.10492-121068a07            (512) 94MB -

% lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
Release:	24.04
Codename:	noble

% snap services
Service                                              Startup   Current   Notes
mesa-2404.component-monitor                          disabled  inactive  -
plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver                      enabled   active    -
snapd-desktop-integration.snapd-desktop-integration  enabled   active    user

My snaps are up to date. My Ubuntu packages are up to date. I’ve tried restarting the snap service. I’ve tried rebooting. Tried reverting to an older snap package version. Tried re-upgrading to the latest snap package version. Same behavior in all cases.

Unclear where the plexmediaserver stores configuration files. If someone could point to documentation for that, then we could at least investigate those.

The logs are unhelpful, and contain spurious critical level messages about libusb_init:

% sudo snap logs plexmediaserver
2026-04-03T16:51:25-05:00 systemd[1]: Started snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service - Service for snap application plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.
2026-04-03T16:51:37-05:00 plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver[10750]: Critical: libusb_init failed
2026-04-03T16:51:37-05:00 -[10750]: Critical: libusb_init failed
2026-04-03T16:52:10-05:00 systemd[1]: Stopping snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service - Service for snap application plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver...
2026-04-03T16:52:30-05:00 systemd[1]: snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service: Deactivated successfully.
2026-04-03T16:52:30-05:00 systemd[1]: Stopped snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service - Service for snap application plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.
2026-04-03T16:52:30-05:00 systemd[1]: snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service: Consumed 16.426s CPU time, 305.5M memory peak, 0B memory swap peak.
2026-04-03T16:52:30-05:00 systemd[1]: Started snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service - Service for snap application plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.
2026-04-03T16:52:43-05:00 -[12199]: Critical: libusb_init failed
2026-04-03T16:52:43-05:00 plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver[12199]: Critical: libusb_init failed

The documentation link https://support.plex.tv/articles/206225077-how-to-use-secure-server-connections/ is unhelpful. It directs users to muck around with server settings. But this error prevents the Plex server page from loading

I don’t understand why Plex is inaccessible. Help plz.

[mcandre]

Update:

Temporarily fixed the problem.

Set PublishServerOnPlexOnlineKey to 1 in /var/snap/plexmediaserver/common/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml and restarted the snap Plex service.

The UX for this is horrible. There is a scary red exclamation mark warning for the Remote Access section of the Plex server Web UI. The warning has NO tooltip or documentation of any kind to explain WTF it is complaining about.

The warning only appears after navigating into the Remote Access section. Selecting the option “Disable Remote Access” removes the warning. The option’s purpose is ambiguous. I thought it meant disabling online access, not ALL access including LAN access.

The remote access disabling action has a delayed effect. It only actually takes effect after the service restarts, creating a mental disconnect between the disastrous configuration change, and the Plex server later becoming completely inoperable.

The error messages and documentation about inability to connect completely fail to mention the XML value, attribute, or file path name that are extremely relevant to fixing the problem.

Once disabled in the server Web UI, it is impossible to re-enable it via Web UI. 0/10, do not recommend the Remote Access UX.