Server settings are unavailable, can't access server via LAN (only plex.tv)

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Server Version#:1.22.2.4282
Player Version#: 4.55.0

I don’t know how long I’ve been unable to access my server settings, but presume it has been for a while. I tried to add a new library, and the ‘next’ button was greyed out. I tried to access it via local IP, comes back with an immediate 404.

On Qnap 4.5.2.1594. I renamed the preferences.xml, no luck. I can access and view my libraries, but none of the server settings.

I recently moved my NAS from a different state, to my home state, and that’s when it started happening.

Any help would be appreciated.

2

New modem/router ?

Presuming the DHCP addressing is all ok, does the new router block DNS rebinding?
(most common cause of this type problem for something associated with moving / changing ISP)

1 Like
3

Hi @chuckpa… as usual, you come to my rescue. My router is an asus RT-AC68U running Merlin, so I do have the option to en/dis-able DNS binding protection. It is currently turned off - I tried both options, no go.

I’ll need a bit of hand holding to answer your questions. I do have DHCP enabled, but have assigned a static IP to the NAS - both locally on the NAS, and using the static DHCP function of the router (tied to the MAC of the router’s NIC).

All functions of the NAS appear to be working, and as stated, I can access all content on the plex server through plex.tv - just not locally using the IP:32400. It doesn’t time out - it 404s instantly.

Any attempt to get to the server on the local IP, or to configure anything on the server pages via plex.tv fail.

Any other suggestions?

4

Ah, the 404 problem.

I helped solve one of those from earlier today.

They’re the result of one of the earlier builds (1.22.1.4271-4274).

Having renamed the preferences.xml means you’ve taken the server out of your account. (it’s old ID is pushed off to the side and now you have a duplicate name with a different ID)

Please do the following first to start cleaning up;

  1. stop Plex
  2. In your browser, go to https://app.plex.tv
  3. Settings - Authorized Devices - Server
  4. Find both (or all) entries for the QNAP and remove them.
  5. Now restart PMS
  6. Close the browser
  7. Open fresh
  8. Open http://ip.addr.of.qnap:32400/web
  9. If you can get into it now and claim it then reset all preferences again – great.

Let me know how this method works out

1 Like
5

That seemed promising. I had at least 5 copies of my NAS listed in the authorized devices. Two were current, the others were several years old. I removed both (with PMS stopped) and I went to IP:32400/web… same dreaded 404 error.

Interestingly, by going to the root IP:port, and no /web, I got this:

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
<MediaContainer size="23" allowCameraUpload="0" allowChannelAccess="1" allowMediaDeletion="1" allowSharing="1" allowSync="0" allowTuners="1" backgroundProcessing="1" companionProxy="1" countryCode="usa" diagnostics="logs,databases,streaminglogs" eventStream="1" friendlyName="QNAP-451-NAS" hubSearch="1" itemClusters="1" livetv="7" machineIdentifier="e7fbfdab3b84d5a6f10606c53269xxxxxxxxxxxxxba" mediaProviders="1" multiuser="1" myPlex="1" myPlexMappingState="unknown" myPlexSigninState="invalid" myPlexSubscription="0" ownerFeatures="06d14b9e-2af8-4c2b-a4a1-ea9d5c515824,1417df52-986e-4e4b-8dcd-3997fbc5c976,16d69c53-4c40-4821-b9f3-57ca690b2d4d,24b4cf36-b296-4002-86b7-f1adb657e76a,2ea0e464-ea4f-4be2-97c1-ce6ed4b377dd,300231e0-69aa-4dce-97f4-52d8c00e3e8c,34e182bd-2f62-4678-a9e9-d13b3e25019d,39dbdd84-8339-4736-96a1-0eb105cc2e08,4b522f91-ae89-4f62-af9c-76f44d8ef61c,567033ef-ffee-44fb-8f90-f678077445f9,5d819d02-5d04-4116-8eec-f49def4e2d6f,5e2a89ec-fb26-4234-b66e-14d37f35dff2,65685ff8-4375-4e4c-a806-ec1f0b4a8b7f,68747f3a-ce13-46ce-9274-1e0544c9f500,6d7be725-9a96-42c7-8af4-01e735138822,78643fe5-d192-40c7-8e93-5ccf04c0b767,7e7596aa-6e2c-41d1-a460-1e13cf0b62f2,85ebfb7b-77fb-4afd-bb1a-2fe2fefdddbe,86da2200-58db-4d78-ba46-f146ba25906b,96cac76e-c5bc-4596-87eb-4fdfef9aaa11,98872b06-2ff3-4b71-96bc-039e2ebe7adc,a3d2d5c4-46a0-436e-a2d6-80d26f32b369,a4bc568b-477f-4f36-894b-49e19f34353f,abd37b14-706c-461f-8255-fa9563882af3,adaptive_bitrate,b20d91ca-1b2f-45a2-a115-c1ad24c66ac5,b227c158-e062-4ff1-95d8-8ed11cecafb1,b2403ac6-4885-4971-8b96-59353fd87c72,b46d16ae-cbd6-4226-8ee9-ab2b27e5dd42,b5874ecb-6610-47b2-8906-1b5a897acb02,b77e6744-c18d-415a-8e7c-7aac5d7a7750,bfeaee4e-965a-4d24-b163-020c3c57d936,c7ae6f8f-05e6-48bb-9024-c05c1dc3c43e,collections,d28e5f7b-beed-4a1d-bb58-de7249330a37,dab501df-5d99-48ef-afc2-3e839e4ddc9a,ddd730e1-a0a0-429f-a7d3-7c5001d24497,f83450e2-759a-4de4-8b31-e4a163896d43,fec722a0-a6d4-4fbd-96dc-4ffb02b072c5,federated-auth,home,kevin-bacon,livetv,radio,tuner-sharing,unsupportedtuners" photoAutoTag="1" platform="Linux" platformVersion="QTS 4.5.2.1594" pluginHost="1" pushNotifications="0" readOnlyLibraries="0" requestParametersInCookie="1" streamingBrainABRVersion="3" streamingBrainVersion="2" sync="1" transcoderActiveVideoSessions="0" transcoderAudio="1" transcoderLyrics="1" transcoderPhoto="1" transcoderSubtitles="1" transcoderVideo="1" transcoderVideoBitrates="64,96,208,320,720,1500,2000,3000,4000,8000,10000,12000,20000" transcoderVideoQualities="0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12" transcoderVideoResolutions="128,128,160,240,320,480,768,720,720,1080,1080,1080,1080" updatedAt="1617800292" updater="1" version="1.22.1.4228-724c56e62" voiceSearch="1">
<Directory count="1" key="actions" title="actions"/>
<Directory count="1" key="activities" title="activities"/>
<Directory count="1" key="butler" title="butler"/>
<Directory count="1" key="channels" title="channels"/>
<Directory count="1" key="clients" title="clients"/>
<Directory count="1" key="devices" title="devices"/>
<Directory count="1" key="diagnostics" title="diagnostics"/>
<Directory count="1" key="hubs" title="hubs"/>
<Directory count="3" key="library" title="library"/>
<Directory count="3" key="livetv" title="livetv"/>
<Directory count="3" key="media" title="media"/>
<Directory count="3" key="metadata" title="metadata"/>
<Directory count="1" key="neighborhood" title="neighborhood"/>
<Directory count="1" key="playQueues" title="playQueues"/>
<Directory count="1" key="playlists" title="playlists"/>
<Directory count="1" key="resources" title="resources"/>
<Directory count="1" key="search" title="search"/>
<Directory count="1" key="server" title="server"/>
<Directory count="1" key="servers" title="servers"/>
<Directory count="1" key="statistics" title="statistics"/>
<Directory count="1" key="transcode" title="transcode"/>
<Directory count="1" key="updater" title="updater"/>
<Directory count="1" key="user" title="user"/>
</MediaContainer>

Unfortunately, now when I log in through plex.tv, I have no servers. So I’m officially a cooked goose…

6

This is not a problem. I have several tasty recipes.
:smiling_imp:

Let’s do the following (read this through and plan… you only have 5 minutes to complete it once you get

Start: SSH into the QNAP command line.

Procedure:

  1. Stop Plex

  2. Delete Preferences.xml

  3. Double check there are no server entries in Authorized Devices - Server

  4. Start the 5 minute timer

  5. Start PMS (still sitting in the unclaimed state)

  6. Open a browser to https://plex.tv/claim

  7. COPY the token to your browser

  8. At the QNAP terminal session, type the following then PASTE the claim token

curl -X POST ‘http://127.0.0.1:32400/myplex/claim?token=PASTE_TOKEN_HERE’

It will look like:

curl -X POST ‘http://127.0.0.1:32400/myplex/claim?token=claim-xxxxxxxxxx’

Hit enter

It will sit there for a bit (while PMS talks to Plex.tv and the two synchronize (claim)

It will then print out your account info and “feature flags”

This is confirmation the server is reattached to your account again.

Now open Plex normally in the browser

When you open it, you will be greeted by “Got It” (this is expected and desired).
It will want to confirm your existing library sections – Let it.
Continue through, letting it do its thing (this is the setup wizard)
When you get to the Dashboard, you’re there.
Go through your settings and set them again
Check your shared users and attach them again too. (they were set off to the side during this process)

Let me know how you do with this.

1 Like
7

@chuckpa - thanks for your offer to help. Whenever you get a chance, I’m ready for the next step. Since, as of now, my Plex is completely unavailable to anyone - and emails/text from friends and family are piling up :wink:

8

Arg - my reply came in after your help - sorry. Getting sleepy. Gonna give it a go now. Fingers crossed.

9

Ok, that worked - sort of. I did get the rather lengthy account info/feature flags in putty. However, local access to the plex server still returns 404 immediately.

Fortunately, app.plex.tv does again show my libraries, but the server settings are still unavailable. At least we’re back to where we were before.

ETA: Under authorized devices I now have only one server, and it is current showing 1.22.1.4228-724c56e62

ETA2: I also did not see any message (Got it or otherwise).

10

I just repeated all steps a second time with the same results.

One thing that I think may be of interest - I have applied the latest update 1.22.2.4282 from within QNAP’s app manager. It said 100% complete. Yet, after removing the server from the authorized device list, when it repopulated after the SSH curl command, it’s still showing the 4228 version.

For some reason it appears that PMS is not upgrading using the conventional app manager route. Could that be the issue?

11

Sorry to keep piling on, but, thinking perhaps the Qnap app center was somehow unable to properly install, I used SSH to download and install. All appeared well until it got to the very end:


[/share/Public] # ./pms.qpkg
Install QNAP package on TS-NAS...
./
./package_routines
./qinstall.sh
./built_info
./qpkg.cfg
4777+1 records in
4777+1 records out
118562187 bytes (113.1MB) copied, 5.571072 seconds, 20.3MB/s
115782+0 records in
115782+0 records out
118560768 bytes (113.1MB) copied, 5.572770 seconds, 20.3MB/s
PlexMediaServer 1.22.2 is already installed. Setup will now perform package upgrading.
Firmware check is fine.
Plex Media Server hasn't been enabled or started...
Link service start/stop script: plex.sh
Set QPKG information in /etc/config/qpkg.conf
Starting Plex Media Server...
Error: Unable to set up server: listen: Address already in use (N5boost10wrapexceptINS_6system12system_errorEEE)
12

Address already in use == PLEX STILL RUNNING :frowning:

ps -ef | grep -i plex

Find what’s stuck.

Tomorrow, i will find a way to help you resolve this. (probably need to remote to you)

1 Like
13

That’s what I thought too, but App center is showing it stopped. I’ll dig a little more and hit the hay. Thanks for sticking it through this long with me.

14

Boom! That was it. Despite app center saying it was gone, your grep command showed me the job id of it still running. A kill command in putty dropped it. I then did the update to the latest version (through the app center) and this time, everything came up. I have full server settings again! Whew.

So it would appear that this was a case of me not verifying that the process had actually completed. Though, in the past, I never explicitly stopped PMS to do an upgrade - so something did get wonky. Thanks again!

15

I’m going to update the QNAP packaging to be more resilient on this.

PMS used to kill any existing processes. I guess Engineering changed it so I will pick up the slack.

:thinking:

16

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