# Server stuck in 503 Maintenance

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/server-stuck-in-503-maintenance/940383>\
**Category:** Plex Media Server\
**Tags:** server-linux, plex-web\
**Created:** [July 8, 2026, 1:10pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/server-stuck-in-503-maintenance/940383 "2026-07-08T13:10:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![andrewma148](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f07891/32.png) [@andrewma148](https://forums.plex.tv/u/andrewma148)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 1:10pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/server-stuck-in-503-maintenance/940383/1 "2026-07-08T13:10:55Z")

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Server Version#: 4.160.0  
Player Version#:  
\<If providing [server logs](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/) please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only [debug logging](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/#toc-1) should be enabled\>

Upgraded Ubuntu last night; restarted computer. Started getting 503 maintenance upon relaunching server. Let it run overnight. Now I’m getting 401 response (per the logs).

I’m pretty new to this whole thing, so I’m attaching the logs. I know I’m not supposed to have them in verbose mode, but I’m not sure if they are, and I can’t figure out how to turn that off if so.

Any help from Plex wizards would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Plex Media Server.log](https://forums.plex.tv/uploads/short-url/v3gsWE2KGDFXf0Jc5Bw3jVYRluM.log) (166.9 KB)

[Plex Crash Uploader.log](https://forums.plex.tv/uploads/short-url/1sa37WadLms6S3FjgrTLgKvzeWy.log) (576 Bytes)

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**Author:** ![pl\_5309](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@pl\_5309](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pl_5309)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/server-stuck-in-503-maintenance/940383/2 "2026-07-08T15:04:11Z")

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All part of the learning curve. Avoid using default directories /home, /mnt,/media for anything Plex as they can have their permissions overwritten when you do an OS upgrade.

Present in this log file (would have liked to see the whole .zip bundle) are permission problems.

Try the below commands

```auto

# change the default permissions to owner='rwx', everyone else to 'r-x' 
# 'x' means to traverse the directory to subdirectories & files
sudo find /home/smeagol -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find /media/smeagol -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

# change the default permissions to owner= 'rw-', everyone else 'r-only'
sudo find /home/smeagol -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
sudo find /media/smeagol -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

```

Restart Plex:

sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver.service

Chuck’s Linux tips covers creating a directory for media and much more: [Linux Tips - #10 by ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/10)

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**Author:** ![andrewma148](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f07891/32.png) [@andrewma148](https://forums.plex.tv/u/andrewma148)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 1:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/server-stuck-in-503-maintenance/940383/3 "2026-07-09T13:54:04Z")

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Thanks so much! This worked for me. Now I have a secondary problem, which I don’t necessarily expect any help with, though I wouldn’t mind 🙂

I think a very similar issue happened early in my Plex adventure, and, since I couldn’t figure out how to connect to the server, I created a _new_ server with the same name and mapped to the same drives - and that’s the server I’ve been using this whole time and filling with metadata.

_Now_ my problem is that I got the original server back, and consequently lost connection with the 2nd server (same name, same drives) - and thus lost all of my precious meticulously-added metadata! oy vey, learning curve indeed!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pl\_5309](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@pl\_5309](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pl_5309)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 3:34pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/server-stuck-in-503-maintenance/940383/4 "2026-07-09T15:34:31Z")

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It depends on you being able to provide a detailed list of steps you followed.

If all this occurred on the same machine and you installed Plex using the same commands then you likely overwrote your first/second server.

You likely have two servers hanging around in authorized devices and saved on the clients which is causing the confusion. Some cleanup will be necessary. Best to never reuse the name.

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**Author:** ![andrewma148](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f07891/32.png) [@andrewma148](https://forums.plex.tv/u/andrewma148)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 5:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/server-stuck-in-503-maintenance/940383/5 "2026-07-09T17:03:36Z")

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Yeah, not likely to be able to provide that information! Thanks anyway for your guidance!