# 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:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

<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 8, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/server-stuck-in-503-maintenance/940383/2 "2026-07-08T15:04:11Z")

</div>

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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