Server Unavailable after password reset done for security breach notification

Plex Media Server
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Server Version#:1.110.0.351-4e48eb883
Player Version#:
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

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After today’s security breach notification I reset my password as instructed. I am able to login to the PLEX website but, now my server shows currently unavailable despite multiple tries. Does this mean I will not have to rebuild my 24TB server? God I hope not, as my library is quite expansive. Any help would be appreciated. Running latest version of Windows 11 64 bit.

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This isn’t a server version, it’s the version of the Plex for Windows client.

When you go to the Settings screen, does it list your server at all on the left sidebar (bottom half)?

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same issue, you’ll need to unclaim the server and pray you can reclaim it. follow this guide to do so, https://support.plex.tv/articles/204281528-why-am-i-locked-out-of-server-settings-and-how-do-i-get-in/ .

if after this it doesn’t let you claim it, then congratulations because you are screwed until theres an update to fix this.

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I deleted registry entries of PlexOnlineHome

  • PlexOnlineMail

  • PlexOnlineToken

  • PlexOnlineUsername

Now I can still see the server but, am still locked out.

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This article does not show any information on how to unclaim the server. Could you please explain.

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You are accessing it from the local IP in a web browser, right? Not the app you started with?

If you have your server still listed on the left-hand sidebar (bottom half), go to Settings > General and see if there is a claim button there.

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No I was not. I did and server is not shown on left. The server applicaiton itself still shows the server is present but, shows “Not Authorized”

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yes it does, it shows you how to delete the token that ties the server to your account.

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I had that issue and I had to use the SSH tunnel method to get to the reclaim option. But there might be other options available for a Windows-based server.

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if you mean the following yes. But there is no mention of unclaim anywhere here.

Remove Certain Entries

Once you’ve opened the special settings for editing, you’ll need to remove some specific entries there.

Windows

  1. Quit/exit your Plex Media Server, so it’s not actively running

  2. Open the appropriate Registry area (as noted above) to edit

  3. Highlight the following entries and delete them:

    • PlexOnlineHome

    • PlexOnlineMail

    • PlexOnlineToken

    • PlexOnlineUsername

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I had the same issue just now (Plex Server on Windows 10), removed the registry entries, restarted Plex, re-authenticated, but my media server was showing as unreachable.

The server was running, I could see in the logs it was starting up and scanning libraries, etc.

I repeated the process, but restarted the PC immediately after removing the registry entries (in hindsight should have done that or at least logout/logon the user). Followed the same process I did before, and server was now reachable, and could go in to the Settings / General page to claim it.

All seems good now. Just posting here in case this helps someone


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BTW in my case there was no PlexOnlineHome entry in the registry.

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You’re a bit confused on the terminology and process here. Your server and client apps are associated with your account with Plex via a string of characters called token. Having the server associated with your account is how you “claim” it. You are removing that token from the PC’s registry, which means when the Plex Media Server runs it will see no token associating it with someone and be “unclaimed” at that point. The entries you’re told to remove from the registry include your account info and the token.

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I tried removing all authorized devices. After that I could not see my server anymore. After that, I uninstalled Plex server and restarted my host PC. I then re-installed thinking I would rebuilding my server. When I opened the Plex server app, my server was back. I have no idea on how this was even possible. . .

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This is what I found and followed to get access back to my server: How to Claim Your Plex Server - Plexopedia

With that said:

  1. The plex docs themselves were useless. Yes, I removed those fields from the xml. As users pointed out, that didn’t help.
  2. Why am I, as a paying consumer of a production-facing product messing with xml files? I’m a senior software engineer by trade and this took me nearly an hour to figure out.

This is not a good look, Plex. Honestly, you guys should be embarrassed.

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It’s pretty impressive just how flimsy the server claiming process is, even before this mayhem I’ve had this happen to boxes I only occasionally fire up (RV use) and it’s always the same, SSL dies, server responds with 401 unauthorized causing the miserable web client to never find the server
 it ignores claim tokens until you delete the garbage in the xml. it’s a legitimate fight with the thing to get it to work and the fact that we gave up local authentication for this
? what a joke.

I would be using Jellyfin but while Plex’s db schema is already pushing the limits of sqlite, Jellyfin has an awful even worse schema that has been being re-written for the past 5 years and in it’s current state it’s unusable for me
 (the ef core re-tool doesn’t fix the biggest problem, every library is in one mega table that’s not using real indexes)

I’m tired, I just want something that works and doesn’t die in stupid ways


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100% Agree - Plex you folks do NOT look good. You send out an urgent security update, people do it - and then it SCREWS things up. And there’s no one to call or ask other than community forums. Someone from Plex needs to get on here and say what’s being done. It’s not clear I can even recover things for my Mac if I follow the instructions.

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Today I recieved this notification from the breach and followed steps closed all the sessions, no I am not able to stream anything due that “Server is not available to stream remote” Now I am not able to see content even on my own house in my Android device, this is going to be solved? I think is something bad as I payed Plex Pass lifetime and now not able to use any function for this, don’t take me wrong but what is this? a joke? please solve this ASAP as now I regret on following this steps but was confident because was from Plex team :confused:

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