Server went bonkers, then became inaccessible

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#:?
Player Version#:any
I was trying to work on my media library, then out of nowhere the server became unreachable on my own network. Nothing I did fixed it so I tried reinstalling Rocky Linux 9, then ran the RPM to install the Plex Media Server. I did systemctl start plexmediaserver and systemctl enable plexmediaserver, and doing systemctl status plexmediaserver shows it enabled and running. I used firewall-cmd to open port 32400/tcp on the box. Then I tried Plex Web and found that nothing had changed. I gave up and did delete server. Problem is, now I can’t figure out how to get Plex Web to get back to it. I set up Plex some time ago and don’t remember the initial setup so how, so looking around makes it look like rerunning the setup wizard might do the trick. So question is, can the wizard fix it and if so, how do I rerun it?

2

First question – Is the server local or remote ?

If it’s local, do you have keyboard access or is it on your same subnet/LAN ?

3

The server is on a box with physical keyboard access.

4

If you have keyboard access then you can easily get it back to claimable state.

  1. Stop PMS
  2. As root
  3. cd “/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server”
  4. Use text editor of your choice (vi / nano) vi Preferences.xml
  5. Carefully remove the Name="Value" pairs for:
    – PlexOnlineUsername
    – PlexOnlineMail
    – PlexOnlineToken
    – PlexOnlineHome (if it exists)
  6. Save the file
  7. Confirm Preferences.xml is still owned by the Plex user.
  8. Start PMS

You can now claim it via the Plex/web GUI
-or-
you can use the Plex Claim Token (CURL) method.

Let me know if you want to use CURL and I’ll give you those instructions.

5

Many thanks, I’ll give it a try after work. Another question: I have two accounts since I moved the server from one box to another a few months back. I forget why, it seemed the easy way to get the new box to work when I had less know-how. I should probably delete one of those. I was starting to get the idea that the problem was account related.

6

If you do a literal copy (clone) from one box to another, you also are copying the server ID info (which is in preferences.xml)

You end up with two instances of the same ID which will cause confusion when both are online.

To “split” that and make them unique –

  1. Stop Plex
  2. Edit Preferences.xml
  3. Carefully remove only the “ID” value pairs (MachineID, ProcessedMachineID, AnonymousMachineID)
  4. Save the file
  5. Start PMS
  6. Now it will startup and create new ID numbers – creating the separate identity
7

I got around to trying it. The contents of my Preferences.xml file is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Preferences OldestPreviousVersion=“1.32.7.7621-871adbd44” MachineIdentifier=“3747e197-7ef1-41b6-b471-aea584d4a2dd”

ProcessedMachineIdentifier=“3518efe27b0bdc4b5e0a6455b521f3b8d0145329”

AnonymousMachineIdentifier=“c4d76943-35e0-41d4-a7ca-0235eb60cc8d” MetricsEpoch=“1”

GlobalMusicVideoPathMigrated=“1”/>

I can find no way to get the server visible again.

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@rshackelford1

Your Preferences.xml file should be one long line.

If you’ve edited it with a Windows-based text editor then it’ll busted up and the solution is to delete it (Plex stopped) and let it start again

Now you’ll need to go to https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/devices/pms

Look for the old server name and REMOVE it. If you see multiple copies of it, remove all of them. We want a clean start

I presume, but would like to confirm, you and your server are on the same RFC-1918 subnet (192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, or 172.16.x.x → 172.31.x.x).

I would open a browser IN-PRIVATE window to claim it. This works the best.

If not on the same subnet then you will need to SSH tunnel to reclaim it

9

I finally got the server to show up. Many stupid mistakes that I didn’t make the previous two times that I set up a server were the cause.

I use a pfSense router with a WAN network, a LAN network, and a DMZ network. The Plex server lives in the DMZ network along with a Wordpress web server and other systems that I have set up for public access. Firewall rules are all set up correctly for access of course. I had a Plex box running in this environment for months, then tried to add some storage and it all went haywire. Well I got to try out a fresh install of Rocky Linux 9.3 using their boot ISO for my trouble at least. Now that the basic box is running correctly, I’ll try setting up all the library storage while crossing my fingers and holding my breath.

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