I knew it might be more complex than at first sight, but I have got nowhere in 3 days trying to set up my new Synology DS218+ specifically to hold old my DVDs.
Figured the Synology out in a day or so, but Plex is defeating me. So many options and nothing clear. Took an age to discover the necessary file structure to store the movies, but eventually managed once I was clear the permissions were wrong for Plex. Got one movie uploaded and could watch it on my iPhone. Hurrah! Thought I had figured it out but then tried to watch it on my iPad and TV. The film was there but the whirling circle of doom and no action!
Thought might be to do with movie format and tried a few more movies. Transcoded them with Handbrake. Look good, upload fine but I can only see the first film. Nothing else will appear on any device. My TV shows the first movie stuck at 20mins but I only see a whirling wheel if I try to watch it.
Finally decided I may have installed Plex wrongly. Saw somewhere should install from Plex website and not from the Synology Apps directly. So I deleted everything as not going to proceed further unless stable.
This evening at the end of day three, I feel like throwing everything out! Did a fresh install of Plex but now it cannot find my NAS even though it can see the IP address. 3 days of going nowhere and I see is lots of frustration in the Plex fora with no proper technical support.
Right now, I just want someone to do this for me. Had enough of support documents and YouTube videos leading me in circles.
What should I do!!!|???
I have a few suggestions:
- Open https://app.plex.tv
- Settings (upper right) - Authorized Devices (far left) - Servers (dropdown)
- If your synology is listed there, remove it.
Now return to the Syno and we’ll start over
- Uninstall the package
- Control Panel - Users - Delete user Plex
- Control Panel - Shared Folders - Delete the Plex share.
- Restart DSM.
Here is a How-To, with step by step, which should take all the pain out of first-time setup & learning your way around the basics of using Plex on Synology.
Thanks very much for swift advice. I guess the advertising blurb about Plex looks so appealing and simple. I am pretty tech savvy and desperate to reclaim the storage space taken up by my CDs, DVDs etc etc. Thought this was ideal solution but clearly a bit more complex. I think what has shocked me is that there is only a forum (and help is much appreciated) but no proper technical support whatever. I have such a headache 3 days, I just wanted someone to dial into my system and sort it! Then got daunted by so many issues being raised on the fora.
Late now, but will tackle this with your advice and a clear head another day. Many thanks.
I’m always here so feel free to ping me @chuckpa with any questions.
Hi, Not sure if I am meant to continue with the same thread as story a little different but essential still newbie issues.
Everything going swimmingly well after your advice and had everything set up fine until 2d ago when I had a very brief power cut. Not sure if that caused anything but about 12hrs later, my Synology NAS abruptly closed down. When it restarted, could be pinged from Windows PC but not from anything Mac. Eventually figured router needed rebooting and that seemed fine again. Then did a Plex Synology recommended update.
Then from that evening onwards I cannot watch anything properly from my local NAS to my tv. Within a few seconds, I get “network speed too slow and buffering…” It is painful to watch. How can I see things ok on the outside Internet but buffering to my local NAS on wifi which was totally great 3d ago has now stopped. I have no idea what the default Plex settings should be on Synology and the advanced setting screenshots look different to the screen I can see. Any ideas? Could something be damaged by the power outage, has some setting in my router or in Plex got corrupted. What could be wrong? Hope you can suggest where to go from here as had another frustrating day finding no answers. Thanks in advance.
manually grab the logs (ZIP file of the Logs directory from the Plex share) and attach please.
Hi, Thanks for swift response.
I have downloaded the log but cannot work out how to send it to you yet.
Maybe will figure how to zip it in the morning. Be in touch soon.
V kind. Stephen
Plex Media Server Logs_2020-05-29_22-49-27.zip (2.9 MB)
Not done this before. Easy. Hope it helps you!
From your logs (thanks)
- Uninstall the package,
- Reboot the syno
- Reinstall the package
It looks like DSM removed access to the hardware during its recovery.
Reinstallation of the package re-asserts permissions for Plex.
Fantastic. You are most helpful. Sounds logical now but there seem to be so many potential variable wasn’t sure where to start. My Internet has seemed slow for the last couple of days anyhow.
Not sure what time zone you are on but thanks for this. I am in France and 00:30 now, so will tackle this in the morning and let you know how I get on. Do you work with Plex/Synology a lot? You seem very knowledgeable. Log files meant zero to me!
Thanks again. S
I thought the French always party? (at least that’s what my friends in Paris tell me!) 
I try to make the installation package as intelligent as it can be so that it can recover by itself from strange conditions.
I hope it takes care of the issue for you. If not, when we find it, I will possibly be making more additions to it.
Hi. Have done as you suggested but not fixed I am afraid.
Uninstalled Plex, rebooted Synology, downloaded “PlexMediaServer-1.19.4.2865-4fa317f77-x86_64.spk” from the website and installed.
Could I have done something wrong as surprised to see it remembered where I had left off with various things I had been trying to watch/test. I should have thought that memory would have been erased.
Videos run for about 10-15 secs and then say network cannot keep up.
What do you suggest I try next?
BW… etc.
Hi. Thanks for response.
Could not get passed 2 secs of this movie! Also there is quite a delay when I scroll around for the posters to re-fresh. Wasn’t like that a few days ago. My tv and the NAS are on the same wifi network.
Last Log file attached.
If I click the XML related to the movie, I only get a blank screen. Nothing populates.
I have copied the visible text if relevant.
" Media
- Duration 1:22:34
- Bitrate 1531 kbps
- Width 708
- Height 556
- Aspect Ratio 1.78
- Video Resolution 480p
- Container MP4
- Video Frame Rate PAL
- Web Optimized No
- Audio Profile lc
- Video Profile main
Part
-
Duration 1:22:34
-
File KOYAANISQATSI.m4v
-
Size 907.84 MB
-
Audio Profile lc
-
Container MP4
-
Web Optimized No
-
Video Profile main
-
Codec H264
-
Bitrate 1366 kbps
-
Anamorphic true
-
Bit Depth 8
-
Chroma Location left
-
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
-
Coded Height 560
-
Coded Width 720
-
Color Primaries bt470bg
-
Color Range tv
-
Color Space smpte170m
-
Color Trc bt709
-
Frame Rate 25 fps
-
Height 556
-
Level 4.0
-
Pixel Aspect Ratio 64:45
-
Profile main
-
Ref Frames 4
-
Stream Identifier 1
-
Width 708
-
Display Title 480p (H.264)
-
Codec AAC
-
Channels 2
-
Bitrate 165 kbps
-
Language English
-
Audio Channel Layout stereo
-
Profile lc
-
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
-
Stream Identifier 2
-
Display Title English (AAC Stereo)
Thanks. Plex Media Server Logs_2020-05-30_10-19-48.zip (3.1 MB)
Tried all of that and made no difference. Can get no more than a couple of seconds viewing of this movie before it says my network bandwidth is inadequate.
It is so frustrating as nothing has happened apart from power outage. It definitely messed up with my modem but everything seems to be working fine now apart from Plex.
I am a bit puzzled how the new clean install after removing and rebooting my Synology NAS still finds where I left off viewing movies etc.
Should I start all over again? Is there anyway of doing this without losing all my movies?
Thanks
Thanks. So what is the next step? I have uninstalled Plex. Rebooted the Synology. Reinstalled Plex from the latest version on the website.
And I still have the problem.
Can you say the issue is nothing to do with Synology or NAS now?
Do I need to be looking elsewhere in the network?
Thanks.
No, I didn’t, though I have obviously looked the idea since!
Not sure I understand the benefit. Apparently domestic models provide 3-5 mins of power. How does that help if not around when the power cut happens. Just crashed 3-5mins later? Or is there is a routine to tell the NAS to power down safely if the NAS detects a power cut. I cannot tell from my research what would be best.
But…what do I do now? Start entirely from scratch?
Thank you for all that. And for the info about the UPS.
But… before I proceed, wouldn’t I have the same problem on any viewing device?
Whilst waiting for your reply I picked up the movie I was watching on my Mac PC and it played fine with no buffering. I could even see the orange progress bar running slightly ahead of the movie so know the data was being supplied correctly.
Could it be something to do with my main salon cinema set up? I am using Apple TV to connect my Samsung tv but that is also connected to the network independently. I have two networks: one from the Linksys Mesh system and one using a UK VPN IP address to allow me to watch UK tv over here. I don’t think anything is connected to the UK VPN device at the moment so doubt that is the issue.
But if another device is working fine, should I look at the tv setup before going ahead with your next fix? Many thanks.
I am on a learning curve here. Beginning to understand how it works bit by bit.
So…to try to fix the transcoding issue to my tv, I would need to go through the steps you just outlined in the previous message?
Got it. I understand now.
Thanks very much.
I am actually working on-line as we discuss this and will need some free time to reset the NAS. Will also get a UPS! Thanks for your help today and explaining a bit more about how it all works. Will let you know how I get on. Bye for now.
Hi. Just a quick update.
Before resetting DSM, I though I would check the tv setup and I discovered that Apple TV remembers wifi’s used and their passwords. In the power cut that affected everything, it seems the Apple TV reverted to a different wifi network to the one the Synology is on. Put them on the same network and all fine.
Is that the solution or did you see something on the log that suggests otherwise?
It gets very confusing as I have most of my equipment on the Linksys Mesh wifi but had a UK VPN device with a different wifi for UK tv etc (which the Apple reverted to) and the router itself transmits an SFR wifi option as well. Occasionally I find a laptop using that in error.
Also use Express VPN on devices and just wondering if it wouldn’t be easier to have VPN router to do everything. Wifi architecture gets very complicated and we are so dependent on it. I have video cameras, Sonos, Nest thermostat, Amazon Echo and loads of other stuff all chatting way and it is hard to keep track of it all.
Sorry to go off Plex here a little but just thought I’d explain.
Let me know if think I need to do anything but I think Synology NAS did not suffer in the power cut now–it was the whole system shutting down erratically and starting up again wrongly. Thanks in advance.
