I would include Server Logs, but I’m unsure how to even find the right logs. Here is the situation:
I migrated from Synology as my Plex Server, to a dedicated Windows 10 rig. I didn’t bring over anything to the Windows 10 machine, and scanned my libraries from scratch. Everything scanned and works great. Synology Plex has not been on since I setup the Windows 10 box.
My old Synology setup had my libraries shared to a number of peeps, so I made sure all those peeps have access to the new Server/Libraries. About a day after I reshared to everyone, all my Library Access shares disappeared. My libraries are still there, but it’s like I didn’t share to anyone at all. My friends are still listed as friends, but they don’t have access. So I went through and re-shared to everyone. This fight happened every couple days.
So I decided to go full napalm, and I removed everyone from the Server and removed them even as friends. So it was a blank slate. I re-added people manually, and everything was good for a month and a half. Then last night, boom. Everyone gone again. I just reshared to my friends again, and less than 24 hours later, they’re all gone again.
I’m not sure what I need to do at this point. I never had this problem when I was on my Synology/Linux. I am willing to do almost anything at this point. I’m not sure if it’s who I’m adding, how I’m adding, or the volume of trying to do a bunch of them at once (maybe I need to do a couple a day?).
Does anyone have any guidance? How can I find the right logs? What else can I do? Right now, access is still gone for my friends, in case that will help with troubleshooting.
Do you use Tautulli? I think it has a setting/script to remove inactive users. (I’ve never used that myself so not sure how it determines they are inactive)
No, Tautulli does not have any feature that modifies user shares.
My first instinct is that the machineIdentifier in the Preferences.xml is changing since shares are linked to the server’s identifier. Like PMS can’t write to the preferences file due to permissions and it keeps generating a new identifier.
@SwiftPanda16 How would I best check this? Could it be a permission issue on the folder structure? I’m open to checking the machineIdentifier periodically and tracking it if that could be it.
Something I noticed is that I do have a bunch of “Plex Setup” html tmp files in the main directory for the app. Not sure if that’s normal, or could point to a problem.
ok. If it was creating a new machine identifier every time then I would expect to see the old instances of server multiple times in your authorized devices at https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/devices/pms
@BigWheel I am running it as a Service under a Plex user.
I also do nightly backups of the AppData and the registry entries. I can say that over a course of time that the machine identifier hasn’t changed in the registry, but it looks like yesterday the PubSubServer IP address changed. Not sure if that actually would do anything.
But when I look back to my first backup on 22-Dec-2022, nothing changed in that registry for Plex until yesterday sometime when the PubSubServer changed. I’m not trying to be “that user” and say “that’s the cause!” but if we’re looking for differences in the registry settings, that is the only change in over a month, and I didn’t make the change.
Not trying to bump this, but just trying to see if an employee that deals with Windows has eyes on this. It’s very frustrating and I’d like to get it resolved.
I have the same issue, Windows server running as a service.Randomly all my custom shares will be removed. If I select to share all lobraries with a user,permissions are retained but if I select individual libraries it is only a metter of time before they are reset. This is without Tautalli on my server,just a plain jane setup.
@markstahler Thank you for validating me as not crazy! I thought I was losing it because no one else is having this issue.
Can I ask the following:
1.) What did you use to setup Plex as a Windows Service
2.) Is the account you’re running the Windows Service under a normal user, or an Admin?
3.) Are you libraries local to your server, or do you connect to them via a network share?
