When I check users, I don’t have a PlexMediaServer user. I still have the old Plex user still:
I thought about manually adding the PMS user, but after searching more threads I saw where folks had done this and the contributor had them delete those users & installs and start over.
I tried uninstalling/erasing Plex installation and did that one more time while deleting the PlexMediaServer folder and then rebooting the NAS just to be sure.
After I installed the PMS manually again, I ended up with the successful screenshot above.
I am at loss at this point and could use some help.
User PlexMediaServer isn’t a regular user. You won’t see it listed under Users
Since you didn’t get any Permission warnings / errors when installing, something probably modified the permissions of your “Plex” shared folder manually and broke it for the upgrade
Here’s the quick How-To to get working
Confirm your “Plex” shared folder still has “Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server”.
STOP HERE if it does not.
Continuing
Uninstall PMS with the ERASE option (the empty DSM 7 must be removed)
Follow this very carefully. Some steps might not apply but 99% will apply
– Do not skip any of the “Apply to this folder, sub-folders. and files” checkboxes
Under step 3, you mentioned the “empty DSM 7 must be removed” and I am not quite sure what you mean.
I thought maybe an empty folder, but I wasn’t able to find one. In the process of looking I noticed that there was a PlexMediaServer folder still there after doing the PMS uninstall w/erase option. Looks to be empty minus some language 0 byte files and and an empty “AppData” folder.
I’ve stopped here to make sure I understand what was meant by the DSM 7 must be removed.
One of my problems could be that when I first attempted this, I used the package center PMS to install after upgrading to DSM 7. The thread I was referencing at the time said to use either one. I notice the directions on your link referenced to my post yesterday say to only use the PMS downloaded from the website.
Before making my first post, I did go and try to download/install PMS from the Plex downloads section to see if that would make a difference, but I received the same successful installation without adjusting permissions.
So to clarify, here is what I have done below so far. Also, my NAS is running DSM 7.1.1-42962 Update 6 (says I am up to date) if that makes any difference.
Uninstall PMS
Upgrade to DSM 7
Install Package Center PMS (didn’t get permissions error)
Uninstall PMS w/erase
Download Plex website PMS for DSM 7 (non-beta)
Manually Install PMS (didn’t get permissions error)
Uninstall the empty (UNUSED) PMS server which got created
We need to remove the unused/empty one because the installer won’t upgrade from DSM 6 (the Plex shared folder) and overwrite an existing DSM 7 (PlexMediaServer shared folder). I did this to prevent accidental upgrade/overwrite of an otherwise live/good server. There is no method for me to ask “Are you sure?” during the upgrade process.
Well, I ended up in the same place with a successful installation and did not get the error about permissions.
I went ahead and uninstalled/erased PMS again. Deleted the PlexMediaServer folder as well.
I did verify that the original folder is name “Plex”. I also checked to make sure the data was still in that folder. It has numerous files/folders and the size is almost 8 GB, so I don’t think anything was deleted in multiple attempts at this.
After uninstalling/erasing, I took a look at permissions on the Plex folder thinking that maybe the installer isn’t seeing the folder for some reason due to some permission setting on that folder.
I see that my current login I am using, “admin” (system default user) and “plex” all have read/write. I have the “admin” account deactivated and have assigned my current login as a system administrator.
Could “admin” being deactivated be the reason?
I looked under “system internal user” under Plex>Permissions and see one listed with the name PlexMediaServer listed.
Should I go ahead and grant PlexMediaServer Full Access to “Plex” and then re-run the manual install?
First, thanks for the patience to work through this with me!
As for 2, that file does exist.
Also, sorry I didn’t explain myself well in the last post.
PlexMediaServer does not have “full control” of the Plex folder.
That is what I was trying to ask in the last post - should I give it full control. I was expecting to get the failure mode described in the posted directions and then assumed I would go in and adjust the PlexMediaServer permissions. I had looked yesterday (after installing) for the PlexMediaServer user and did not see as I did not know then there were internal users.
It wasn’t until the last post that even looked at the actual Plex folder permissions given what you had said about the install “not seeing” the folder. Sorry if I confused the matter.
As I knew there were “internal users” now, I took a look at those and noticed I had the PlexMediaServer internal user listed even after uninstalling/erasing, but it had no permissions.
I didn’t want to try and start guessing what I needed to do. So, I guess I should give PlexMediaServer full control of the “Plex” folder and try installing again?
Give System Internal User PlexMediaServer Full Control (All Administrative, Read, and Write) permissions to the Plex shared folder
– ALSO, ensure to "Apply to this folder, sub-folders, and files.
Full control is required because:
– PlexMediaServer., nor the installer. are privileged in DSM 7 (Synology change)
– You must grant the new username ‘PlexMediaServer’ full control so it can do what it needs to (Synology’s new security)
– During the migration from the Plex shared folder to PlexMediaserver, it will
Change owning username
Convert all old data structures (absolute paths to relative paths)
Move to agnostic volume path (not hard coded / tied to any volume)
– Lastly, it’ll move all the Plex files from “Plex” → “PlexMediaServer”
When it’s done, the only thing left in “Plex” will be any media / other files you might have there.
Success, many thanks! I have a few things to clean up connecting my media to the PMS.
For whatever reason, my Plex folder did not allow the same functionality to set permissions as outlined in the example. After clicking “Permissions” tab, there was a drop down box with 3 choices (Local Users, System Internal Users, Local Groups):
No idea why that folder was different and I could not discern a difference when comparing different folder settings in Control Panel>Shared Folder interface.
So, I renamed the Plex folder to PlexOG and then created a new Plex folder. I checked and I had the option to select the “Create” button. I then copied the contents of PlexOG>Plex. I recreated the same permissions in the Plex folder as well as giving Full Control to PlexMediaServer (including sub-folders).
I ran the install and finally received the Plex Media Server - DSM 6 → DSM 7 message.
I appreciate you sticking with me and walking me through it. No way I would have figured that out my own. My issue seems to be some hang up in how the original Plex folder was created. I’ve ran Plex for MANY years over two different NAS’s as well as numerous Synology NAS upgrades. That may have had something to do with it.
Again, thanks for all you do helping us making the upgrade transition. It’s a great product and glad I became a Lifetime Member.
If the “Plex” share was created by DSM 5 then the permissions in the file system would have been incorrect. (This is not something you’d even be able to see)
Did you create this initially under DSM 4 or DSM 5 ?
You didn’t miss it, never mentioned my specific history.
I came to the realization myself messing with the folder permissions as I mentioned in the last post.
The weird thing is that most of my folder structure has remained unchanged. So not sure why one folder allowed the “create” button option and others didn’t.
I would say it’s most likely I went from DSM 5>6 when I changed boxes. I just don’t remember what DSM version I was running when I upgraded the Synology box to the current one (DS718+). Probably been at least 3 years…maybe more. Who knows, might have upgraded DSM 4>5 before that as well.
As another data point, my folder with all of my original media was exhibiting the same folder permission issue as the original Plex folder. I was thinking I was going to have to create a new folder, copy TONS of data to get it all working. But that wasn’t needed.
Again, thanks for your help. I would have had to start from scratch scanning media without your help and lost all of my PlexAmp music data as well.
I have this same issue with 1520+ upgrading from DSM6 to 7.2. I did not uninstall plex on DSM6 before upgrading to 7.2 however the Plex 7.2 update worked fine no issues. I went and updated and added all permissions as required in the install instructons and plex now finds all my media however all my old sorting/naming/metadata is not working and I have to start from scratch.
My old Plex folder is there and all metadata is there.
If I stop PMS, what can I copy paste to the new plexmediaserver folder from the old plex folder so that everything is how it was before and I don’t have to go and re-do everything again??
Please read all of this before proceeding. This will remove the new instance of Plex Media Server, then restore your old server.
Step 1: Login to the NAS. User must have admin rights.
Step 2: Control Panel → Security.
Set the logout timer to a large value such as 3600. You can change it back when finished.
Step 3: Give user PlexMediaServer full control of the Plex shared folder.
Control Panel → Shared Folder. Select the Plex shared folder and Edit.
On the Permissions tab, change Local User to System Internal User.
For user PlexMediaServer, select Custom. Select all boxes - Admin/Read/Write. Click Done.
IMPORTANT: You will be back at the Permissions window. In the lower right corner, check the box to “Apply to this folder, sub-folders, and files,” then Save.
Step 4: Give user PlexMediaServer permission to access your media files. Repeat step three for the shared folders holding your media. Give either read-only or read-write access. Admin rights are not needed.
Note: Read only is sufficient for Plex Media Server. Read-write is needed if you are recording using LiveTV/DVR, creating optimized copies, etc.
Step 5: Completely remove the new server from your system.
Launch Package Center and uninstall Plex Media Server.
When prompted, choose “Erase all of Plex Media Server from this system (Not Recoverable).” This removes the new server from your system.
When the uninstall finishes, use File Station and look in the PlexMediaServer shared folder. If there are any files there, delete them. The folder must be empty.
Step 6: Re-install Plex and start the migration.
Re-install Plex Media Server. When prompted, choose a “Normal” not Claim Token installation. It is OK to use the version in Package Center (you can upgrade later if desired).
This will start the migration. The installer will move the files from the Plex shared folder to the correct location in PlexMediaServer.
The installation will take some time. A rough estimate is 1 minute for every 1000 media files on the server (movies/shows/etc).
If possible, do not logout. It won’t hurt anything, the migration will continue, but you will not be able to see the progress. This is the reason for increasing the logout timer earlier.
Step 7: When complete, claim the server.
When the process completes, the Plex shared folder should be empty except for a migration.log file.
From a system on the same network, login using the IP address of the NAS. For example, if the IP address of the NAS is 10.1.2.3, use http://10.1.2.3:32400/web.
Do not use app.plex.tv, a domain name, click the Open button in Package Center, etc. Those methods cannot be used for claiming. Once claimed, then they’re OK.
You are definitely a Plex ninja! This worked perfect and everything is back as it was.
I am curios though how this issue can be resolved in the installer itself?
The problem is that in DSM 7, the installer has very little privileges. Synology heavily restricts what is allowed. That is why when something does not work, manual intervention is usually required.
@ChuckPa handles the packaging for all the Linux distributions (and a ton more stuff too). He worked with Synology and convinced them to lessen some restrictions. If it were possible to further refine things, he would have found a way.
The good news is the incremental DSM 7 updates to 7.1 and 7.2 did not present any major problems, so we seem to be good to go for awhile (until DSM 8 shows up some day ).
I did read the instructions but after I updated DSM (updated for other reasons). I think maybe an addition of user creating the plexmediaserver user manually before upgrading Plex would allow the installer to do its work that can’t be done without the manual user interaction anyway?
If you look further up in the thread I started, PlexMediaServer is not a “normal” DSM user as @ChuckPa pointed out to me.
It’s a System Internal User.
In this case, it’s created by the PMS package and lacks the obvious permissions to access the old server folder. I am not sure if there are other ways to create one of these users or not, but guessing there isn’t. Otherwise, that would probably be in the FAQ instructions already.
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