Ubuntu 20.04 Plex Failed to Start

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: Likely latest

Hi Guys,

I migrated my Plex Server from a Ubuntu Server to Ubuntu.

I followed the plex migration instructions:

First installing and then signing out of the plex app and then stopping it.

After stopping it I copied across the library details:
/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/

Then restarted the server.

Unfortunately it now fails to start:

● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2021-08-19 17:39:51 BST; 13min ago
    Process: 3291 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/test -d "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" || /bin/mkdir -p "${P>
    Process: 3293 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c  export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_INFO_VENDOR="$(grep ^NAME= /etc/os-release | awk -F= "{print \>
   Main PID: 3293 (code=exited, status=255/EXCEPTION)

Aug 19 17:39:51 Madmax-PLEX systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
Aug 19 17:39:51 Madmax-PLEX systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.
Aug 19 17:39:51 Madmax-PLEX systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Aug 19 17:39:51 Madmax-PLEX systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 19 17:39:51 Madmax-PLEX systemd[1]: Failed to start Plex Media Server.

Issue may be related to " For Linux/NAS systems, make sure that the directories and contents are all owned by plex:plex (or whichever user you have running Plex Media Server under)." from the migration page. Sadly I didn’t quite understand this.

Any idea how I should begin to diagnose the issue? Let me know if I need to post any logs/Ubuntu details.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

2

Think about what you did.

  1. You copied files from somewhere else,
  2. With a different username
  3. What happens when a non-privileged user attempts to access a file it doesn’t own?

What’s the remedy? It should be obvious –

sudo chown -R plex:plex /var/lib/plexmediaserver

It’s in posts and documentation throughout the forum.

1 Like
3

Fixed it perfectly many thanks.

Apologies, wasn’t sure what the issue could be. Cheers for clearing it up =D

4

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.