I’m having trouble claiming my Plex Media Server to my account. No matter what I try, the server shows as “Not authorized” or “Server settings unavailable”, and it doesn’t appear under my account at https://plex.tv/devices.
Background:
I previously had a Plex server installed on this machine, but it was never properly removed or deauthorized. I believe this may have left behind an orphaned or “ghost” server entry tied to my account, which is now interfering with the new installation.
Troubleshooting I’ve Done:
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Completely removed all traces of the old Plex installation:
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Uninstalled the application
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Deleted all data from:
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%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server -
%APPDATA%\Plex -
%APPDATA%\Local\Plex -
Installed the latest Plex Media Server version available from the website
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Attempted to claim the new server via:
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Standard browser-based login (
[http://localhost:32400/web](http://localhost:32400/web`)) -
Claim token via CLI:
Plex Media Server.exe -claim https://plex.tv/claim?... -
Manual edits to
Preferences.xmlwithPlexOnlineTokenandPlexOnlineHome -
Verified that my network is unrestricted and the server can access
[plex.tv](http://plex.tv/)
Log Snippet:
Here’s the consistent error I see in the logs (Plex Media Server.log):
Jul 13, 2025 23:09:12.774 [0x000020fc] ERROR – MyPlex: Error 401 requesting JSON from: https://plex.tv/api/v2/server/users/features
Jul 13, 2025 23:09:12.774 [0x000020fc] WARN – MyPlex: Error 401 Unauthorized (unauthorized) on /api/v2/server/users/features
The server can still reach other Plex endpoints like /pins (returns HTTP 200), so the connection itself is working — but this 401 error seems to block account linking. According to my research it is likely that there is still a “ghost” of my old server on the Plex side that is preventing this new one from registering
