Unable to connect to Plex Media Server on NAS

[Ron_The_Bear]

Server Version#:1.24.5.5173

Plex user for six years, currently on my thrid QNAP NAS (TVS-1282) and never had an issue with installation or connection.

Storm took out the electricity the other day and on powering up the NAS again, found I was unable to connect to the NAS from the PC using Plex web. The server name was not visible and there was no facility to edit settings of any kind.

After tinkering and Google searching for many hours, made the decision to abandon the installation and re-install Plex on the NAS. No problems, was able to sign in from the PC using Plex web and recreate a movie library, with Plex correctly reading and identifying ~400 movie files.

After approx. 90 minutes, while putting my movies into categories, Plex web lost communication with the server. From this point I have got the ‘[server name] is currently unavailable’ message. Have followed the support article (Why can't the Plex app find or connect to my Plex Media Server? | Plex Support) to the letter, to no avail.

Just wondering where to look to solve a connection problem with these symptoms:

• lost Plex server connection after power outage (network drive connections to NAS were OK)
• removed and re-installed Plex Media Server and connected successfully
• lost Plex server connection suddenly through no action of my own

Before anyone mentions logs, I haven’t needed to delve into them previously but am prepared to learn if necessary. Hoping there is a simple explanation, however.

[ChuckPa]

Since you can’t connect to the server to get the logs the normal way, we’ll use the back door

1. Create a shared folder named “PlexData” (spelled exactly that way) anywhere you want. That’s the doorway

2. Stop Plex

3. Start Plex

4. Let it run 2-3 minutes

5. Stop Plex again. Now we’ll get the logs.

6. File Station: Open PlexData → Plex Media Server → Right-Click Logs → Compress to Logs.zip

7. When that’s done, download the ZIP file

8. Attach here and I’ll take a look

[Ron_The_Bear]

Thanks ChuckPa for your kind offer of assistance.

Long story short - was unable to retrieve a log in the manner suggested. Suspect that although Plex Server appears to be running in App Centre, it is not actually starting up. I have since removed/re-installed Plex several times, as well as restoring the NAS to factory settings (while retaining the data).

Plex installs fine but whenever the NAS is rebooted, Plex Server is dead as a dodo - not even a process visible in QNAP Resource Manager, despite App Centre suggesting it is running.

After the most recent installation of Plex Server, I stopped and re-started Plex Server on the NAS a couple of times and grabbed the Plex log Plex Media Server Logs_2021-11-01_17-02-15.zip (689.8 KB). After rebooting the NAS, Plex is unreachable as before.

Hoping there is something in the log that makes sense, otherwise I’m resigned to rebuilding the NAS from scratch. Goodbye long weekend…

[ChuckPa]

Is this local time for you now ?

Nov 01, 2021 17:01:54.794 [0x7faf0ba2ab38] DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as Ron The Bear

If so, it’s running.

I did clear out the old server you deleted. (that’ll cause Plex/web all kinds of Fuss)

Please give this a shot.

1. Open an incognito window
2. Hoping you’re on the same subnet with it –
3. http://192.168.0.200:32400/web
4. Tell me what you get

If you’re on a different subnet – we know what’s happening but all indications are you’re on the same.

[Ron_The_Bear]

Yeah that’s my local time.

I see this whether I’m using an incognito window or not.

[MLB555]

I’m having same problem after power outage and NAS reboot

[Ron_The_Bear]

I find that if I reinstall Plex Server over the top of the existing installation after a reboot, my Plex library is available… until the next reboot.

If that was the only problem, I could possibly live with it as the NAS doesn’t often get restarted, but in addition

• the power outage took out my Roon Server installation as well (have not attempted to re-install)
• whenever I reboot the NAS and start McAfee Antivirus, I get either a blank dialog or one filled with random symbols, even after several re-installs
• after a majority of reboots I get a message that the file system on disk X is unclean, but all health indicators are 100% for all disks and a file system check reveals nothing.

Should also mention that I’ve done a factory reset on the modem in case the issue lay there. No effect.

I’m coming to the conclusion that this is not a Plex issue at all and the server build itself is corrupted. Unless anyone has a brilliant idea I intend to totally wipe the NAS and rebuild from scratch.

[Ron_The_Bear]

Probably my last entry…

In desperation I re-installed the last firmware prior to QTS 5 (4.5.4.1800). QNAP gives you a stern warning that such things are not supported and could result in data loss etc. Ploughed ahead, rebooted, Plex Server was fine. Played some videos, rebooted the NAS and Plex Server was fine again. Was even able to install and run McAfee with no aberrations. Rebooted a third time to confirm stability.

NB Had previously reverted from QTS 5.0.0.1828 to 5.0.0.1808 with no improvement. In no hurry to go back to QTS 5 (and was not a huge fan anyway).

An oddity was that I was requested to turn off cache acceleration before it would install the older QTS. Maybe the issue lies there?

Thanks again to ChuckPa. One for the X-Files…

Edit: I now suspect the issue was that after the power outage, the QNAP was somehow seeing the SSD cache drives as viable storage. It makes sense that everything worked fine after installation until the NAS was rebooted, then the Plex server couldn’t be contacted as it had been installed on the cache drives which obviously get flushed during a reboot. No services running, no sign of Plex on the NAS except an application icon. Noticed earlier that one of the cache drives was running at 53C - unusually hot.

Going to operate without caching for a while. Something to try if you’re running cache drives and seeing similar symptoms.

[ChuckPa]

@MLB555

I’m having same problem after power outage and NAS reboot

@MLB555

Please do the following:

1. Create a shared folder named PlexData
2. Attempt to restart plex
3. Now stop it
4. Navigate: File Station → PlexData/Plex Media Server
5. Right-Click Logs - Compress to ZIP
6. Download that zip file & attach here.

[peterharris0202]

After upgrading my QTS to 5.0 tonight, no matter what I do, I can’t access my PMS, not even the local version via local IP address:32400/web.
I’ve been trying for hours and don’t know what else to try.
Hoping that ChuckPa or someone else can help?
I will attach log files
I’m running QTS 5.00.1891 Build 20211221 on QNAP 453Be
PMS 1.25.2 (though earlier I had started with 1.24.2 and that didn’t work either)
PlexLogs20220103-2314.zip (5.7 MB)

[peterharris0202]

Eventually I had to give up, so I did one last restart of the NAS (having done that 4-6 times already) and went to bed. It appears to be working this morning. If you are able, I’d still love to know if there’s anything in my logs to pinpoint the problem, in case there’s something I still need to address to stop this happening again. But it’s much less critical now!

[ChuckPa]

@peterharris0202

I wish I had been online sooner.

What you are failing on is what I found and fixed over the holidays.

I can give you the hot-fix now if you’d like and are comfortable at the QNAP SSH command line.

[peterharris0202]

@ChuckPa I wish you had been too! I must have spent at least 4 hours trying to fix this, before posting for help, and I got nowhere! Oh well. Thanks for being here now
I wouldn’t say I’m comfortable with SSH. I’ve used it only once before and will have to look up online how to even get to the command line, but I’m happy to give it a go. Do I need to if it’s working now? Is this something that will be fixed in next PMS release, or something that I need to change on my NAS at some stage regardless?

[ChuckPa]

How about I walk you through it ?

1. Drink (lots)

3. Take this file, ChuckPa-QNAP-hotfix.zip,

4. Upload it to your QNAP “Public” shared folder.

5. Unzip it.

6. Open SSH (or Putty) session to QNAP

7. Sign in as admin (an ‘adminstrative user’ won’t have enough privilege)

8. Type these commands (or copy/paste)

cd /share/Public
ls -la

9. You should now see chucka-plex.sh in the directory listing.
10. We’re going to replace the control script that came with the package.

cd /share/*/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer
mv plex.sh plex.sh-orig
cp /share/Public/chuckpa-plex.sh ./plex.sh
chown 0:0 plex.sh
chmod +x plex.sh
ls -la plex.sh

it should look like this:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 admin admin 8323 Jan  3 14:48 plex.sh

11. Leave the SSH session sitting there just in case we need it.

12. Go back to the QTS control GUI in your browser.

13. Open App Center

14. Stop Plex

15. Start Plex

16. Wait 30 seconds

17. Stop Plex one last time

18. Start Plex

19. The update is now in place and operating. It will remain until superseded by installing an update.

When you’re happy the control is working (Plex starts again as it should), you can close the SSH session.

PS: You can start breathing again

[peterharris0202]

@ChuckPa thanks.
I have managed to open an SSH session with Putty, login as admin, and once I realised I had to clear the Console Management Main menu, I can enter the initial commands you instructed.
BUT, I don’t know where/how to get ``ChuckPa-QNAP-hotfix.zip` as the file name is highlighted but not a link. Could you answer that for the dummies?
Perhaps I didn’t follow the first 2 steps well enough?

[ChuckPa]

Sorry for the delay.

AND MY FORGETFULNESS!

ChuckPa-QNAP-hotfix.zip (3.0 KB)

[peterharris0202]

In step 10, it looks ALMOST like that. Assume this is OK?..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 admin administrators 8323 2022-01-04 09:35 plex.sh*

I followed the rest of the steps and all seems good
I noticed that during step 16, the Plex session I had open on my browser came back up with everything enabled except for Live TV & DVR. But that’s OK now too.

Thank you!

[peterharris0202]

Now a bit off topic…
The reason that I rebooted (and hence upgraded firmware) on my NAS last night was because Plex showed almost nothing on my live TV recordings for the last 6 days (unusual for me to not check it much more often than that).
Is there anything in the logs I already uploaded to explain that error?
Or should I post this in another thread and upload the logs again?
Or just wait and see if it happens again since the upgrade?
Thanks again

[ChuckPa]

@peterharris0202

Re “Step 10”. admin administrators works just fine!

I do so much from memory I’m lucky I got that much right

At this point,

1. should plex fail, Stopping Plex and starting Plex in App Center should work flawlessly.

2. If you upgrade plex, while it’s stopped, re-apply this control script. (i’ll get this into a release ASAP… you’ll spot it in the release notes when I do )