Plex media server FAQ ( Frequently Asked Questions)

Plex Media Server is one of the best media server available to stream videos, music, and images locally or remotely. It is free and can install on a variety of operating system including Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. The Plex is not alone media server and there are other media server options available too in the free and opensource category. You can see our article in which we have listed top and best free and open source media servers. However, here in this article, we are only going to answer the common frequently asked questions by different users.

Plex media server FAQ

What’s plex media server?

The Plex media server is a solution to play media files (music, videos, & view Photos) whenever wherever you want via local network connectivity or using the internet to play remotely either using the web browser or Plex media player apps. It was launched as open source project but not anymore now but still, it is free to use.The Plex server application is available for a variety of operating system and devices:

Computer

WindowsLinuxMacOSFreeBSD

NAS

SynologyNetgearQnapunRAIDDroboASUSTORThecusSeagateWestern DigitalTerra Master

Other

Apart from Plex Media server, it also comes with Plex Media Player and Plex apps which allow you to access your media files locally or remotely on different devices such as:

Plex Media Player

WindowsMacEmbedded Platform

Applications

AndroidAmazon AlexaAmazon Fire TVAndroid TVApple TVChromecastiOSKodiNVIDIA shieldPlayStation 3PlayStation 4RokuSmart TVSonosTiVoWindowsWindows PhoneXbox 360Xbox One

Not only streaming media files but the Plex also allow you to watch the Live TV channels online and can also support up to 4k resolution. In short, it is a beautiful way to organize you hundreds of media files those you want to access from office, home, or anywhere.

How does plex media server work?

The working of Plex media server is very straightforward. After downloading and setting up the Plex Media server on a personal computer or NAS devices it asks you to give the path to the location where you have stored your media files. You can give the local or remote storage location such NAS box folder or local disk and the Plex will scan to identify the Videos, Photos, and Music. Once it indexed all the media files you can use the Plex app which is available for a variety of platforms such as Windows, smartphone, tablet, smart TV, streaming device, game console, iOS, Mac and so on to stream your favorite Mp3, Images or Videos.

It also supports the WebRTC which means you can use any browser to use the Plex remotely or locally without installing the Plex Player application.

How to use plex media server and install on Ubuntu?

Once Plex media server Graphical user interface using the IP it providedNow signup to PLEX server via Google, Facebook or Email ID.Provide some name to your Plex serverSelect the media folder path for Videos and AudiosIt will start indexingGet PLEX apps to play media on mobile devices or smart TVs.

For more detail and step by step guide to using including installation see: Install Plex MEdia sever Ubuntu.

How to uninstall plex media server?

The methods to uninstall the Plex server is different from device to device. Here, we have mentioned the way to remove the Plex server from Windows, Mac, Linux and Nas devices. Before removing the Plex Media server completely be sure that it is not running.

Uninstall Plex media server from WindowsFirst, go to the Control PanelClick on ProgramsUnder the Uninstall or Change the Program find the PlexNow double click on it.And click on OK button.

Now to Delete the Plex register Keys

Press Ctrl+R to get the RUN boxType Regedit in the box to open the registryGo to HKEY_CURRENT_USER ->Software ->Plex and press delete key from keyboard to delete the Plex keys.

After that let’s delete the Plex directory:

Again press CTRL+R keys to open RUN.Type: %LOCALAPPDATA%Find the Plex Media Server folderAnd delete all the data

Uninstall Plex media server from Mac OS X

Using the Finder’s “Go” menu, select Go To Folder… then enter the following in the dialog box that pops up:

~/Library/

Browse to and delete the following files and folders:

~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/~/Library/Caches/PlexMediaServer/~/Library/Logs/Plex Media Server/

Open your “Terminal” application and then run the following command:

defaults delete com.plexapp.plexmediaserver

After performing above steps in the Mac delete the actual application itself under /Applications/Plex Media Server.app

Restart your computer to clear out any cached Plex Media Server preferences.

Uninstall Plex media server in Linux

To remove the Plex media server from the Debian or Redhat based Linux you just need to run a couple of commands which are given below:

Debianor Ubuntu

Run the command:

dpkg -r plexmediaserver

After running the above common remove the rest of Plex files from its directory situated under the following URL

/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Fedora or CentOS

Run the command to remove the packages

rpm -e plexmediaserver

Remove the directory from

/var/lib/plexmediaserver/

Run the command to delete user

userdel plex

NAS Plex Uninstall

As different Nas box has a different user interface, so you need to find the controls panel of your NAS box or the default program manager application of your NAS box which is used to remove the installed applications; from the same place, you can uninstall the Plex server too.

How to update plex media server

Open the Plex Media ServerGo to SettingsClick on the General settingsUnder the General settings click on ServerFrom the server windows you will an option called Download updates, just click on that to update Plex automatically to the newest version.After getting the update the Plex server will restart to apply them

How to restart plex media server?

Ways to restart the Plex media server in operating systems:

Restart plex media server on Windows and MacOS

In Windows system, the Plex icon will be in the Windows system tray of the Taskbar and on MacOs in the menu bar, just find it and right click on the icon.

Now a menu will open from where just click on the Exit option to shut down or stop the Plex media server.

MACos:

Once it stopped you can relaunch or restart it again normally using the Plex media server shortcut icon given in your Windows start menu or MacOS docker.

Restart Plex Media Server in Ubuntu Linux or FreeBSD

If you want to stop plex media server on Ubuntu Linux or other FreeBSD operating system then you just need to open the terminal and fire these commands given below to start, stop and restart the running Plex server.

service plexmediaserver startservice plexmediaserver stopservice plexmediaserver restart

Restart plex media server in Synology NAS

Running Plex Media server on Synology NAS is very easy and the restart too via its GUI interface.From the package manager of the Synology search for the installed Plex Media and you will find the Action menu given in the front of the Plex application.

Click on the Action button to get stop and restart options.

How to find Plex media server IP address

After installing the Plex Media server the default port at which it works is the 32400. So, suppose if your Plex is installed on PC and you want to access it from there only then it doesn’t matter it is on Windows, Mac or Linux just open your browser and type:

http://localhost:32400/weborhttp://127.0.0.1:32400/web

If you want to access it from local network but from some different computer then you need to know the IP address assigned to your computer where the Plex Media server has been installed.

For that, if your Plex installed on Windows then open the CMD and run the command to know the IP address:

ipconfig

For Mac installed Plex:

ifconfig |grep inet

Linux Plex installation

ifconfig

After finding the address use that in the following way with the plex port number and slash web.

http://[Plex Media Server IP Address]:32400/web

For more information to find out the Plex IP address see the official guide.

How to access plex media server remotely

To access the Plex media server remotely first you need to go to your router and manually forward the WAN IP address port 32400 port to your local computer IP address that used by the Plex media server.

After forwarding the port perform the below steps:

Open Plex Web server in the browser.Sign in your accountGo to Settings > Server > GeneralThen go to Settings > Server > Remote AccessToggle the Show Advanced button to see all options.Enable the Manually specify public port checkboxEnter the WAN/External Port address which you have been forwarded to your local plex media server IP.Use the Retry or Apply button.The use the https: app.plex.tv/desktop or your routers WAN address to access the Plex remotely.

How to install Plex media server on Raspberry Pi?

There are dozens of Raspberry Pi Linux operating systems on which you can install the Plex Media server, however, we don’t know which one you are using right now; so we are going to show the installation on the common Raspbian operating system.

We assume that you already have a Raspbian OS running Raspberry Pi, no matters which version of the board you have 1,2,3.. the procedure is same for all.

Open the command line or terminal and run the following commands first

sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get upgrade

Install the HTTPS package

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

Run the following commands to add the dev2day repository to get the Plex packages

wget -O - https://dev2day.de/pms/dev2day-pms.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -echo "deb https://dev2day.de/pms/ jessie main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pms.listsudo apt-get update

Download Plex

sudo apt-get install -t jessie plexmediaserver

Assign your Pi user to Plex, for that edit its .prev file by using the following command:

sudo nano /etc/default/plexmediaserver.prev

The text editor will open find the following line:

PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USER=plex

Delete “plex” and write “pi” there and after that above line should look like something given below:

PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USER=pi

After that pressCTRL+X and type Y and press the enter key to save the changes…

Now restart the Plex media server using the following command to effect the changes.

sudo service plexmediaserver restart

Set static address for your Raspberry Pi Plex server and for that first type

hostname -I

the above command will show your current IP address, note it down.

Now, edit your command line text file by using the following command

sudo nano /boot/cmdline.txt

Once it open type or paste the Ip address you noted above in the last of the file and then press CTRL +X and type Y and hit Enter button to save the changes…

Restart the Raspberry Pi

sudo reboot

After rebooting the Pi open your browser and type your IP address which noted in the above steps followed by 32400/web/ and you are done.

http://[Raspberry Pi IP Address]:32400/web