PMS Tray: "Unable to connect to service. Check settings"

[phlmike]

Windows Server 2022 Standard, fresh VM, I tried both 1.2.1 & 1.2.2. No AV/Security and Firewall is off. No it is not cracked, I have an SPLA license, I run a cloud host. Straight up honest, up to date, legit windows install. Except I removed Edge and installed LibreWolf. Plus one other unassociated application, that I am sure does not interfere.

I have the latest plex as of Today 5/24/2023.

You check settings and it says localhost port 8787. I have Plex itself located in "D:\plex\Plex Media Server.exe" but PMS doesn't ask where plex is. I distinctly remember having to set a custom plex location in an older version - on my old plex server. But that was on Windows Server 2016 and needed to be upgraded.

Plex also refuses to stay running with PMS installed. I uninstall PMS and reboot and Plex works fine.

Yes credentials work and are tested and I am running as a machine admin. No domain.

Windows Version is 21H2 Build 20348.1726 which I am fairly certain is as up to date as it gets for stable release tract as of Today.

Hardware is 8 cores, 32GB of ram, 10GbE, drives are less than 50% full. At least 200GB free on the C: Drive.

[Wade-Lumen]

I found more info to share on your issue. Similar setup. But, the Tray only can connect if it is running as the same user the service is running as.

[phlmike]

I am the same user the service is running as. I only have a single user on the machine.

[Wade-Lumen]

I uninstalled and reinstalled using my normal account instead of the one I set up specific for the service and see the same thing you are. Under that account it still doesn't work, but the other account it does. Wonder if its something profile related. Need to find out where the tray app stores its settings and try to clear that.

[Wade-Lumen]

Kill the tray and stop the service
Go to C:\USERS\YourID\Appdata\Local\Plex Service, wipe the files in that folder and start the service, then launch the tray. Seemed to do the trick for me. Note any settings for drive mappings you may need to set back up.

[phlmike]

What release are you using 1.2.1.0 or 1.2.2.0?

[Wade-Lumen]

I had the issue with 1.2.1.0 before I noticed 1.2.2.0, but had the same issue with both. It's working with 1.2.2.0 now that I cleared the settings under the userid with the problem.

[phlmike]

I got a different result. Different than last time. I just installed 1.2.2.0... I think I saw someone on the plex forums about it.
[15:03:17 INF][PmsMonitor][Start] Plex Media Server does not appear to be installed!

[phlmike]

I got it. It's working. Thank you.

[cjmurph]

The tray app does not have to be running as the same user, it doesn't even need to be on the same PC.

@phlmike what resolved the issue for you?

[phlmike]

I removed the %LocalAppData%\Plex Service\ folder. Then, reinstalled 1.2.2.0, and pointed it to D:\plex\Plex Media Server.exe and it worked.

I am unsure what happened the first time. Because it never gave me service settings in the tray, so I couldn't point it to where my plex is installed - even though this is a completely new VM.

I'm assuming something went sideways on the initial install. Also funny enough PMS data folder shows the wrong folder. I noticed that on the forums, but what caused info to go there I am not sure. Why there is data there when I installed plex to d:\plex is beyond me. I didn't uninstall and reinstall plex all weird, I ran the installer set it d:\plex and it did the rest why it feels the need to write data all over the system is beyond me. But plex also has blank spaces in folder and filenames. I doubt they care of the feelings of sysadmins. :-)