Plex

Plex is a power media player with support across a large range of platforms

Screenshot of Plex

How do I access Plex?

Plex will be available from your dashboard (https://<username>.elfhosted.com>), or directly, at https://<username>-plex.elfhosted.com

How do I use it?

Use ElfBot to apply your plex claim, and reboot. Then access Plex from your dashboard.

You'll be prompted to setup your libraries, etc.

From media players

When you configure the Plex app in your media player, use https://<username>-plex.elfhosted.com as the address (if a port is required, use 443)

Enable Hardware transcoding

Our nodes support Intel QuickSync for Video (QSV). If you're a PlexPass user, you can enable hardware transcoding.

Solutions to common issues

Claiming server / Can't add media libraries

If you find that you can't add media libraries, or even administer your Plex instance, then it probably hasn't been "claimed" yet. Use ElfBot to claim your server using a claim code from https://www.plex.tv/claim/.

To confirm whether your Plex instance has been claimed, use FileBrowser to examine config/plex//Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml. If the server has been claimed, you'll see a key PlexOnlineUsername.

Playback stalls

Plex may be trying to transcode the media, based on a detected incompatibilty with your client/app, and running into CPU limitations. For optimal performance and quality, try to direct-play media where possible. You could also try enabling hardware transcoding (above), which will improve transcoding performance.

The transcoder exited due to an error.

This error will occur if Plex tries to transcode something in an inefficient way. ElfHosted nodes run a "transcode-killer" script which terminates such transcodes for the sake of the resources shared by other users.

Here are the transcodes we'll automatically terminate:

Transcoding from HEVC to H264
Transcoding video without using QSV (PlexPass is required for hardware transcoding support)
Transcoding any 4K content (even with QSV this is very resource-intensive - 4K should only be direct-played)

Database is corrupt

Certain unplanned events (power outages, etc) can result in Plex's database becoming corrupted. Fortunately, Plex makes its own, internal backup of its database at regular intervals, so it's possible to restore from a backed-up version of the database.

Here's the process to restore Plex to a database backup:

"Pause" Plex, using ElfBot
In FileBrowser, navigate to config/plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases
Rename com.plexapp.plugins.library.db to com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-corrupt, and then pick the most recent, dated version of com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-<date>, and rename it to com.plexapp.plugins.library.db.

When Plex starts after the pause, the backup database will be used!

Remote Access issues

Plex may alert you that it is "Not available outside your network". This is to be expected, given that we're (a) accessing it via a reverse proxy, and (b) using a VPN to avoid Plex's global Hetzner ban.

You'll still be able to access your Plex instance remotely via apps etc, provided that under Settings -> Network -> Custom server access URLs, you see your ElfHosted URL defined (i.e. https://<your username>-plex.elfhosted.com:443).

Note that when you connect to Plex externally, your port will be 443, since your traffic arrives via our reverse proxy.

Unable to save settings

Normally, Plex servers can be remotely administered using https://app.plex.tv - in our case, (maybe because we're using a VPN?), users have had inconsistent results saving server settings changes this way. To make changes to your Plex instance, use the https://<your username>-plex.elfhosted.com interface.

Get Plex token

To integrate Zurg or plex-debrid with Plex, you need to retrieve a plex "authentication token". THis is a fiddly process, but there's a useful guide here.

The easiest way to get the token is to examine the XML of an existing media item in your library - but if you're just getting setup, you don't have anything in your library! We've snuck a small movie into /storage/elfstorage/videos/, so that you can add this as an "Other Media" library in Plex, scan it, and use it to retrieve your token from the XML!

Auto-empty trash

By default Plex is configured to not automatically empty its trash. This default primarily benefits symlink-based, "Infinite Streaming" users, who would loose their entire library of content if their debrid service was disconnected for a period.

Users may opt back into automatically clearing Plex's trash by overriding an environment variable (PLEX_PREFERENCE_7 in our case), using ElfBot. To enable automatic clearing of Plex's trash, use FileBrowser's console, and run elfbot env plex PLEX_PREFERENCE_7=autoEmptyTrash=1

Plex also works with

How do I get support for Plex?

For general use of Plex, refer to the official site or to one of the links below.
For specific support re your ElfHosted configuration / account, see the ElfHosted support options!