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Start w/ what the spew suggested, look at your journalctl -xe -u plexmediaserver. From there, I'd run the server the same way the service does, using the user it uses and the exec start it uses. All the environment bullshit is going to be harder to mimic.

Apologies for the poorly formatted paste dump. There was not much useful information from the output or Google to try. Installing the older non plexpass version does work (seemed easier than an older plexpass version, yes I do have plexpass). I am happy to try any suggestions or give further information.

@bazzawill: Besides restarting and pasting a bunch of really hard to read spew, what have you tried?

I upgraded today and plex will not start. Below output from systemd it is not adding anything to the plex logs it appears.

sudo journalctl -xe -u plexmediaserver Mar 08 14:26:54 mythbox systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server. ░░ Subject: A stop job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished ░░ Defined-By: systemd ░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel ░░ ░░ A stop job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished. ░░ ░░ The job identifier is 2868 and the job result is done. Mar 08 14:26:54 mythbox systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Start request repeated too quickly. Mar 08 14:26:54 mythbox systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'core-dump'. ░░ Subject: Unit failed ░░ Defined-By: systemd ░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel ░░ ░░ The unit plexmediaserver.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'core-dump'. Mar 08 14:26:54 mythbox systemd[1]: Failed to start Plex Media Server. ░░ Subject: A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has failed ░░ Defined-By: systemd ░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel ░░ ░░ A start job for unit plexmediaserver.service has finished with a failure. ░░ ░░ The job identifier is 2868 and the job result is failed.

sudo systemctl status plexmediaserver ● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled) Active: failed (Result: core-dump) since Mon 2021-03-08 14:26:54 ACDT; 20min ago Process: 50200 ExecStart=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server (code=dumped, signal=ABRT) Main PID: 50200 (code=dumped, signal=ABRT)

Mar 08 14:26:54 mythbox systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3. Mar 08 14:26:54 mythbox systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server. Mar 08 14:26:54 mythbox systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Start request repeated too quickly. Mar 08 14:26:54 mythbox systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'core-dump'. Mar 08 14:26:54 mythbox systemd[1]: Failed to start Plex Media Server.

@j1simon: Looks like they found the issue and expect a fix release on Monday, yay!

I think there is a problem with systemd service in 1.22.x versions. The process of stopping the service does not do it correctly and takes up to 1m30 s to stop it:

● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2021-03-07 15:02:25 CET; 23s ago
Process: 1260 ExecStart=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 1260 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

mar 07 15:02:25 juan-PC systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Killing process 1784 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
mar 07 15:02:25 juan-PC systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Killing process 1796 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
mar 07 15:02:25 juan-PC systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Killing process 1799 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
mar 07 15:02:25 juan-PC systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Killing process 1805 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
mar 07 15:02:25 juan-PC systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Killing process 1806 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
mar 07 15:02:25 juan-PC systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Killing process 1813 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
mar 07 15:02:25 juan-PC systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Killing process 1815 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
mar 07 15:02:25 juan-PC systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Killing process 2003 (n/a) with signal SIGKILL.
mar 07 15:02:25 juan-PC systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
mar 07 15:02:25 juan-PC systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server.

It's a know problem: https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-hanging-on-shutdown-after-update-to-plexmediaserver-1-22-0-4136/

@fryfrog So sorry, I must've missed the email notification from your original response. I hadn't tried the hooks, but did a quick search on pacman hooks, got it set up and as it happened, Plex needed an update, did a yay -Syu and a few minutes later it updated and then restarted Plex was required.

Thank you for the advice AND for the work on packaging plex.

@grawlinson: That's a great idea, I've added it to the hook and it'll go out w/ the next update. Thanks!

Any chance of a Description stanza being added to the Action section of the hook?

At the moment, a Plex update looks like this:

:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/7) Creating system user accounts...
(2/7) Reloading system manager configuration...
(3/7) Creating temporary files...
(4/7) Reloading device manager configuration...
(5/7) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
(6/7) plexmediaserver.hook
(7/7) Updating the info directory file...

Something like Description = Restarting Plex Media Server... would be sufficient.

The aur package comes with plexmediaserver.hook which reads...

# Copy, move or symlink this file in /etc/pacman.d/hooks to force a restart when plex is updated.

[Trigger]
Operation = Upgrade
Type = Package
Target = plex-media-server-plexpass
Target = plex-media-server

[Action]
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /usr/bin/systemctl try-restart plexmediaserver.service

^ Did you try that?