Problems installing and running Plex Media Server - button "Open PLEX" greyed out

[patsalwayshere]

Hi

I'm trying to setup the Plex Media Server on my new Nighthawk X10. Here are the steps I've taken so far: Went to "Routerlogin," Clicked on Plex Media Server, Clicked on Open Plex, Created Plex account, Installed Plex server. When I installed the Plex server, it gets installed on my MacBook rather than the router/external hard drive plugged into the router. I don't know where to go from here. I understood that the router acted as my server so that I won't need a computer running to use it... 

[schumaku · Accepted solution]

All right ... now open Finder on your Mac. In the left pane under "Shared", you should see the R9000 twice ... once as R9000 for AFP (or whatever system name is configured), and under readyshare SMB protocol (or whatever is configured for the workgroup). Connect to one of these as a guest, Ignore the "Kurt" and T_Drive folders ... and enter USB_Storage:

Try to create some folders, upload some files here. Does this work as expected?

Now drill down to Library -> Application Support -> Plex Media Server -> Logs ... 

...if this folder exists, I would imagine there should be some log files, inlcuding a "Plex Media Server.log" file.

Can you open it, and copy paste everything to the community forum?

If there is nothing ... only Netgear can really help. I don't want to take you to enable the telnet access, and run some shell commands.

[William10a]

Welcome to world of app's for computer or mobile devices none of the programs you download and run live on the router they just control it Genie is  the same way it lives on your computer not the router the only  software on the router is it's firmware.

Have you look at the set up instructions for the program?

[patsalwayshere]

Yes i followed the setup instructions. Once Plex downloads, I hit open Plex and it brings me to the Plex website. Then i sign into Plex and it says cannot find server. It seems to me that Plex is looking for the server on my computer instead of on the Route/ Hard drive. 

thanks,

[schumaku]

Your R9000 is on the current 1.0.1.36 (or newer)?

R9000 Firmware Version 1.0.1.36

There was an issue (until these days) where this version was not pushed to the live update.

[patsalwayshere]

Yes it on the latest firmware. I restored the router to its factory settings last night and checked that it was up to date. When I go to router login and open plex it says the server cannot be found. I already downloaded Plex via router login.

[schumaku]

You need PMS installed on your Mac, too? Get rid of it - Plex does not like multiple PMS on the same LAN.

The Plex (PMS) on the router will be installed internally, the external stroage is used for the PMS database only. Is the external sotrage recognized by the router, and accessible ie. using ReadySHARE by browsing the default \\readshare\?

[patsalwayshere]

All the following was done from the router login page. I installed plex on the router itself. Then I hit open Plex, and it said no server found/download Plex. So I downloaded Plex thinking that it had to download again, but it downloaded to my Mac instead of on the server. From there I restored the router back to factory default and checked for updates. Then I went back to router login re-downloaded plex onto the router and hit open Plex, and it still says cant find server. Basically, I'm back to where I started. 

[schumaku]

---

@patsalwayshere wrote:

Basically, I'm back to where I started. 

---

And practically, you have just repeated your earlier postings.

Has the router recognized the external storage, and is it accessible? This is required because of Plex requires the external storage to hold it's database on the R9000.

In case you had Plex installed by error on the Mac during the process - uninstall it again.

[patsalwayshere]

Yes Netgear recognised the hard drive.

[schumaku · Accepted solution]

All right ... now open Finder on your Mac. In the left pane under "Shared", you should see the R9000 twice ... once as R9000 for AFP (or whatever system name is configured), and under readyshare SMB protocol (or whatever is configured for the workgroup). Connect to one of these as a guest, Ignore the "Kurt" and T_Drive folders ... and enter USB_Storage:

Try to create some folders, upload some files here. Does this work as expected?

Now drill down to Library -> Application Support -> Plex Media Server -> Logs ... 

...if this folder exists, I would imagine there should be some log files, inlcuding a "Plex Media Server.log" file.

Can you open it, and copy paste everything to the community forum?

If there is nothing ... only Netgear can really help. I don't want to take you to enable the telnet access, and run some shell commands.

[patsalwayshere]

Schumaku thanks so much for the help. I got netgear in the phone and they remoted in and fixed it. I appreciate you effort though.