Plex Media Server Preferences
From Plex
There are multiple preferences available to customize and control your Plex Media Server experience. This page lists how to change the preferences and lists the available options you can change.
Contents |
Setting Plex Media Server to Auto-start
The Plex Media Server is an application that runs on your Macintosh or Windows PC. You can only access your Plex media while the server is running, so we recommend you allow the application to launch when you log-in. You must login to the user account for the server to load.
Mac OS X
Click the Plex Media Server icon on the Mac's top menubar and select Open at Login. This will add the Plex Media Server application to your user account's "Login Items" so that the application starts when you log into the account.
Windows
Right-click the Plex Icon in the Windows System Tray and choose Start Plex Media Server at Login. The Plex Media Server will automatically start when you log into the user account.
Standard Preferences
How to Access the Preferences
Web Media Manager (All Platforms)
The Web Media Manager is available on all platforms (Mac OS X, Windows, Linux) and can be accessed on the computer running the Plex Media Server by going to http://localhost:32400/manage. From the Web Media Manager, use the Preferences button on the top right.
Mac OS X Media Manager
You can access the native Media Manager on Mac OS X in several ways:
- Click the Plex Media Server icon on the Mac's top menubar and select Preferences...
- If you've already enabled the Dock icon to be shown for the Plex Media Server, you can right-click the Plex Media Server icon in the dock and choose Preferences…
- OPTION-click the Plex Media Server icon on the Mac's top menubar
Available Preferences
General
Friendly Name: The name used to identify the Plex Media Server to clients on the network or via myPlex.
Send anonymous usage data to Plex: Choose whether to send anonymous usage data back to Plex. This includes data on how items are matched to help improve future matching.
Show a dock icon: This setting determines whether the Plex Media Server shows an icon in the Dock or not. (Available on Mac OS X only)
myPlex
Agents
Library
Update my library when changes to my folders are detected: If enabled, the PMS will initiate a scan when changes are detected for a specified content location. Such automated scans will begin ~60s after a change is detected. Note that not all systems are supported for this automatic detection. For instance, changes cannot be detected for mounted network shares.
Update my library _____: Set a recurring scan at a set time interval. The interval begins when the Plex Media Server is started. (So if you set it to scan every 24 hours and you start the app at 12:30, then it will scan again 24 hours later.)
Empty trash automatically after every scan: This setting determines whether or not you make use of Plex's soft deletion feature. If disabled, then when a scan determines an item to have been deleted, that item is marked as "soft deleted" but remains in your library. If enabled then such an item would automatically be removed from the Plex library section.
Include music sections in automatic updates: Choose whether automatic scans should include Music library sections or not. Music sections can often be very large and thus can take longer-than-normal to scan.
Allow clients to delete media: When enabled, this allows compatible clients to initiate deletion of a library item. When the client deletes the item, the corresponding media file from the library section is moved to the Trash/Recycle Bin. (Available on Web Media Manager only)
Optimize Database...: This button initiates an optimization of the database. There is currently no visual indication when the optimization is completed. (Available on Mac OS X only)
Channels
Enable iTunes sharing: Determines whether your local iTunes library is made available to clients via the "iTunes" channel under Music Channels.
Enable iPhoto sharing: Determines whether your local iPhoto library is made available to clients via the "iPhoto" channel under Picture Channels. (Available on Mac OS X only)
Enable Aperture sharing: Determines whether your local Aperture library is made available to clients via the "Aperture" channel under Picture Channels. (Available on Mac OS X only)
Network
This option is only available in Advanced Settings view.
Transcoder
Soundflower: Soundflower is an app used on Mac OS X in order to provide audio when using Plex channels based on Flash or Silverlight. If you wish to use channels based on Flash/Silverlight then you will need to install Soundflower on Mac OS X systems. (Available on Mac OS X only)
Offer higher bitrates over 3G connections: Force additional higher bitrates to be offered to clients connecting over 3G.
Languages
You can select the preferred Audio and Subtitle language as well as your desired behavior for subtitles:
Prefer audio tracks in: If enabled, then the Plex Media Server will attempt to automatically select audio tracks matching the specified language when serving content to a client.
Subtitle mode:
- Manually selected: Plex will never show subtitles by default unless you manually enable them for a particular video in a client
- Shown with foreign audio: If Plex doesn't find an audio track matching your preferred audio language, then Plex will try to display an appropriate subtitle track (see below)
- Always enabled: Plex will try its best to always display subtitles and will use the following heuristics
- If a subtitle is found matching your requested language, it will be shown (even if the audio language also matches)
- If there is a “sidecar” subtitle (i.e. a subtitle file next to the video file) it will be shown even if the language doesn't match, because most of the time when people have a subtitle file sitting there, they want to display it
- If there is only a single subtitle embedded in the file, it will be used even if the language doesn't match
Prefer subtitles in: If enabled, then the Plex Media Server will attempt to automatically select subtitle tracks matching the specified language when serving content to a client.
In order for the Plex Media Server to be able to automatically choose audio or subtitle tracks, the language of each audio and subtitle track must be specified within your media files. If the languages are not set within the media files (or the language is set to "Undefined") then Plex will not be able to automatically choose tracks.
- Additional Reading: Plex/Nine Subtitles Guide
DLNA
Network Discovery
Advanced
Advanced Preferences
How to change the preferences
Mac OS X
On OSX you change the preferences with the help of the defaults command:
defaults write com.plexapp.plexmediaserver <optionname> <value> defaults write com.plexapp.plexmediaserver <optionname> -boolean <Value>
Windows
On Windows the preferences are available in the registry.
- Open regedit and navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server
- Create a new string value entry named as per the options below, and add the correct value
Linux
On Linux the options are available in a XML file called Preferences.xml in $PLEX_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIRECTORY/Plex media Server
This path resolves to the following on the different distributions:
- Ubuntu/Fedora - /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml
- Synology - /volume1/Plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml
- QNAP -
- unRAID -
- ReadyNAS - /c/.plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml
Add a new XML attribute with the name of the option and the value like this
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Preferences BlacklistedBundle="" newoption="withvalue"/>
Note that the Preferences tag can contain a lot of options already.
Syslog option
In addition to the Preferences file, as of Plex Media Server 0.9.6.6 its also possible to enable syslogging. This is done via the newly introduced variable: PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true
To set the variable it has to be added to the configuration file of Plex Media Server. Here is where to place it on various Linux flavors:
Add the PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true variable to:
- Ubuntu - /etc/default/plexmediaserver (add: PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true)
- CentOS/Fedora - /etc/sysconfig/PlexMediaServer (add: export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true)
- Synology - /var/packages/Plex Media Server/scripts/start-stop-status
- QNAP -
- unRAID -
- ReadyNAS - /etc/init.d/plexserver (add: export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true)
After adding the variable restart Plex Media Server and it will put Plex Media Server logs to syslog instead of Plex logs.
Available Preferences
| Name | Possible values | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| allowMediaDeletion | 1/0 | 1 | |
| allowedNetworks | string with ip/netmask,ip/netmask | A list of networks that are allowed to access PMS without authentication. Must be listed with full subnet. | 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0,10.10.10.0/255.255.255.0 |
| ApertureLibraryXmlPath | path | ~/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary/ApertureData.xml | |
| ApertureSharingEnabled | 1/0 | 1 | |
| AppCastUrl | 1/0 | 1 | |
| autoEmptyTrash | 1/0 | 1 | |
| autoScanMusicSections | 1/0 | 1 | |
| BonjourEnabled | 1/0 | Enables Bonjour discovery when set to 1 | 1 |
| collectUsageData | 1/0 | 1 | |
| disableCapabilityChecking | 1/0 | Disables the channel capability checking if set to 1 | 1 |
| disableRemoteSecurity | 1/0 | 1 | |
| DlnaDeviceDiscoveryInterval | 1/0 | 1 | |
| DlnaEnabled | 1/0 | Disables DLNA server if set to 0 | 0 |
| DlnaPlatinumLoggingLevel | 1/0 | Enables the Neptune DLNA log when set to 1 | 1 |
| DlnaTraceVerbose | 1/0 | 1 | |
| FriendlyName | string | Defines the name shown in myPlex portal and on clients | MyMediaCenter |
| FSEventLibraryUpdatesEnabled | 1/0 | 1 | |
| GdmEnabled | 1/0 | Enables GDM discovery when set to 1 | 1 |
| higherBitrate3G | 1/0 | 1 | |
| iPhotoLibraryXmlPath | path | ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml | |
| iPhotoSharingEnabled | 1/0 | 1 | |
| iTunesLibraryXmlPath | path | ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.xml | |
| iTunesSharingEnabled | 1/0 | 1 | |
| LocalAppDataPath | path | Changes location of Local Data | /Volumes/BigDisk/PlexData |
| logDebug | 1/0 | Disables debug logging if set to 0 | 0 |
| LogVerbose | 1/0 | 1 | |
| ScheduledLibraryUpdatesEnabled | 1/0 | 1 | |
| ScheduledLibraryUpdateInterval | 1/0 | 1 | |
| TranscoderDefaultDuration | number | duration in minutes | 140 |
| TranscoderTempDirectory | path | location to write temporary transcode segments | /Volumes/Media/MyTempDirectory/ |