How to Run Plex Media Server 24x7 as a Windows Service with AlwaysUp

Plex Media Server (PMS) is a personal digital hub that shares your movies, TV shows, music and pictures across all your Plex-enabled devices.

To its credit, Plex Media Server features a convenient "Start at Login" option that launches the software whenever you sign in. However, PMS won't run if you don't log in. The upshot is that if (when) your computer reboots unexpectedly and you're not there to log in, your media won't be accessible.

But not to worry, because that's where AlwaysUp can help — by automatically starting Plex Media Server as soon as your computer boots. Set it and forget it!

To install Plex Media Server as a Windows Service with AlwaysUp:

1. Download and install Plex Media Server, if necessary:

   

   Configure Plex to serve all your media and make sure that the software operates as expected.

   If PMS doesn't work now, it won't do any better when run as a Windows Service!

2. Download and install AlwaysUp, if necessary.

3. Start AlwaysUp.

4. Select Application > Advisor to open the Application Advisor:

   

5. Click Next to get started:

   

6. Choose Plex Media Server from the list of applications and click Next:

   

7. After the Advisor has reviewed your system and gathered information about your Plex Media Server installation, you'll be prompted to enter the user name and password of your Windows account:

   

   Click Next to move on.

8. At this point, the Advisor has selected the best settings for your system. Click Next to continue:

   

9. The Add Application window contains all the recommended settings for running PMS 24/7 whenever your PC boots.

   If you're curious, you can cycle through the tabs and review the options that have been chosen. But you can always come back later for advanced settings.

   Click Save to record your brand new Windows Service:

   

10. In this last step in the installation process, the Advisor reminds us to disable the (now defunct) PMS "start at login" option:

    

    To do that:

    1. Start Plex Media Server on your desktop.

    2. Right-click the Plex Media Server tray icon () and uncheck Start Plex Media Server at Login if it's checked:

       

    3. And from the same tray icon, exit Plex Media Server. We'll fire it up again soon.

11. You'll notice a new entry named Plex Media Server in the AlwaysUp window. That's because PMS has been installed as a Windows Service. Yay!

    However, the entry's state will be "Stopped" as the service isn't active yet:

    

12. To start Plex Media Server as a service, choose Application > Start "Plex Media Server". The state will change to "Running" after a few seconds:

    

    Note that you won't see Plex's tray icon because the server will be running invisibly in the background (in Session 0). However media sharing should work just fine. Please open your local Plex app (or website) and confirm. Things worked well on our machine:

    

    If you need to interact with Plex — to add media or change settings — you should:

    1. Stop Plex Media Server in AlwaysUp.

    2. Start PMS normally on your desktop.

    3. Make your changes.

    4. Exit Plex Media Server.

    5. Restart Plex under AlwaysUp, to resume 24/7 operation.

13. That's it! Next time your computer boots, Plex Media Server will start up immediately, before anyone logs on.

    We encourage you to edit Plex in AlwaysUp and check out the many other settings that may be appropriate for your environment.

    For example, you can:

    • set up a sanity check to restart Plex if it stops doing its work;
    • schedule a weekly restart, to keep the media server "fresh" and free of memory leaks;
    • configure email alerts and reports; and more.

Plex Media Server not working properly as a Windows Service?

• Now that Plex is running 24/7, automatic updates can cause problems. For example, AlwaysUp could restart Plex unexpectedly when it's going through an upgrade.

  We recommend disabling automatic updates in the Server settings. Please ensure that Plex asks before applying an update:

  

• Check the Plex logs for error messages. The files can be found in

  C:\Users\<your-user-name>\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Logs

  

• During testing, we once encountered a peculiar situation where Plex wouldn't run if we stopped it in AlwaysUp and started it from the Start button. The server log (C:\Users\<your-user-name>\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Logs\Plex Media Server.log) recorded a puzzling error — "Access denied". Fortunately we were able to resolve the issue with little fuss by running Plex as an Administrator (just once). Strange indeed.

• Consult the AlwaysUp Troubleshooter — our online tool that can help you resolve the most common problems encountered when running an application as a Windows Service.

• From AlwaysUp, select Application > Report Activity > Today to bring up an HTML report detailing the interaction between AlwaysUp and Plex Media Server. The AlwaysUp Event Log Messages page explains the more obscure messages.

• Browse the AlwaysUp FAQ for answers to commonly asked questions and troubleshooting tips.

• Contact us and we will be happy to help!