How to Activate / Claim Plex Media Server using Putty

After Plex Media Server installation is finished and confirming that the Plex server is running, now we can activate/claim Plex Media Server using PuTTY. You need to claim Plex Media Server in order to view all your media.

This tutorial will explain How to Activate / Claim Plex Media Server using Putty

Question: Why we must claim Plex Media Server?

Answer: In order to add and start watching movies, music, or any collection you have, you need to claim Plex media server that you've already installed before [Install Plex Media Server on Ubuntu Server 20.04] and bind it to your Plex Account. Don't worry other people (the public/world) can't claim your plex media server, because it's protected with Plex system like you must stay in the same "location" / localhost as your plex media server.

Step 1: First, open your Putty and enter your Server IP and Port

Step 2: Click on Connection tab on PuTTY, then SSH, and finally Tunnels. Fill in the Source Port as 32400 and the destination as either your domain.com:32400 or IP:32400. Then all you need to do is click Add

Step 3: Click Open button.

Step 4: Open your favorite web browser (mine: Firefox), and then browse localhost:32400/web/index.html into the Navigation Bar and hit enter.

Step 5: You will be redirected to Plex login page. Register/Login with your Plex account. You can continue with Google Account, Facebook, Apple or Email.

Step 6: After logged-in successfully, click Finish Setup to start configurations of your Plex.

If you are redirected to this page, congratulations! You can claim your plexmediaserver now, click Got It! to get started.

Give your plexmediaserver a friendly name, and then click Next.

Click Next

On the Media Library Tab, You can Add library with following this similiar tutorial [How to Add a Library on Plex Media Server (with Example)]

Click Next.

Finish. Now you can watch your plex media server libraries by downloading Plex Apps.

If you redirected to this page, don't worries. You can claim later on your Plex dashboard, follow these steps:

Click Finish Setup and when you are successfully on Plex dashboard, click More > and choose your server to claim your plex.

Click Claim It Now button to claim your server

But don't worry there is a solution made by Plex employee (https://forums.plex.tv/t/server-credential-reset-utility-for-linux-based-platforms/807107)

You need to download this shell script UserCredentialReset.sh and use this tool:

1. Stop PlexMediaServer systemctl plexmediaserver stop
2. Create a file named UserCredentialReset.sh and copied the source from here (https://github.com/ChuckPa/UserCredentialReset/blob/main/UserCredentialReset.sh)
3. Make it executable chmod +x UserCredentialReset.sh
4. Invoke the tool by ./UserCredentialReset.sh
5. Open a browser tab to:  https://plex.tv/claim
6. COPY the given token and Paste it into your SSH
7. Hit Enter, and when complete, it will verify all your credentials are valid and then update Preferences.xml for you. It will print out your Plex username and email and the tool will exit.
8. Start PlexMediaServer systemctl plexmediaserver start

Output:

root@redroc:/var/lib/plexmediaserver# chmod +x UserCredentialReset.sh
root@redroc:/var/lib/plexmediaserver# ./UserCredentialReset.sh

          Plex Media Server user credential reset and reclaim tool (Ubuntu 20.04  .3 LTS)

This utility will reset the server's credentials.
It will next reclaim the server for you using a Plex Claim token you provide fro  m https://plex.tv/claim

Please enter Plex Claim Token copied from http://plex.tv/claim : claim-X9J5if7Hp  tHScvpkBYBy
Clearing Preferences.xml
Getting new credentials from Plex.tv
Claim completed without errors.
 Username: myusername
 Email:    myemail@gmail.com

Complete.  You may now start PMS.
root@redroc:/var/lib/plexmediaserver# systemctl start plexmediaserver.service

You can also claim your plexmediaserver with https://github.com/uglymagoo/plex-claim-server but make sure to place the plex-claim-server.sh on /var/lib/plexmediaserver to ensure the script running. But I do recommend the script UserCredentialReset.sh above.

Links for documentation:

• https://quickbox.io/knowledge-base/v2/applications/plex/using-terminal-to-claim-your-plex-server/
• https://www.plexopedia.com/plex-media-server/general/claim-server/
• https://www.plexopedia.com/plex-media-server/general/plex-token/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/wxz7rh/reclaiming_a_headless_linux_plex_server/
• https://forums.plex.tv/t/server-credential-reset-utility-for-linux-based-platforms/807107

How to know my Plex Media Server was successfully claimed?

You can know your Plex Media Server was successfully claimed by open Account Settings on Plex app.

And then there is a new section on the sidebar of Plex settings. Your named plex media server with green lock (secure).

Anyway, thanks for reading.

You need to start adding libraries and uploading your collections:

-> How to Add a Library on Plex