Skip to Content
DocsCloud OSInstall Plex

Quazzar Cloud OS treats Plex Media Server as a first-class app. From Server → Apps & Services → Plex you can install Plex with a single click, detect any existing install (apt, .deb, Docker — we’ll find it), and manage start / stop / restart from the OS UI.

Choose your install method

  • Docker (recommended) — isolated, easy to uninstall, no host package collisions. We pull plexinc/pms-docker:latest and run it with --network host so Plex GDM discovery works.
  • SystemD — native package from Plex’s apt or dnf repo. Starts at boot, integrates with systemctl.

Choose your auth path

Plex Media Server is, by design, tied to plex.tv even when self-hosted. We expose this honestly with two install paths:

  • Link to plex.tv — paste a 4-minute claim token from https://plex.tv/claim . You get the full Plex experience: mobile apps, Roku/AppleTV, friend sharing, remote access. We poll your server for the resulting X-Plex-Token, AES-256-GCM-encrypt it, and store it in the OS settings DB.
  • Self-hosted only — Plex runs on 127.0.0.1 and we front it with Caddy + Quazzar SSO. Mobile apps and Roku won’t work, but the web UI and the in-OS stats dashboard will. Maximum privacy.

You make the choice once at install. You can change it later by uninstalling and re-running the wizard.

What happens during install

The install wizard runs four phases for Docker, six for SystemD. Each phase streams progress to the UI over Server-Sent Events:

  1. Checking Docker — docker --version must succeed.
  2. Pulling image — docker pull plexinc/pms-docker:latest. Logs stream live into the wizard panel.
  3. Starting — docker run -d --name quazzar-plex --network host … with the right PLEX_CLAIM env var when applicable.
  4. Awaiting claim — poll 127.0.0.1:32400/myplex/account every 5s for up to 5 minutes. On success the OS receives the X-Plex-Token and marks the install done. On timeout the install ends as partial — the server is up but unclaimed; you can retry the claim from the Server page.

Detection of existing installs

When the OS boots it probes (in order):

  1. systemctl show plexmediaserver, plexmediaserver.service, and the snap variant.
  2. docker ps for any container running plexinc/pms-docker, linuxserver/plex, or exposing port 32400.
  3. A bare HTTP GET to 127.0.0.1:32400/identity — picks up Plex instances installed outside Docker or systemd.

You don’t have to re-install anything: detected instances get the same lifecycle controls.

See also

Orbit MailPlex Stats