Plex on Raspberry Pi – Guide to Setup Raspberry Pi Plex Server

Plex Media Server is the most popular software, that allows you to store, and organize all your media files such as audios, pictures, videos and more. It is a client-server based application, where the client device can access the content stored on the Server remotely. Plex app is available for various platforms such as Windows, Android, Apple TV, FireStick, Chromecast, Xbox, Linux, PlayStation and many more. While Raspberry Pi is a small single board computer that is developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The device is primarily built for teaching purpose. Apart from that, it is used for various purposes and DIY projects by a lot of people all over the world.

There are tons and tons of things to do with an already done by the Raspberry Pi users. Installing Plex on Raspberry Pi is pretty simple, but only for the Plex Media Player. Previously it wasn’t possible to set up the Plex server-side app on the Raspberry Pi. But the things have changed, Raspberry Pi 3 is powerful enough to run the Plex Media Server with an external hard drive. This allows you to have your entire media library right on your Raspberry Pi and access them easily no matter whenever and wherever you are. In this article, we will tell you how to download and install Plex Media Server on Raspberry Pi.

Related: How to Install Plex on Apple TV?

How to Install Plex Server on Raspberry Pi?

Installing Plex Media Server on Raspberry Pi is simple, Just follow the steps below to Install Plex on Raspberry Pi 3.

Before proceeding with the installation process, make sure to update the Raspbian OS to the latest version. To do this, open the command line and type in the following command:

sudo apt-get update

Step 1: After updating you need to install the HTTPS transport package, It should be installed on the Raspbian. But it’s not sure for older versions, So it’s better to install. Enter the following command

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

Step 2: In order to set up Raspberry Pi Plex Server, you need the dev2day repository. crypt O key is required to add the dev2day. So Enter the following command to get the crypt O key

wget -O – https://dev2day.de/pms/dev2day-pms.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add –

Step 3: Once you got the key, add dev2day Repository to your package source list.

echo “deb https://dev2day.de/pms/ jessie main” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pms.list

Step 4: Now you can update the package list by the following command:

sudo apt-get update

Step 5: Type in the following command to download the Plex Media Server on your Raspberry Pi.

sudo apt-get install -t jessie plexmediaserver

Step 6: Now you will be asked to approve the download, press ‘Y‘ button to approve.

Step 7: Here you need to set the Plex to run under the Pi user. Ender the following command to do so

sudo nano /etc/default/plexmediaserver.prev

Step 8: Now your terminal window should be filled with the big text document. Look for the line below

PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USER=plex. Once you found then replace the word ‘plex’ with ‘pi’. The final line should be like this: PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USER=pi.

Step 9: Once you are done then press CTRL + X and type Y to save your changes. Then enter the following command:

sudo service plexmediaserver restart

Step 10: For the Raspberry Pi Plex Server setup, you need to have the static IP address for connecting the client device with your Raspberry Pi Plex Server. First, you need to know your IP with the following command:

hostname -I

Step 11: Now you can see your IP, just note it down. and open the command line txt file by using the following command:

sudo nano /boot/cmdline.txt

Step 12: Go to the bottom of the file and type ip=(your IP address). Once you have done this, then press CTRL+X and then type Y and then hit the enter button.

Step 13: Now you need to restart your Raspberry Pi, you can do this with the command:

sudo reboot

Step 14: Now setting up Raspberry Pi Plex Server is completed, Now you need to add files to your Server. To do this, Open your browser and enter the address in the following format:

http://your-IP-Address:32400/web/

Step 15: Now you can see the Plex Web app on your screen. Enter your login details and click the Add Library button to add media to your Plex Server. Once after adding the files, you can access them with the Plex client device on the same network and access all your media files stored on the Raspberry Pi Plex Server.

Related: How to Setup and Use Plex on Chromecast?

Wrapping Up

A few years ago setting up Plex Server on Raspberry Pi wasn’t possible. But now the latest Raspberry Pi devices are capable to run the Plex Server app. Once you have installed the Plex on Raspberry Pi, then you can store all your media files and access them whenever you want. Hope this article helped you in setting up Raspberry Pi Plex Server. Install the Plex Server and enjoy streaming!

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