Portainer Templates logo

Portainer Templates

Plex Media Server Plex Media Server

Container

Mediaserver VideoMediaserver MusicMediaserver Photos

Plex organizes your video, music, and photo collections and streams them to all of your screens.

Image details

Pulls: 907.5M
Architecture: amd64, arm64
Image size: 179 MB
Latest: 1.43.3
User: linuxserver
Created: May 10, 2015
Updated: 5 days ago
Status: active

Configuration

Type
Container
Image
linuxserver/plex:latest
Privileged
Yes
Volumes
/config : /opt/mediadepot/apps/plex/data/tvshows : /media/storage/tvshows/data/movies : /media/storage/movies/data/music : /media/storage/music/transcode
Env vars
PGID=15000PUID=15000TZ=America/Los_AngelesVERSION=latest
Labels
traefik.enable=truetraefik.http.services.plex.loadbalancer.server.port=32400

Template by mediadepot

Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying Plex Media Server

Installation method

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select Plex Media Server, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo

More install options in our documentation.

linuxserver.io
Blog Discord Discourse GitHub Open Collective
The LinuxServer.io team brings you another container release featuring:
  • regular and timely application updates
  • easy user mappings (PGID, PUID)
  • custom base image with s6 overlay
  • weekly base OS updates with common layers across the entire LinuxServer.io ecosystem to minimise space usage, down time and bandwidth
  • regular security updates

Find us at:
  • Blog - all the things you can do with our containers including How-To guides, opinions and much more!
  • Discord - realtime support / chat with the community and the team.
  • Discourse - post on our community forum.
  • GitHub - view the source for all of our repositories.
  • Open Collective - please consider helping us by either donating or contributing to our budget

linuxserver/plex

Scarf.io pulls GitHub Stars GitHub Release GitHub Package Repository GitLab Container Registry Quay.io Docker Pulls Docker Stars Jenkins Build LSIO CI
Plex organizes video, music and photos from personal media libraries and streams them to smart TVs, streaming boxes and mobile devices. This container is packaged as a standalone Plex Media Server. Straightforward design and bulk actions mean getting things done faster.
plex

Supported Architectures

We utilise the docker manifest for multi-platform awareness. More information is available from docker here and our announcement here.
Simply pulling lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest should retrieve the correct image for your arch, but you can also pull specific arch images via tags.
The architectures supported by this image are:
ArchitectureAvailableTag
x86-64amd64-\
arm64arm64v8-\

Application Setup

Webui can be found at <your-ip>:32400/web
>!NOTE >If there is no value set for the VERSION variable, then no updates will take place.
>!NOTE >For new users, no updates will take place on the first run of the container as there is no preferences file to read your token from, to update restart the Docker container after logging in through the webui.
Valid settings for VERSION are:-
>!NOTE >YOU CANNOT UPDATE TO A PLEXPASS ONLY (BETA) VERSION IF YOU ARE NOT LOGGED IN WITH A PLEXPASS ACCOUNT.
  • docker: Let Docker handle the Plex Version, we keep our Dockerhub Endpoint up to date with the latest public builds. This is the same as leaving this setting out of your create command.
  • latest: will update plex to the latest version available that you are entitled to.
  • public: will update plexpass users to the latest public version, useful for plexpass users that don't want to be on the bleeding edge but still want the latest public updates.
  • <specific-version>: will select a specific version (eg 0.9.12.4.1192-9a47d21) of plex to install, note you cannot use this to access plexpass versions if you do not have plexpass.

Hardware Acceleration

Many desktop applications need access to a GPU to function properly and even some Desktop Environments have compositor effects that will not function without a GPU. However this is not a hard requirement and all base images will function without a video device mounted into the container.

Intel/ATI/AMD

To leverage hardware acceleration you will need to mount /dev/dri video device inside of the container.
--device=/dev/dri:/dev/dri

We will automatically ensure the abc user inside of the container has the proper permissions to access this device.

Nvidia

Hardware acceleration users for Nvidia will need to install the container runtime provided by Nvidia on their host, instructions can be found here: https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-container-toolkit
We automatically add the necessary environment variable that will utilise all the features available on a GPU on the host. Once nvidia-container-toolkit is installed on your host you will need to re/create the docker container with the nvidia container runtime --runtime=nvidia and add an environment variable -e NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=all (can also be set to a specific gpu's UUID, this can be discovered by running nvidia-smi --query-gpu=gpu_name,gpu_uuid --format=csv ). NVIDIA automatically mounts the GPU and drivers from your host into the container.

Arm Devices

Best effort is made to install tools to allow mounting in /dev/dri on Arm devices. In most cases if /dev/dri exists on the host it should just work. If running a Raspberry Pi 4 be sure to enable dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d in your usercfg.txt.

Read-Only Operation

This image can be run with a read-only container filesystem. For details please read the docs.

Caveats

  • Runtime update of Plex (and thus Plexpass builds) is not supported.
  • Transcode directory must be mounted to a host path or tmpfs.

Non-Root Operation

This image can be run with a non-root user. For details please read the docs.

Caveats

  • Runtime update of Plex (and thus Plexpass builds) is not supported.
  • Transcode directory must be mounted to a host path or tmpfs.

Usage

To help you get started creating a container from this image you can either use docker-compose or the docker cli.
>!NOTE >Unless a parameter is flagged as 'optional', it is mandatory and a value must be provided.

docker-compose (recommended, click here for more info)

---
services:
  plex:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
    container_name: plex
    network_mode: host
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      - VERSION=docker
      - PLEX_CLAIM= #optional
    volumes:
      - /path/to/plex/library:/config
      - /path/to/tvseries:/tv
      - /path/to/movies:/movies
    restart: unless-stopped

docker cli (click here for more info)

docker run -d \
  --name=plex \
  --net=host \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=Etc/UTC \
  -e VERSION=docker \
  -e PLEX_CLAIM= `#optional` \
  -v /path/to/plex/library:/config \
  -v /path/to/tvseries:/tv \
  -v /path/to/movies:/movies \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest

Parameters

Containers are configured using parameters passed at runtime (such as those above). These parameters are separated by a colon and indicate <external>:<internal> respectively. For example, -p 8080:80 would expose port 80 from inside the container to be accessible from the host's IP on port 8080 outside the container.
ParameterFunction
--net=hostUse Host Networking
-e PUID=1000for UserID - see below for explanation
-e PGID=1000for GroupID - see below for explanation
-e TZ=Etc/UTCspecify a timezone to use, see this list.
-e VERSION=dockerSet whether to update plex or not - see Application Setup section.
-e PLEXCLAIM=Optionally you can obtain a claim token from https://plex.tv/claim and input here. Keep in mind that the claim tokens expire within 4 minutes.
-v /configPlex library location. This can grow very large, 50gb+ is likely for a large collection.
-v /tvMedia goes here. Add as many as needed e.g. /movies, /tv, etc.
-v /moviesMedia goes here. Add as many as needed e.g. /movies, /tv, etc.
--read-only=trueRun container with a read-only filesystem. Please read the docs.
--user=1000:1000Run container with a non-root user. Please read the docs.

Environment variables from files (Docker secrets)

You can set any environment variable from a file by using a special prepend FILE__.
As an example:
-e FILE__MYVAR=/run/secrets/mysecretvariable

Will set the environment variable MYVAR based on the contents of the /run/secrets/mysecretvariable file.

Umask for running applications

For all of our images we provide the ability to override the default umask settings for services started within the containers using the optional -e UMASK=022 setting. Keep in mind umask is not chmod it subtracts from permissions based on it's value it does not add. Please read up here before asking for support.

Optional Parameters

If you want to run the container in bridge network mode (instead of the recommended host network mode) you will need to specify ports. The official documentation for ports lists 32400 as the only required port. The rest of the ports are optionally used for specific purposes listed in the documentation. If you have not already claimed your server (first time setup) you need to set PLEX_CLAIM to claim a server set up with bridge networking.
-p 32400:32400 \
-p 1900:1900/udp \
-p 5353:5353/udp \
-p 8324:8324 \
-p 32410:32410/udp \
-p 32412:32412/udp \
-p 32413:32413/udp \
-p 32414:32414/udp \
-p 32469:32469

The application accepts a series of environment variables to further customize itself on boot:
ParameterFunction
--device=/dev/dri:/dev/driAdd this option to your run command if you plan on using Quicksync hardware acceleration - see Application Setup section.
--device=/dev/dvb:/dev/dvbAdd this option to your run command if you plan on using dvb devices.

User / Group Identifiers

When using volumes (-v flags), permissions issues can arise between the host OS and the container, we avoid this issue by allowing you to specify the user PUID and group PGID.
Ensure any volume directories on the host are owned by the same user you specify and any permissions issues will vanish like magic.
In this instance PUID=1000 and PGID=1000, to find yours use id your_user as below:
id your_user

Example output:
uid=1000(your_user) gid=1000(your_user) groups=1000(your_user)

Docker Mods

Docker Mods Docker Universal Mods
We publish various Docker Mods to enable additional functionality within the containers. The list of Mods available for this image (if any) as well as universal mods that can be applied to any one of our images can be accessed via the dynamic badges above.

Support Info

  • Shell access whilst the container is running:
```bash
docker exec -it plex /bin/bash
```
  • To monitor the logs of the container in realtime:
```bash
docker logs -f plex
```
  • Container version number:
```bash
docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' plex
```
  • Image version number:
```bash
docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
```

Updating Info

Most of our images are static, versioned, and require an image update and container recreation to update the app inside. With some exceptions (noted in the relevant readme.md), we do not recommend or support updating apps inside the container. Please consult the Application Setup section above to see if it is recommended for the image.
Below are the instructions for updating containers:

Via Docker Compose

  • Update images:
* All images:

    ```bash
    docker-compose pull
    ```

* Single image:

    ```bash
    docker-compose pull plex
    ```
  • Update containers:
* All containers:

    ```bash
    docker-compose up -d
    ```

* Single container:

    ```bash
    docker-compose up -d plex
    ```
  • You can also remove the old dangling images:
```bash
docker image prune
```

Via Docker Run

  • Update the image:
```bash
docker pull lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
```
  • Stop the running container:
```bash
docker stop plex
```
  • Delete the container:
```bash
docker rm plex
```
  • Recreate a new container with the same docker run parameters as instructed above (if mapped correctly to a host folder, your /config folder and settings will be preserved)
  • You can also remove the old dangling images:
```bash
docker image prune
```

Image Update Notifications - Diun (Docker Image Update Notifier)

>!TIP >We recommend Diun for update notifications. Other tools that automatically update containers unattended are not recommended or supported.

Building locally

If you want to make local modifications to these images for development purposes or just to customize the logic:
git clone https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-plex.git
cd docker-plex
docker build \
  --no-cache \
  --pull \
  -t lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest .

The ARM variants can be built on x8664 hardware and vice versa using lscr.io/linuxserver/qemu-static
docker run --rm --privileged lscr.io/linuxserver/qemu-static --reset

Once registered you can define the dockerfile to use with -f Dockerfile.aarch64.

Versions

  • 06.07.26: - Rebase to Ubuntu Resolute.
  • 15.03.26: - Allow TMPDIR to be changed to better support read-only containers
  • 15.03.26: - Fix initial claim setup on non-root containers
  • 04.11.24: - Add Nvidia capability needed for h265
  • 18.07.24: - Rebase to Ubuntu Noble.
  • 12.02.24: - Use universal hardware acceleration blurb
  • 09.01.24: - Set ownership on TranscoderTempDirectory when it's been saved in Preferences.
  • 16.08.23: - Install unrar from linuxserver repo.
  • 03.07.23: - Deprecate armhf. As announced here
  • 16.10.22: - Rebase to jammy. Update to s6v3. Remove opencl packages (bundled with plex).
  • 18.07.22: - Pin all opencl related driver packages.
  • 16.05.22: - Pin opencl version.
  • 04.03.22: - Increase verbosity of video device permissions fix, attempt to fix missing group rw.
  • 25.12.21: - Install Intel drivers from the official repo.
  • 20.01.21: - Deprecate UMASK_SET in favor of UMASK in baseimage, see above for more information.
  • 10.12.20: - Add latest Intel Compute packages from github repo for opencl support on latest gen igpu.
  • 23.11.20: - Add Bionic branch make Focal default.
  • 03.05.20: - Update exposed ports and example docs for bridge mode.
  • 23.03.20: - Remove udev hack (no longer needed), suppress uuid error in log during first start.
  • 04.12.19: - Add variable for setting PLEXCLAIM. Remove /transcode volume mapping as it is now set via plex gui and defaults to a location under /config.
  • 06.08.19: - Add variable for setting UMASK.
  • 10.07.19: - Fix permissions for tuner (/dev/dvb) devices.
  • 20.05.19: - Bugfix do not allow Root group for Intel QuickSync ownership rules.
  • 23.03.19: - Switching to new Base images, shift to arm32v7 tag.
  • 22.03.19: - Fix update logic for VERSION=public.
  • 14.03.19: - Switch to new api endpoints, enable beta (plex pass) updates for armhf and aarch64.
  • 15.02.19: - Clean up plex pid after unclean stop.
  • 11.02.19: - Fix nvidia variables, add device variables.
  • 16.01.19: - Add pipeline logic, multi arch, and HW transcoding configuration; remove avahi service.
  • 07.09.18: - Rebase to ubuntu bionic, add udev package.
  • 09.12.17: - Fix continuation lines.
  • 12.07.17: - Add inspect commands to README, move to jenkins build and push.
  • 28.05.17: - Add unrar package as per requests, for subzero plugin.
  • 11.01.17: - Use Plex environment variables from pms docker, change abc home folder to /app to alleviate usermod chowning library
  • 03.01.17: - Use case insensitive version variable matching rather than export and make lowercase.
  • 17.10.16: - Allow use of uppercase version variable
  • 01.10.16: - Add TZ info to README.
  • 09.09.16: - Add layer badges to README.
  • 27.08.16: - Add badges to README.
  • 22.08.16: - Rebased to xenial and s6 overlay
  • 07.04.16: - removed /transcode volume support (upstream Plex change) and modified PlexPass download method to prevent unauthorised usage of paid PMS
  • 24.09.15: - added optional support for volume transcoding (/transcode), and various typo fixes.
  • 17.09.15: - Changed to run chmod only once
  • 19.09.15: - Plex updated their download servers from http to https
  • 28.08.15: - Removed plexpass from routine, and now uses VERSION as a combination fix.
  • 18.07.15: - Moved autoupdate to be hosted by linuxserver.io and implemented bugfix thanks to ljm42.
  • 09.07.15: - Now with ability to pick static version number.
  • 08.07.15: - Now with autoupdates. (Hosted by fanart.tv)
  • 03.07.15: - Fixed a mistake that allowed plex to run as user plex rather than abc (99:100). Thanks to double16 for spotting this.

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs plex
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Runs on the host network

This container shares your server's network directly, so port mappings are ignored and every port the app opens binds straight to the host.

  • If a port won't bind, find the clash with sudo ss -tlnp and stop the other service, or change the port in plex's own settings.

Permission denied on volumes

If the logs show "permission denied", the app can't write to its data folder on the host.

  • Fix the ownership: sudo chown -R 15000:15000 /opt/mediadepot/apps/plex (and the same for the other mapped folders)
  • Or set the PUID and PGID variables (defaults 15000:15000) to match your own user, found with id $USER

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull linuxserver/plex:latest

  • "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists. This template uses latest, so try pinning a specific version instead.
  • "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with docker login to raise it.
  • "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with docker system prune

"exec format error"

This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.

  • This image supports: amd64, arm64
  • Check yours with uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.

Privileged mode

This template runs the container in privileged mode, giving it full access to your host.

  • Only deploy it if you trust the app.
  • If deployment is blocked, your Portainer security settings or hardened host may not allow privileged containers.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A single container

Plex Media Server runs as one container, the simplest kind of app here. Just the one image to pull and nothing else wired up alongside it.

The app image

An image is the app packed up ready to go, everything Plex Media Server needs bundled into one download. This template pulls linuxserver/plex:latest, which Docker fetches once (about 179 MB) and then starts your own copy from.

Where the image comes from

Docker pulls its images from registries, public libraries of ready-built apps. Plex Media Server's comes from Docker Hub, published by linuxserver.

Version tags

The bit after the colon in the image name is the version tag. Here it's latest, which always points at the newest build, so a redeploy can bump you to a newer release without you asking. Newest right now is 1.43.3. Pin a specific tag if you would rather stay on one version.

Which machines it runs on

Every image is built for particular CPU types. This one ships for amd64, arm64, so it runs on both regular x86 servers and ARM boards like a Raspberry Pi.

Volumes

A volume is where Plex Media Server keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:

  • /config from /opt/mediadepot/apps/plex on the host
  • /data/tvshows from /media/storage/tvshows on the host
  • /data/movies from /media/storage/movies on the host
  • /data/music from /media/storage/music on the host
  • /transcode as a volume Docker manages for you

Environment variables

Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. Plex Media Server takes 4 of them, all with defaults you can leave alone or tweak:

  • PGID, defaults to 15000
  • PUID, defaults to 15000
  • TZ, defaults to America/Los_Angeles
  • VERSION, defaults to latest

Users and permissions

The PUID and PGID settings tell it which user and group to act as on your host. Point them at your own account (find yours with id $USER) so the files it writes into your mounted folders come out owned by you rather than root.

Networking

Plex Media Server runs on the host network, so it shares your server's networking directly instead of getting a private one of its own. Its ports open straight on the server with no mapping in between.

Container name

Once it's deployed, Portainer names the container plex. That's what you'll spot in the containers list and use in commands like docker logs plex.

Labels

Labels are small notes pinned to the container. They don't change how Plex Media Server behaves, but other tools read them, most often a reverse proxy like Traefik working out which apps to route where. This template sets:

  • traefik.enable=true
  • traefik.http.services.plex.loadbalancer.server.port=32400

Privileged mode

This template runs Plex Media Server in privileged mode, which gives it nearly as much access to your server as the system itself. Some apps genuinely need it to reach hardware or manage the host, so it's one to run only if you trust the source.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set Plex Media Server up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying Plex Media Server is a click rather than a wall of config.