Plex for Raspberry Pi | How to Install Plex for Raspberry Pi

Plex is one of the most popular media server and media centre apps available. Plex can be installed on various devices and on different platforms, which lets you enjoy the media content without any hassle. Raspberry Pi fans have been putting the client-side Plex app on Raspberry Pi for years. Until recently, though, it was not possible to set up the server-side app on the Raspberry Pi. That has been changed, though, and follows the steps given below to set up the Raspberry Pi Plex server.

Related: Plex for Linux

How to Install Plex for Raspberry Pi

Step 1: First, you must install the Rasbian OS on your Raspberry Pi. Check out the given official guide and then install the Raspberry Pi.

Step 2: Now install the Raspberry Pi Plex Server, We will need to make sure that the Raspberry Pi software is up to date before we proceed to install Plex. Log into your Raspberry Pi, open up a terminal window and type the given commands.

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade

This may take a while if you are running the fresh install of the Raspbian or even if you haven’t updated your packages in a while.

Step 3: Once the installation is done, we will install the “apt-transport-https” package since we will be downloading the Plex Server from the unofficial source, which has the https address.

• sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

Step 4: Then you have to donwload the secure key, which will authenticate your downloads from Dev2Day, which is the source we are downloading from. Dev2Day has compiled the Plex Server for the Raspberry Pi.

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

Step 5: After the file gets downloaded, we can add the Dev2Day repository to our Raspberry Pi source list.

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

Step 6: Run the apt-get update command again to refresh the repository list.

• sudo apt-get update

Step 7: Finally, we can install Plex Server, This will take a few minutes.

• apt-get install plexmediaserver-installer

Step 8: Now, just set the Plex to run under the Pi user.

• sudo nano /etc/default/plexmediaserver.prev

Step 9: Your terminal window will fill with the big text document. Look for the line which says:

• PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USER=plex

Step 10: Delete “Plex” and type the username (by default “pi”).

Step 11: Now press the CTRL+X then Y and then hit Enter.

Step 12: Now restart the Plex server:

sudo service plexmediaserver restart

Step 13: Now do a reboot:

• sudo reboot

Step 14: Set the static IP address, so that every time you can try to access the Plex files, it knows where to look. Open up the new terminal and type the following command:

• ifconfig

You will get the screen similar to this:

Once your screen, note the IP address which follows “inet”. Jot this down or remember it.

Step 15: Next, type the following command to get the router’s gateway address.

• route -n

Step 16: Note the IP address under the gateway, and This is the outer router’s address. In the terminal, type:

• sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

Now use the arrow keys to navigate to the bottom of the file. Set your static IP address

interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.0.106
static routers=192.168.0.10
static domain_name_servers=8.8.8.8
After you are done, press CTRL+X then Y and then Enter to save the file. You may need to reboot your Raspberry Pi for these changes to take effect.

Step 17: Now set up the Plex Media Server, Now it’s time for the fun part, you can add media to the media server.

On any computer, which is connected to your network (including the Raspberry Pi itself), open a web browser and navigate to your Raspberry Pi’s static IP address like so (change the IP address to yours)

http://192.168.0.106:32400/web

Now you can see the following screen. Go ahead and click ‘Add Library’.

Select the library type, click next, and browse the network share, folder, USB drive. Don’t click on the specific movie/show, just the root directory where they are stored.

After you do this for the rest of the media types, your library will begin to populate. You can see the Plex is automatically adding the Cover Art and media descriptions.

Step 18: Now you can access media from anywhere, the last step is to enjoy and watch the media from anywhere! Go ahead and download Plex app to whatever device you want to watch your media on.

Thank you for reading this post.