Log files are an important tool that can be used to help investigate problems you may be having. It’s important that you provide log files when asking for help.

Plex Media Server has many different types of logs, each serving a specific purpose. The location of those logs varies from platform to platform.

Related Page: Reporting issues with Plex Media Server

Easily Gather Logs

Beginning with Plex Media Server version 1.1.0 and newer, it is simple to quickly gather your server logs.

1. Go to Settings > Manage > Troubleshooting in Plex Web App
2. Click the Download Logs button
3. Save the resulting zip file

You can now share the zip file to help investigate an issue you’re experiencing (for instance, by attaching the zip file to a forum post you make about the issue).

Note: Logs for third-party channels/plugins will not be included in the zip file. If you need to examine or share those third-party logs, you will need to access them manually under the /PMS Plugin Logs subfolder of the location outlined below.

Related Page: Troubleshooting

Manually Finding Log Files

While similar log files are available for all of the platforms, the log files will not always be found in the same locations on every platform. The following are where the log files may be found for each operating system.

Windows

On Windows, the log files are located inside of the user directory.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Logs

macOS

Using the Finder’s Go menu, select Go To Folder… then enter the following in the dialog box that pops up:

~/Library/Logs/Plex Media Server/

The log files will be located there.

Note: Server versions prior to 0.9.16.0 will have logs located at ~/Library/Logs/ instead.

NVIDIA SHIELD

When running the server on NVIDIA SHIELD, the log files are located on the internal storage.

/sdcard/Plex Media Server/Logs

Related Page: Accessing SHIELD Storage

Linux and NAS Devices

In general, log files will be located in a Logs directory inside the main Plex Media Server data directory.

In most cases, the Plex installation and associated files/directories will be owned by the plex:plex user:group. You may need to switch users to access the content for some platforms.

Related Page: Where is the Plex Media Server data directory located?