There are a number of advanced, hidden Plex Media Server settings, some of which are not available from the normal interface. Instead, they’re available where your Plex Media Server stores its own settings. The vast majority of users will never need to alter these settings. We recommend exercising caution when considering altering these settings.

If you get into trouble, you can reset the server to default by deleting the preferences file or Plex entries in the Windows Registry. If you delete the preference file, you will need to reset any changes you’ve made and you will also lose any server shares or Mobile Sync items you may have. Deleting the preferences file will not affect your Plex Media Server library database.

Locating the Advanced, Hidden Settings

Windows

On Windows, the preferences are available in the registry. To access settings related to Plex Media Server:

1. Open the “regedit” application
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Plex, Inc./Plex Media Server
3. Create a new entry named as per the options below and add the correct value, or else edit an existing value

When creating the registry entry, be sure to choose the correct type:

• String, path, or other text: String Value
• Integer or boolean: DWORD (32-bit) Value

Related Page: How to use Registry Editor

macOS / OS X

On Mac computers (macOS or OS X), the preferences are available under your computer user account library preferences.

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

~/Library/Preferences/com.plexapp.plexmediaserver.plist

You can then open that file (which is really XML) in a text editor to add new settings or edit existing ones.

Warning!: If you use a text editor to make changes, you will then need to reboot the computer to have the changes take effect (since the OS caches the preferences).

Alternatively, you can open the “Terminal” application and run commands to add/alter values.:

defaults write com.plexapp.plexmediaserver <optionname> <value>
defaults write com.plexapp.plexmediaserver <optionname> -boolean <Value>

Examples:

• defaults write com.plexapp.plexmediaserver LogNumFiles 10
• defaults write com.plexapp.plexmediaserver FriendlyName "My Media Server"
• defaults write com.plexapp.plexmediaserver LogVerbose -bool FALSE

NVIDIA SHIELD

The Plex Media Server folder which contains the Preferences.xml file for the NVIDIA SHIELD is not in a user accessible location by default. See our “Moving server data storage location on NVIDIA SHIELD” article for information on how to move it to an accessible location. Once it’s accessible, you can use the instructions for “Linux” below to adjust the “Preferences.xml” file.

Linux

Preferences File

On Linux, the options are available in a XML file called Preferences.xml, which is located in your Plex Media Server data directory.

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

Add a new XML attribute with the name of the option and the value. e.g.:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Preferences BlacklistedBundle="" newoption="withvalue"/>

Note that the Preferences tag can contain a lot of options already.

Syslog Option

In addition to the Preferences file, as of Plex Media Server 0.9.6.6, it’s also possible to enable syslogging. This is done via a configuration variable: PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true

To set the variable, it has to be added to the configuration file of Plex Media Server. Here is where to place it on various Linux distributions:

• CentOS/Fedora: Add export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true under /etc/sysconfig/PlexMediaServer
• ReadyNAS: Add export PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true under /etc/init.d/plexserver
• Synology: Add PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true under /var/packages/Plex Media Server/scripts/start-stop-status
• Ubuntu 15 (and older): Add PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true under /etc/default/plexmediaserver
• Ubuntu 16 (and newer): Add Environment="PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG=true" to /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf

After adding the variable, restart Plex Media Server. Logs from Plex Media Server will then be output to syslog instead of normal server logging.

Available Preferences

AlbumSort

string

A field:direction value for the default album sort. “year”, “title”, etc. (PMS 1.4.1+ has UI setting per library/per artist).

year:desc

allowMediaDeletion

1/0

Set whether the owner of the server will be allowed to delete media files from disk.

1

allowedNetworks

string with ip/netmask,ip/netmask

A list of networks that are allowed to access PMS without authentication. Must be listed with full subnet.

192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0,10.10.10.0/255.255.255.0

ArticleStrings

string

A comma-separated list of words considered to be grammatical articles, which are removed in sort titles.

the, das, der, a, an, el, la

autoEmptyTrash

1/0

Sets whether the “trash” is emptied automatically at the end of a library scan.

1

BackgroundTranscodeLowPriority

1/0

Makes background transcodes have a lower priority than active streaming when set to 1.

1

DlnaDeviceDiscoveryInterval

integer

Determine how often (in seconds) DLNA discovery is performed.

60

DlnaEnabled

1/0

Set whether DLNA server is enabled.

0

DlnaPlatinumLoggingLevel

string

Sets level for the separate, “Neptune DLNA” logging.

OFF

enableLocalSecurity

1/0

Determines whether Plex Media Server must be claimed/signed-in to access it (default is 1/true).

1

EnableIPv6

1/0

Turn on IPv6 support for the server.

0

FriendlyName

string

Defines the friendly name for the Plex Media Server, commonly shown in player apps.

My Media Server

FSEventLibraryUpdatesEnabled

1/0

Determine whether library scans are automatically initiated when library folder changes are detected.

1

FSEventLibraryPartialScanEnabled

1/0

When changes to library folders are detected, only scan the folder that changed (requires FSEventLibraryUpdatesEnabled also be enabled).

1

GdmEnabled

1/0

Enables GDM discovery for the server, from other players on the network when set to 1.

1

GenerateBIFFrameInterval

integer

For video preview thumbnails, sets how often (in seconds) we create the thumbnail (default is 2).

5

GenerateBIFKeyframesOnly

1/0

When generating video preview thumbnails for playback, only look at keyframes in the video. Greatly speeds up processing and reduces CPU usage (default is 1).

1

iTunesLibraryXmlPath

path

The path to the iTunes library XML file.

~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.xml

iTunesSharingEnabled

1/0

Determine whether the server tries to connect with a local iTunes installation.

0

LocalAppDataPath

path

Set the location of of the Plex Media Server data directory (Windows only). (Default is “C:\Users\[ComputerUser]\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server”)

D:\Data\PlexData

logDebug

1/0

Sets whether “debug” logging is enabled.

1

LogMemoryUse

1/0

Set Plex Media Server to log memory use and the system total used memory in Plex Media Server logs. A server restart is required for the change to take effect. Not recommended for normal usage. Requires PMS v1.20.2 or newer. (Not available for FreeBSD or NVIDIA SHIELD.) (Default is 0)

1

LogNumFiles

integer

Number of past log files to retain (default is 5).

10

LogVerbose

1/0

Sets whether “verbose” logging is enabled. This is not recommended for normal usage. (Default is 0)

1

LongRunningJobThreads

integer

Sets how many threads can be used for long-running jobs, such as Sonic Analysis (Default is half the total threads for the processor)

4

ManualPortMappingMode

1/0

Determine whether the server is set to use port mapping for Remote Access.

0

ManualPortMappingPort

integer

The manual port to use for Remote Access (requires ManualPortMappingMode to also be enabled).

32400

RadioDaysSinceLastPlayed

integer

When playing a Radio or Smart Shuffle, Plex prefers to include tracks that have not been played recently. This sets that “recent” period (default is 2).

2

RadioDirectoryLimit

integer

Controls how many “genre”, “style”, or “mood” radios are exposed, on clients that support those radio types (default is 50).

75

secureConnections

1/0

How the server handles secure connections.

1: Preferred (default), 0: Required

sendCrashReports

1/0

Determine whether PMS sends crash reports when launching the server after a crash.

1

ScheduledLibraryUpdatesEnabled

1/0

Sets whether the server will initiate library scans on a set interval.

0

ScheduledLibraryUpdateInterval

integer

Number of seconds between library scans (requires ScheduledLibraryUpdatesEnabled to be enabled).

1800

TranscoderDefaultDuration

integer

Duration in minutes to use when transcoding something with an unknown duration.

120  (120 is the default if nothing set)

TranscoderH264OptionsOverride

string

The x264 preset to use when transcoding.

veryfast

TranscoderLogLevel

string

The log level for the Plex transcoder itself.

error (default), verbose

TranscoderPhotoFileSizeLimitMiB

integer

Maximum photo size to be tagged or transcoded (in mebibytes).

100

TranscoderTempDirectory

path

Location where the temporary transcode segments are written.

/Volumes/Media/MyTempDirectory/