greensheep/plex-server-docker-rpi repository overview

⁠Plex Server for Raspberry Pi

A simple way to run a plex media server in Docker on the Raspberry Pi.

NOTE: The Pi 1 is NOT supported.

⁠Usage

Install docker on your raspberry pi. There are numerous ways to do this but the easiest is to run:

curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh

Source: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/docker-comes-to-raspberry-pi⁠

Next, you'll need to create two local folders for the plex config and data volumes (I have both of these on an external HDD because they get very large). For example:

mkdir -p ~/media/plex/{config,data}

Using the above folders, run the following to start plex:

docker run \
  -d \
  --name plex \
  --net host \
  -p 32400:32400 \
  --restart always \
  --volume $(echo $HOME)/media/plex/config:/config \
  --volume $(echo $HOME)/media/plex/data:/data \
  greensheep/plex-server-docker-rpi:latest

After around 30 seconds, the Plex web admin should be available at http://{ip address of Pi}:32400/web.

⁠Updating

Plex cannot be updated via the web ui. Run the following to download and run a new version:

docker pull greensheep/plex-server-docker-rpi:latest
docker stop plex
docker rm -f plex
# `docker run ...` command from above!

⁠Transcoding

The Pi isn't powerful enough for transcoding but if you have media that will direct play on your client it works great! I've tested this on the Pi 2 (Hypriot) and 3 (Arch).

⁠Playback failures

If you experience problems with media that should direct play/stream to your client, and you mounted an external drive for your media, try setting the "Transcoder temporary directory" to a path on the mounted /data volume. For example, do:

mkdir {PATH TO DATA DIR}/transcode

Then add /data/transcode to Settings -> Server -> Transcoder -> Transcoder temporary directory in the Plex admin.

Why? Most of the time your SD card will be realtively small (16/32/64Gb, etc) and can quickly run out of space. According to this forum post⁠, the lack of available space can cause transcoder problems.

⁠Development

To build the images yourself, use the docker-compose.yml file:

docker-compose build
docker-compose up