Plex installation doesn't give option to setup server

Server Version#: 1.19.3.2852-219a9974e

I’ve just installed Plex Server on a Ubuntu VM following this guide How to Install Plex on Ubuntu 20.04, I was able to get the server working but I don’t have any option to setup the server itself and when I go into the “YOUR MRDIA” section, I get a notice to download and install Plex Server.

I’m baffled about how this software works, to be fair I don’t get the “How Plex Works” nor “Server Setup” options, I get redirected to the main home screen.

Can someone help me fix this?

Hey so my problem was that I wanted to setup Plex on a remote dedicated Ubuntu server (the OS version is 18.04 LTS). And I got the same problem as the original poster. And I found a solution.

As noted by the original poster here in their comment reply, using localhost instead of the IP address worked for them. It turns out that this was the issue all along for me as well. Unfortunately, I obviously couldn't just replace the IP address w/ localhost because my plex server was remote. So I was stuck (or so I thought, as you'll see below).

Then I ended up uninstalling plex on my server (I used this link for that, including doing the last commands they mentioned) and then following this guide and it worked! The plex web app was able to identify my server. So yeah, that's the solution.

The reason it works is because of a crucial step in that guide that involves using an SSH tunnel in order to circumvent the problem where Plex apparently will only allow localhost connections in order to access the web app properly. Ctrl-F search the guide I linked for 'SSH tunnel' to find that step that I'm talking about. Basically you're tunneling your local computer to the remote server's localhost address when accessing the web app, and thus making Plex happy. Because as far as Plex is concerned, you're now accessing the web app through localhost.

Note: Accessing the web app w/ the SSH tunnel step in the guide was very slow for me. At one point, the web app seemed to be stuck loading, showing an eternal loading spinner. I purposefully disconnected and reconnected from my ssh tunnel connection and the web app to see if that would maybe fix it. It did, and then I was able to finish the setup process.

Also, after you finish the server setup, you don't need to use the SSH tunnel anymore. At that point, you should be able to just access the web app at http://YOURSERVERIPADDRESS:32400/web on your browser like normal.