SOLVED: jellyfin.service is masked

SOLVED: jellyfin.service is masked - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: SOLVED: jellyfin.service is masked (/t-solved-jellyfin-service-is-masked)

jellyfin.service is masked - WhatsTheDealio - 2025-09-25

Hello, I am a new user and really hoping for some help.

I recently upgraded my media server to Ubuntu 24.04 with KDE
I am running the newest version of Plex, but wanted to give Jellyfin a try, as Plex is doing some things lately I'm not fond of
--I don't know if there are any conflicts between the two
I did an install with the download jellyfin-server_10.10.7+deb11_amd64.deb and after install tried running the service and got the message : Failed to start jellyfin.service: Unit jellyfin.service is masked.
I wasn't sure what I had done wrong, so I tried the wget intsall. It seemed to run fine until the end, when it said to restart all daemons since the service wasn't running. I did that, even restarted the machine, and I still get the above message when trying to start the service.

I'm not sure what to try next. I am not a complete noob, but not an expert with NX at all. Any suggestions?

RE: jellyfin.service is masked - theguymadmax - 2025-09-25

I haven't installed manually with the .deb package in a while. If not using Docker, just use the install script

Code:
curl -s https://repo.jellyfin.org/install-debuntu.sh | sudo bash

https://jellyfin.org/downloads/server/

RE: jellyfin.service is masked - WhatsTheDealio - 2025-09-25

Thanks for the suggestion, but it unfortunately didn't fix it.

I did a remove of the previous attempt, and tried curl:

$ curl -s https://repo.jellyfin.org/install-debuntu.sh | sudo bash
> Determining optimal repository settings.

Found the following details from '/etc/os-release':
Real OS: ubuntu
Repository OS: ubuntu
Repository Release: noble
CPU Architecture: amd64
If this looks correct, press <Enter> now to continue installing Jellyfin.

> Fetching repository signing key.

> Installing Jellyfin repository into APT.
Types: deb
URIs: https://repo.jellyfin.org/ubuntu
Suites: noble
Components: main
Architectures: amd64
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/jellyfin.gpg

> Updating APT repositories.
Hit:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease
Hit:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports InRelease
Hit:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security InRelease
Get:5 https://repo.jellyfin.org/ubuntu noble InRelease [10.6 kB]
Fetched 10.6 kB in 1s (13.4 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.

> Installing Jellyfin.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
jellyfin
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,298 B of archives.
After this operation, 9,216 B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 https://repo.jellyfin.org/ubuntu noble/main amd64 jellyfin all 10.10.7+ubu2404 [2,298 B]
Fetched 2,298 B in 1s (2,639 B/s)
Selecting previously unselected package jellyfin.
(Reading database ... 288842 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../jellyfin_10.10.7+ubu2404_all.deb ...
Unpacking jellyfin (10.10.7+ubu2404) ...
Setting up jellyfin (10.10.7+ubu2404) ...

> Waiting 15 seconds for Jellyfin to fully start up.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
○ jellyfin.service
Loaded: masked (Reason: Unit jellyfin.service is masked.)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/jellyfin.service.d
└─jellyfin.service.conf
Active: inactive (dead)
Warning: The unit file, source configuration file or drop-ins of jellyfin.service changed on disk. Run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload units.
○ jellyfin.service
Loaded: masked (Reason: Unit jellyfin.service is masked.)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/jellyfin.service.d
└─jellyfin.service.conf
Active: inactive (dead)
Warning: The unit file, source configuration file or drop-ins of jellyfin.service changed on disk. Run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload units.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You should see the service as 'active (running)' above. If not, use https://jellyfin.org/contact to find us for troubleshooting.

You can access your new instance now at [removed] in your web browser to finish setting up Jellyfin.

Thank you for installing Jellyfin, and happy watching!

---------------

After that, I did a restart all daemons as requested. Then tried starting the service. I still get:
Failed to start jellyfin.service: Unit jellyfin.service is masked.

RE: jellyfin.service is masked - theguymadmax - 2025-09-25

Try this this:

Code:
sudo systemctl unmask jellyfin

sudo systemctl enable jellyfin

sudo systemctl start jellyfin

RE: jellyfin.service is masked - WhatsTheDealio - 2025-09-25

(2025-09-25, 07:37 PM)theguymadmax Wrote: Try this this:

Code:
sudo systemctl unmask jellyfin sudo systemctl enable jellyfin sudo systemctl start jellyfin

That did it! I am off an running. Thanks so much!