SOLVED: Jellyfin unable to start

[Mower5966]

I was running Jellyfin 10.9.6 on Windows. Yesterday, when restarting my PC after a Windows Update, I was stuck at the Windows login screen as the loading icon keeps spinning after I entered my password. I waited for a while before rebooting my PC by pressing the restart button on my PC casing, but it's still the same - I was stuck at the log in screen after entering my password. I left my PC on the stuck login screen and went to work.

When I'm back, I noticed my PC is no longer stuck at the login screen and I can use it normally. Fast forward to the next day, I noticed that Jellyfin wasn't running, which is unexpected because it should autostart when the PC boots up. I tried to manually start it but was unable to. The following error can be found in the log:

Code:

[2024-08-16 09:14:11.910 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Jellyfin version: "10.9.9"
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.922 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Environment Variables: ["[JELLYFIN_LOG_DIR, C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\log]"]
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.925 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Arguments: ["C:\Program Files\Jellyfin\Server\jellyfin.dll", "--datadir", "C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server"]
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.926 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Operating system: "Microsoft Windows 10.0.19045"
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.927 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Architecture: X64
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.927 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: 64-Bit Process: True
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.928 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: User Interactive: True
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.929 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Processor count: 16
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.929 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Program data path: "C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server"
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.930 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Log directory path: "C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\log"
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.931 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Config directory path: "C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\config"
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.931 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Cache path: "C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\cache"
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.932 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Web resources path: "C:\Program Files\Jellyfin\Server\jellyfin-web"
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.933 +08:00] [INF] [1] Main: Application directory: "C:\Program Files\Jellyfin\Server\"
[2024-08-16 09:14:11.954 +08:00] [FTL] [1] Main: Unhandled Exception
System.InvalidOperationException: There is an error in XML document (1, 1).
---> System.Xml.XmlException: '.', hexadecimal value 0x00, is an invalid character. Line 1, position 1.
  at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
  at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, String[] args)
  at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseRootLevelWhitespace()
  at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
  at System.Xml.XmlReader.MoveToContent()
  at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReaderMigrationOptions.Read4_MigrationOptions()
  at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(Object target, Void** arguments, Signature sig, Boolean isConstructor)
  at System.Reflection.MethodBaseInvoker.InvokeWithNoArgs(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr)
  --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
  at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle, XmlDeserializationEvents events)
  at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader)
  at Emby.Server.Implementations.Serialization.MyXmlSerializer.DeserializeFromStream(Type type, Stream stream)
  at Emby.Server.Implementations.Serialization.MyXmlSerializer.DeserializeFromFile(Type type, String file)
  at Jellyfin.Server.Migrations.MigrationRunner.RunPreStartup(ServerApplicationPaths appPaths, ILoggerFactory loggerFactory)
  at Jellyfin.Server.Program.StartApp(StartupOptions options)
  at Jellyfin.Server.Program.<Main>(String[] args)

I restarted my PC again, but Jellyfin is still unable to start and the same error is produced. Then I upgraded Jellyfin to 10.9.9 but it's still the same.

Did my force restart corrupted some file used by Jellyfin? What can I do to fix it?

[theguymadmax]

Try this:
1. Ensure that Jellyfin is not running.
2. Navigate to C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\config and remove the migrations.xml file from the directory.
3. Restart Jellyfin.
4. If Jellyfin is still not working, repeat the process, but this time remove all the .xml files from the directory.

[Mower5966]

Jellyfin is now working after I remove all the .xml files from the directory. Thank you.