Hung Startup

[ebeachlr]

The system is still hung at the rotating circle, as though it is either looking for something or stuck in a loop of some kind. Following is the MediaPathInfo from each library

1. <MediaPathInfo>
<Path>/media/ebeachlr/External/Temp_TV</Path>
</MediaPathInfo>
</PathInfos>

2. <MediaPathInfo>
<Path>/media/ebeachlr/External_8tb2/Video _Resources/Plex_Movie_Extras</Path>
</MediaPathInfo>
<MediaPathInfo>
<Path>/media/ebeachlr/External_8tb/Plex-Movies</Path>
</MediaPathInfo>

3. <MediaPathInfo>
<Path>/media/ebeachlr/External_8tb2/Video _Resources/Plex_TV_Extras</Path>
</MediaPathInfo>
<MediaPathInfo>
<Path>/media/ebeachlr/External_8tb/TV Series</Path>
</MediaPathInfo>

4. <MediaPathInfo>
<Path>/media/ebeachlr/External_8tb/Plex-Music</Path>
</MediaPathInfo>

5. <MediaPathInfo>
<Path>/media/ebeachlr/External_8tb2/Sound Of Majesty</Path>
</MediaPathInfo>

6. <MediaPathInfo>
<Path>/media/ebeachlr/External_8tb2/Video _Resources/Christian Education</Path>
</MediaPathInfo>

7. <MediaPathInfo>
<Path>/media/ebeachlr/External_8tb2/Plex_Music_Extras</Path>
</MediaPathInfo>

[TheDreadPirate]

I chatted with @theguymadmax and we've both come to the same conclusion. Since the library XMLs and mblink files don't contain / as a library root folder, that indicates it is still in the database somewhere and now Jellyfin is in a difficult to recover from state if you don't know your way around SQLite.

We think the best path forward is to start over.

Code:

sudo systemctl stop jellyfin
cd /var/lib
sudo mv jellyfin origJellyfin
cd /etc
sudo mv jellyfin origJellyfin
cd /var/cache
sudo mv jellyfin origJellyfin
sudo systemctl start jellyfin

Then you will need to clear your browser cache or use an incognito/private browser window so that the startup wizard will load.

[ebeachlr]

I did as you suggested and the service failed to start, systemctl status jellyfin returned the following:

× jellyfin.service - Jellyfin Media Server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/jellyfin.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/jellyfin.service.d
└─jellyfin.service.conf
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2025-04-02 13:09:47 EDT; 44s ago
Process: 2006 ExecStart=/usr/bin/jellyfin $JELLYFIN_WEB_OPT $JELLYFIN_FFMPEG_OPT $JELLYFIN_SERVICE_OPT $JELLYFIN_NOWEBAPP_OPT $JELL>
Main PID: 2006 (code=exited, status=200/CHDIR)
CPU: 1ms

Apr 02 13:09:47 Janeway systemd[1]: jellyfin.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Apr 02 13:09:47 Janeway systemd[1]: Stopped Jellyfin Media Server.
Apr 02 13:09:47 Janeway systemd[1]: jellyfin.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Apr 02 13:09:47 Janeway systemd[1]: jellyfin.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 02 13:09:47 Janeway systemd[1]: Failed to start Jellyfin Media Server.

I am an 83 year old shut-in and this is all very confusing to me. Thank you for all your help.

[TheDreadPirate]

Share the output of this command via privatebin.net

Code:

sudo journalctl -u jellyfin -n 500 --no-pager

[ebeachlr]

Here is the link to the output:

https://privatebin.net/?e78aea6a51d8c618...dxKREw3zFg

[TheDreadPirate]

Code:

sudo mkdir /var/lib/jellyfin /var/cache/jellyfin /etc/jellyfin
sudo chown jellyfin: /var/lib/jellyfin /var/cache/jellyfin /etc/jellyfin
sudo apt install --reinstall jellyfin jellyfin-server jellyfin-web jellyfin-ffmpeg
sleep 5
sudo systemctl status jellyfin

If it isn't running, but not dead...

Code:

sudo systemctl start jellyfin

[ebeachlr]

This is a giant THANK YOU to everyone that helped with this problem. The system is now rebuilding the libraries and I am so greatful.