SOLVED: Jellyfin stopped starting

[Bridesmaids]

It's been working fine for months. Then one time I closed it in order to free up a bit of RAM, and ever since I've been getting the same error. Tried downloading it again and re-installing, but the same thing happened. I didn't uninstall the existing version, though, because I didn't want to risk losing my metadata. If that's the solution, though, I'm willing to try it.

Many thanks.

[2025-07-06 07:28:41.144 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Jellyfin version: "10.10.7"
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.185 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Environment Variables: ["[JELLYFIN_LOG_DIR, C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\log]"]
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.190 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Arguments: ["C:\Program Files\Jellyfin\Server\jellyfin.dll", "--datadir", "C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server"]
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.194 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Operating system: "Microsoft Windows 10.0.19045"
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.195 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Architecture: X64
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.198 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: 64-Bit Process: True
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.199 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: User Interactive: True
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.201 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Processor count: 2
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.202 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Program data path: "C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server"
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.203 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Log directory path: "C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\log"
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.204 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Config directory path: "C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\config"
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.205 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Cache path: "C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\cache"
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.206 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Temp directory path: "C:\Users\mayo.000\AppData\Local\Temp\jellyfin"
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.207 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Web resources path: "C:\Program Files\Jellyfin\Server\jellyfin-web"
[2025-07-06 07:28:41.208 -04:00] [INF] [1] Main: Application directory: "C:\Program Files\Jellyfin\Server\"
[2025-07-06 07:28:42.493 -04:00] [FTL] [1] Main: Unhandled Exception
System.InvalidOperationException: There is an error in XML document (0, 0).
---> System.Xml.XmlException: Root element is missing.
  at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
  at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ThrowWithoutLineInfo(String res)
  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)

[Bridesmaids]

thanks for this:
https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-solved-jell...7#pid59577