How to Install Plex Media Server on Ubuntu 22.04

Plex is a streaming media server that lets you organize your video, music, and photo collections and stream your media to your computer, phone, tablet, or TV at any time and from anywhere. Plex media server can be installed on all major operating systems and devices.

This article explains how to install Plex Media Server on Ubuntu 22.04.

Installing Plex Media Server on Ubuntu

Plex is proprietary computer software, and it is not included in the Ubuntu repositories.

Installing Steam on Plex Media Server is fairly straightforward. We’ll enable the Plex official repository and install the package with apt. It requires no technical knowledge, and it should not take you more than 20 minutes to install and configure the media server.

1. Add the Plex APT repository to your system and import the repository’s GPG key:curl https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-keys/PlexSign.key | sudo apt-key add -echo deb https://downloads.plex.tv/repo/deb public main | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/plexmediaserver.list

Once the repository is enabled, update the apt package list and install the latest server version:

sudo apt updatesudo apt install plexmediaserver

To verify that the Plex is running, check the service status:

sudo systemctl status plexmediaserver

The output should look something like this:

● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running) since Thu 2021-06-17 19:36:33 UTC; 23min ago

That’s it. At this point, you have a Plex media server installed on your Ubuntu machine.

Adjusting the Firewall

Now that Plex is installed and running on your server, you need to make sure the server firewall is configured to allow traffic on the Plex-specific ports.

If you do not have a firewall running on your system, skip this section.

If you are using UFW to manage your firewall, the easiest option is to create a UFW application profile:

sudo nano /etc/ufw/applications.d/plexmediaserver

/etc/ufw/applications.d/plexmediaserver

[plexmediaserver]
title=Plex Media Server (Standard)
description=The Plex Media Server
ports=32400/tcp|3005/tcp|5353/udp|8324/tcp|32410:32414/udp

[plexmediaserver-dlna]
title=Plex Media Server (DLNA)
description=The Plex Media Server (additional DLNA capability only)
ports=1900/udp|32469/tcp

[plexmediaserver-all]
title=Plex Media Server (Standard + DLNA)
description=The Plex Media Server (with additional DLNA capability)
ports=32400/tcp|3005/tcp|5353/udp|8324/tcp|32410:32414/udp|1900/udp|32469/tcp

Save the file and update profiles list:

sudo ufw app update plexmediaserver

Apply the new firewall rules:

sudo ufw allow plexmediaserver-all

Finally, check if the new firewall rules are applied successfully with:

sudo ufw status verbose

Status: active
Logging: on (low)
Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed)
New profiles: skip

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
22/tcp                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere
32400/tcp (plexmediaserver-all) ALLOW IN    Anywhere
3005/tcp (plexmediaserver-all) ALLOW IN    Anywhere
5353/udp (plexmediaserver-all) ALLOW IN    Anywhere
8324/tcp (plexmediaserver-all) ALLOW IN    Anywhere
32410:32414/udp (plexmediaserver-all) ALLOW IN    Anywhere
1900/udp (plexmediaserver-all) ALLOW IN    Anywhere
32469/tcp (plexmediaserver-all) ALLOW IN    Anywhere