Organize and play your personal videos with Plex

Plex Media Server is a media library and streaming app for your videos and music. On Olares, you can store your collection on your own device and play it in a browser or a Plex app.

Learning objectives

In this guide, you will learn how to:

• Install Plex, choose an acceleration mode, and connect your Plex account.
• Organize media folders on Olares and choose library types for personal videos, movies, and music.
• Select playback quality and subtitles in a browser, and check whether hardware transcoding is active.
• Connect a Plex client on your phone or computer through LarePass VPN.

Prerequisites

• Olares 1.12.7 or later.
• A Plex account. A free account is enough to connect the server and create libraries.
• Hardware-accelerated transcoding requires a compatible NVIDIA GPU and an active Plex Pass on the server owner's account.

Install Plex Media Server

1. Open Market and search for "Plex Media Server".

2. Click Get, then Install.

3. In the Choose a hardware accelerator dialog, select a mode:

   • CPU: Use software transcoding.
   • NVIDIA GPU: Use your NVIDIA GPU for hardware-accelerated transcoding.

   Acceleration mode

   The acceleration mode cannot be changed directly after installation.

4. Click Confirm. If prompted for PLEX_CLAIM, leave it empty and confirm to continue. You will connect your account in the next section.

5. Wait for installation to complete and the button to change to Open.

Connect your Plex account

You will see two entrances for Plex Media Server in Launchpad. Use Plex Account Setup to connect the server to your Plex account, then use Plex Media Server to manage libraries and play media.

1. Open Plex Account Setup from Launchpad.

2. In another browser tab, open the Plex claim page and sign in to the account you want to connect.

3. Copy the temporary token that starts with claim-.

4. Return to Plex Account Setup, paste the token into Claim token, and click Connect account.

   Connection failed

   If the connection fails, copy a new token from the claim page and try again.

5. Once the request finishes, click Open Plex Web.

6. Sign in to Plex Web with the same account. On first launch, follow the prompts to give the server a recognizable name, such as Home media.

7. Open Plex Web settings, select your server, and open General. Confirm that the server is signed in to the account you just connected.

Add a video library

A Plex library lets you browse and play media stored in the folders you choose. This example uses a travel recording to create a personal video library. You can follow the same steps to add movie and music libraries.

Upload your video

1. Open Olares Files and go to Home/Movies.
2. Create a subfolder, such as Family.
3. Upload your video to that folder. This example uses Home/Movies/Family/Family-trip.mp4. You can use your own filename.

Your folders might look like this:

Home/
  Movies/
    Family/
      Family-trip.mp4
  Music/

Give each library its own folder. For example, keep personal recordings in Family and movie collections in Films.

For large files, you can upload with LarePass Desktop.

Select the media folder in Plex

Folders in Olares Files appear under different paths in Plex. When adding a library, select the corresponding Plex path below.

Folder in Olares	Path in Plex
Home/Movies	/media/Movies
Home/Music	/media/Music

1. Open Plex Web settings and select the server you just connected.
2. Under Manage, open Libraries and click Add Library.
3. For travel recordings and other personal videos, choose Other Videos and name the library Family videos.
4. Choose the library language and click Next.
5. Click Browse for Media Folders and select /media/Movies/Family.
6. Click Add, then Add Library, and wait for Plex to scan the files.
7. Open Family videos and find the video you uploaded.

Plex has read-only access to Home/Movies and Home/Music. Use Olares Files to organize, rename, or delete source files.

Add movie and music collections

You can use the same process for movies and music. Choose the library type and folder that match your content:

Content	Library type	Example folder
Travel recordings and home videos	Other Videos	/media/Movies/Family
Movie collection	Movies	/media/Movies/Films
Music collection	Music	/media/Music

For Movies, include the movie title and release year in filenames to help Plex find matching posters and descriptions. Plex retrieves descriptions in the language you selected for the library.

After uploading more files, open the library's menu and select Scan Library Files to add them to Plex.

Play videos and adjust playback

Start with original quality

Local video playback is free. Remote playback requires a subscription, including in a browser.

1. Open Family videos and select your travel recording.
2. Play the video at its original quality.

Plex decides whether to transcode based on the file format, player capabilities, and quality setting. Starting with original quality avoids unnecessary quality loss.

Choose a playback quality

Plex can use the following playback methods:

Method	What it means
Direct Play	The player plays the original file without server-side video conversion
Direct Stream	The server changes the file container without re-encoding the video
Transcode	The server converts video or audio for the player or quality setting

If playback buffers frequently, lower the resolution or bitrate in the player's quality menu. For example, choose 720p for a 1080p source. Plex can then transcode the video to match the selected quality.

Add and select subtitles

Save the subtitle file in the same folder as the video. For English subtitles, name the files like this:

Home/Movies/Family/
  Family-trip.mp4
  Family-trip.en.srt

Family-trip matches the video filename, and en identifies English subtitles. Plex also supports external ASS subtitles. Save text subtitles as UTF-8 to reduce the risk of garbled characters.

1. Upload the subtitle file to the video's folder through Olares Files.
2. Scan the library in Plex. If the new subtitle is not detected, refresh the video's metadata.
3. Open the video's subtitle options, select the subtitle, and start playback.

Some subtitles need to be burned into the picture, which triggers video transcoding.

Connect from your phone or computer

Enable LarePass VPN on your phone or computer to connect to the Plex server on Olares. Keep the private network connection enabled during playback.

Remote video playback requires a subscription

Remote video playback requires an active Plex Pass or Remote Watch Pass on the account you use here. Plex can also treat a VPN connection as remote. See Plex remote playback requirements.

Enable LarePass VPN

On the phone or computer you will use for playback, install LarePass and sign in with your Olares ID. Make sure it is connected to the Olares device running Plex.

On iOS or macOS, allow the VPN configuration if prompted. Wait for the connection to finish before opening Plex. For details, see LarePass connection status.

Play media in a Plex client

1. Install and open the Plex app on your phone or computer.
2. Sign in with the Plex account you used to connect the server.
3. In the media sources or server list, select the name you assigned to the server, such as Home media.
4. Open the Family videos library and play the travel recording.

To watch in a browser on your computer, keep LarePass VPN enabled and open Plex Media Server from Launchpad.

Use hardware-accelerated transcoding

Hardware-accelerated transcoding uses the GPU to decode or encode video. Plex transcodes when the player does not support the source format or you select a lower resolution or bitrate.

These steps require the NVIDIA installation mode and an active Plex Pass on the server owner's account.

Enable hardware acceleration

1. Open Plex Web settings, select your server, and open Transcoder.
2. Show the advanced settings and enable Use hardware acceleration when available and Use hardware-accelerated video encoding.
3. Under Hardware transcoding device, select the NVIDIA GPU assigned to this instance.
4. Click Save Changes.

The settings take effect without restarting Plex.

Check whether playback uses the GPU

1. Play a video and choose a resolution or bitrate below the source in the player's quality settings. For example, select a 720p conversion option for a 1080p video.
2. In Plex Web, open Dashboard from Activity and expand the current playback details.
3. Look for (hw) next to the video format. This marks hardware-accelerated decoding or encoding.
4. Restore original quality when you have finished checking.

FAQs

Why can't I see my uploaded video in Plex?

Check that the upload has finished and that the library uses the correct folder. For example, Home/Movies/Family maps to /media/Movies/Family in Plex. Then run Scan Library Files.

Why are hardware transcoding settings missing?

Check that the server is connected to an account with an active Plex Pass. In the server's Transcoder settings, show the advanced settings to find the hardware acceleration options.

Why doesn't playback show (hw)?

Direct Play and Direct Stream do not re-encode the video, so they do not use hardware transcoding. To check GPU use, lower the playback quality and open Dashboard.

If the video is transcoding without (hw), check that you selected NVIDIA mode during installation and enabled both hardware acceleration options under Transcoder.

Why are subtitles missing or garbled?

Keep the subtitle and video in the same folder. Check that the subtitle filename matches the video, as in Family-trip.mp4 and Family-trip.en.srt, then scan the library and refresh the video's metadata. If the text is garbled, save the subtitle as UTF-8 and upload it again. See the Plex local subtitle guide for supported formats and naming rules.

How do I restart Plex when needed?

1. In Olares, navigate to Settings > Applications > Plex Media Server and click Stop.
2. Wait until the app has stopped, then click Resume to start it again.

See Manage stopped applications if Olares cannot resume the app because resources are in use.

Why can't the Plex client find my server after I enable VPN?

Check that Plex is running and LarePass is connected to the Olares device hosting it. In Plex Web, open the server's General settings to see which account owns it. Sign in to the client with that account and reopen the server list.

Learn more

• Jellyfin: Set up an open-source media server on Olares as an alternative to Plex.
• LarePass private network: Find the VPN controls and understand connection states on your phone or computer.
• Plex library creation guide: Learn about media types and folder selection.
• Plex local subtitle guide: Learn about subtitle naming, language codes, and formats.
• Plex hardware acceleration guide: Review Plex Pass requirements and hardware transcoding status.