Hey all after a few months of giving up on trying to get my server to run I tried again and made it even worse. On a tutorial I was watching it suggested changing the port number. It appears this was a mistake as I can no longer access my sever even after uninstalling the program and reinstalling it. I’ve been fighting it for about a hour if anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this mess please let me know
I’m running my server on a laptop running Linux Mint cinnamon
Based on the very little information you’ve given here, I would recommend wiping the whole thing and starting over.
While you’re doing that, I suggest running it in docker. It’s a lot easier to contain an app with docker, because it runs in a container.
Yeah. Agree on docker. I held off on that for a long time and it does look intimidating at first, but its just a few basic commands and then things just work.
I wish it were that easy. I’m fairly computer competent, comfortable enough in the Linux command line to follow any tutorials, and Google my way through most problems I run into.
But docker? Dang. Maybe once you figure it out, you forget how hard it was to learn. But that learning curve is STEEP. I banged my head against that wall for like a week before giving up. Everything is so abstracted away. I’m baffled every time it’s recommended to newbies as easier than other options, especially when those newbies are struggling with ports of all things (no offense to OP).
Maybe I’m just dumb I guess 🤷♂️
Nope, I had the same experience. I don’t know how many tutorials for set up of docker and jellyfin via docker that I read/watched and tried. Eventually I found one that worked, but I am still in that steep part of the curve after having successfully set up a few containers. That said, it has worked flawlessly since install, so…
Glad to hear I’m not alone 😬
And simpler for us to help OP with.
Did you open the port on your laptop’s firewall to allow the traffic to the new port?
What issues are you having that would require changing the port you use would fix it?
I was unable to access the server from my IPhone using the official app or any 3rd party app I tried. I’ll see opening the port on my firewall can fix the not being able to start the server issue
If the service isn’t starting due to a changed port then one of two things are happening:
- Something else is using that port and its throwing an error
- There’s a configuration issue (typo, comment, or duplicate setting) that is preventing the server from starting
Do you have any logs from the server that might help with determining which of these two it is?
Also are you trying to access the service on your local network or via something like your mobile data or a VPN? Because if it’s the latter you probably need to configure your router to allow external traffic (which can be a security risk).
What have your issues been generally?
When it comes to ports, you need to make sure your firewall is open for your new port number. Can you access the server in a browser on the laptop itself? If so the issue is somewhere else on your network. If not, then the port isn’t open in your firewall on Linux Mint.
For me, the biggest issue with setting up Jellyfin has invariably been setting up ffmpeg. I find the online official guide for a straight Linux install does not direct Jellyfin to find ffmpeg correctly - when you’re setting up the path to ffmpeg you need to be careful even if you’re installing the Jellyfin version of ffmpeg. Even if you install everything in /opt, the official steps don’t work for me and I’ve had to adjust how I write the path in the config file to make it work - even if ffmpeg is in the locations the guide suggests. Even knowing that I’ve torn my hair out more than once trying to get it to work between reinstalls - everytime for me it came down to the path for ffmpeg.
The other common issue is permissions for Jellyfin to access your media folders. The guide isn’t great on fixing those issues either - if you have those issues you’re far better googling for solutions.
You may find the docker set up is better and more consistent. It does work well as a Linux service but it’s wiki guide is just off enough that it’s a pain in the arse to install.
You’re adding extra layers by using an app, even the official one. You might want to try accessing through a browser. The app refused to connect for a while because of https settings.
Hey. Some questions and prompts for output so we can diagnose better.
- How are you running jellyfin? Is the Laptop a general purpose computer that you also use as a server? If so, are you running as your own (unprivileged user) or are you running it as root?
- How and where did you change the port?
- Can you post your config file (should be in /etc/jellyfin can’t look it up rn).
- Can you post the output of
sudo systemctl status jellyfin
sudo ss -tulpn | grep jellyfin