I’m on the develop branch, and am also a PlexPass user, so I’m using the latest of both apps. Since last Thursday 13th, Plex no longer updates via ‘connect’. I get the following error:
NzbDroneErrorPipeline Invalid request Validation failed:
– Unable to connect to Plex Server 2:42pm
PlexService Unable to connect to Plex Server: Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: <. Path ‘’, line 0, position 0.: Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: <. Path ‘’, line 0, position 0.
Everything seems fine on the Plex side, but I guess they may have changed something. Just wanting to get an idea on how to troubleshoot this further.
The full error from the log file would be helpful and at debug it should be logging the entire response from Plex Server, so make sure deb logging is enabled.
Here’s the detail from the log file with debug on, hope it’s enough. I’ve scoured the logs to make sure I haven’t missed anything else Plex-related:
4-12-18 18:35:08.0|Debug|PlexService|Getting sections from Plex host: sol.mars.net.au
14-12-18 18:35:08.0|Error|PlexService|Unable to connect to Plex Server: Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: <. Path '', line 0$
Newtonsoft.Json.JsonReaderException: Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: <. Path '', line 0, position 0.
at Newtonsoft.Json.JsonTextReader.ParseValue () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at Newtonsoft.Json.JsonTextReader.ReadInternal () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at Newtonsoft.Json.JsonTextReader.Read () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.JsonSerializerInternalReader.ReadForType (Newtonsoft.Json.JsonReader reader, Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.Js$
at Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.JsonSerializerInternalReader.Deserialize (Newtonsoft.Json.JsonReader reader, System.Type objectType, Boolean $
14-12-18 18:35:08.0|Warn|NzbDroneErrorPipeline|Invalid request Validation failed:
-- Unable to connect to Plex Server
Hi, just wanted to check in and see if there is anything else I can look into to see what might be causing this? I’m working around it at the moment by using update intervals, but would be great to fix the issue if possible! 
Hey, sorry, forgot to follow up. I just made a change (in develop) that will log the response before checking for an error (which is where is currently failing), it will be part of 2.0.0.2498 and later.
It will be logged at Trace level and will start with “Sections response:”.
Thanks Markus, much appreciated. Will keep an eye out for .2498 and check things when it lands.
Hi Markus,
For whatever reason, the change you made didn’t add anything further to the log. However on a hunch, I’ve now resolved this. The username/password field now appears to be mandatory for Plex updates - this was never the case previously, but I’m guessing it’s something to do with their new Plex Home feature, which allows multiple users to be set up on the same Plex server, with unique ‘watched’ flags etc etc
The timing would be right based on when that Plex upgrade came down, and now that I’ve added my PlexPass user/password to those fields, it’s working fine.
Sorry, should have thought to try this earlier, however having never needed it for the last year or so, it didn’t come to mind straight away!
Dan
I was thinking it might be that, but wanted to see what the error was to confirm.
I did reqd somewhere that once enabled that was the case, but couldn’t find the source.
Glad to hear its working.