Taking advantage of the analysis we recently made of the QNAP TS-216G NAS , we propose an entertainment and multimedia use for it and learn how to install and configure Plex on QNAP NAS from scratch.
It’s a smart way to start taking advantage of an entry-level NAS for inexperienced users like this model, setting up a multistreaming server as complete and free as Plex, accessing it both locally and remotely .
What is Plex
Plex is an application that provides multi-streaming services through a multimedia center , from the internal storage of your computer, or in this case, NAS.
On the one hand, we have the Plex Media Server , where all the files must point, and on the other hand, the Plex clients , which we will install on the computers from which we want to view the content, Android, Windows, Mac, Smart TV, etc.
Once installed on the device, Plex offers an interface similar to that of a Smart TV or Netflix , accessing the content you are pointing to, previously configured through source folders on the local network .
The real power of this application is being able to use all types of multimedia file formats such as movies, series from different platforms, as well as videos, music and images .
All of this is analyzed and classified using a database (like IMDb), where it identifies the content based on its title, downloading metadata such as synopsis, cover art, audience ratings, organizing it by year, season, etc., all by simply entering the official title in the file.
The user can freely fill the Plex catalog as much as storage allows, but they can also link to it platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Atres Player , etc., and the application itself already has a series of free channels that we can watch via streaming.
Access can be controlled through accounts that the administrator, we, invite and configure, assigning access permissions to libraries. Parental controls are supported for children.
NAS that we will use
We have the application, now we need a device to install and configure Plex , in our example it will be the QNAP TS-216G NAS .
It has two SATA storage bays where you can install up to 39 TB of space in RAID 0, 1 JBOD or Single , with 4 GB of RAM and a 64-bit 4-core ARM Cortex A55 CPU with Mali-G52 GPU and hardware video transcoding capability .
It’s not a great powerhouse for advanced tasks, but it’s perfect for this type of applications and multimedia services, with enough capacity to deliver high-definition content without interruptions, thanks to its dual 2.5 + 1 GbE network interface.
The power of a NAS goes far beyond a simple multimedia service. QTS is a very powerful system that allows you to create your own personal cloud like Google Drive, create backups, etc
Guide: Install and configure Plex on QNAP NAS step by step
Let’s dive right into the Plex installation and setup guide.
Initial steps
Let’s assume we’ve already initialized the NAS , which we do through a browser by entering its IP address , which we can view using QFinder Pro . We just need to follow a series of simple and well-explained steps.
After this, we should have the QTS desktop in front of us, where the wizard will open to create a new storage set , that is, to give the hard drive a file format to create storage volumes.
Storage set
We select “ New storage set ”.
If you want a slightly more advanced system for backups and other features, we recommend enabling the Qtier feature , or adding more security using SED , but it is optional.
We used a single HDD; therefore, we chose the Single RAID type. If you have two drives, choose RAID 0 to maximize network speed, or choose RAID 1 if you want to be more tolerant of data loss and hard drive failure.
Finally, we leave a certain percentage of storage for snapshots , this serves to back up the configuration and files of our NAS in case of failures.
Storage volume
Now we need to create a volume to create our directory tree for Plex, so we choose “ New Volume ”.
We recommend choosing “ Space on request ” as it is the most versatile.
Now it is important to click on “ Set to set capacity ” to take all the available space, which will be normal if you only plan to create one volume.
Enabling data encryption affects speed but improves security. In the next step, we recommend enabling the snapshot option, as it will provide fail-safe protection.
Done, these are the mandatory steps before installing and configuring Plex on QNAP NAS
Set up QNAP ID and myQNAPcloud
A logical step to provide remote access to the NAS and create DDNS to access the content of our Plex server will be to configure myQNAPcloud .
This system allows remote access to the NAS through the QNAP cloud, as a secure intermediary step
It is interesting to access QTS remotely, but also to provide us with a DDNS system that creates a URL to resolve the external IP address of our network, and thus access servers such as Plex, after opening the corresponding ports .
We access the QTS myQNAPcloud app , where we will be asked to register on this free QNAP portal . Ideally, we would activate the two-step verification method.
We start another wizard where we must assign a name to our NAS , which will later form part of the access URL.
After this, we activate the “ myQNAPcloud Link ” checkbox with Private access control, as well as DDNS . We wait for all the elements to be configured.
DDNS and open ports
Now comes the really important part!
In the DDNS section, we can configure an alias to create an even simpler URL, which would point to the URL <computer name>.myqnapclud.com . We do this by clicking on ” Manage alias settings .”
Now our remote access URL to the NAS will be: prplex.mycloudnas.com
When using non-standard ports, we must add the port number to the end of the IP address or domain. For example, if we use Plex with port 32400, the URL should be http://.mycloudnas.com:32400. If we don’t use aliases, then it would be http://.myqnapcloud.com:32400.
Second important point: we’re going to enable the UPnP feature to automatically forward ports on the router. To do this, click ” To configure UPnP port forwarding, click here ” in the same DDNS section.
Within the existing port list, we are not going to enable any of the existing ports, but rather we are going to add a NAS service for our Plex server .
In the window that opens, we apply a name “ PLEX ”, we assign the port 32400 , the generic one for Plex, external port , the same, and only for the TCP protocol .
If we now go to the operator’s router that we have at home, we will see that in the UPnP section a new rule has been created where the external IP will point to the NAS IP (192.168.1.30) with port 32400 for the TCP protocol.
We could also have done this manually , in case our router did not support UPnP, from the NAT section, creating this same rule.
Installing and Configuring Plex Media Server
We’ve been setting things up for quite a while, but when the hell are we going to install and configure Plex on a QNAP NAS? Well, now’s the time.
Installing Plex on a NAS
Option 1 for installing Plex is to do so with the version available in the QNAP app store that comes with the NAS, which is version 1.30.
But we are going to skip this option to install the latest version available , so we go to the Plex > Downloads > Plex Media Server page , or click here
We choose the “ QNAP ” platform to download the installer, and then we must “ choose the distribution ”.
A list of four options appears, referring to the CPU architecture of our NAS. We’ll find out which CPU it uses by searching for the model on the official QNAP website.
In our case it is a TS-216G with an ARM Cortex A55 CPU .
Plex gives us a series of model names in the list, but ours may not match any of them, so we need to know what architecture our CPU has.
To find out this information we searched on Google , for example, Wikipedia, where we discovered that it is the ARMv8.2 version.
Ready, we download the third option.
We return to the App Center application of our NAS, but we will access the “ Install manually ” option
In the pop-up window we look for the downloaded file on our PC and click on “ Install ”
We already have Plex installed on the NAS, it’s time to configure it.
Set up Plex on QNAP NAS
To access the server, simply click on the QTS desktop icon , a new local window will open to access the configuration.
We must register with an account in the Plex service to have an administrator profile on the server, we can do so simply with the correct Google account or any other one we want.
We are told the internal IP address of where the server is hosted, so we know that everything has been installed correctly.
We skip the paid option for the service – because there are obviously paid options – and start the configuration wizard , where we first assign a name to the server.
Important: We activate the option to “ allow access to my files from outside my home ” if we want to view Plex remotely.
At this point, Plex asks us to add the media libraries , but of course, we haven’t yet created the folders on the NAS that will act as the resource store.
So, we go back to the NAS, open FileStation 5 and position ourselves on our storage volume.
This time we’re going to create the content folders within Multimedia so we can better locate them.
Simply click on the folder icon with the “+” to “ Create a folder ”, it does not need to be shared, a normal one will do.
The advantage of sharing is that we would access it from the PC with SMB to upload or delete content, but we can do this directly from the NAS.
We continue with the Plex wizard, we are going to create a total of 5 libraries , taking advantage of the 5 types that the server differentiates: Movies, Series, Music, for downloaded or ripped content, and Photos, Other videos for our camera or mobile.
We select the library type and then click on “ Add folders ” and “ View media folder .” We select the NAS and the device’s directory tree will open .
The folders we created are located in the “ CACHEDEV1_DATA ” directory. Navigate to the folder in question and click “ Add Library .”
In the “ Advanced ” section we will see a long list of configuration options , which varies slightly depending on the type of library selected.
We’ve provided folders with changes or options of interest to us, but, in general, we can leave them as default, as we can later freely modify them if we don’t like the server’s behavior.
With this, we’ll have the Plex server ready, at least the essential steps for mounting the content. Click ” Done .”
Upload content to Plex server on QNAP NAS
We have all the libraries, but they’re empty. It’s time to upload a ton of content to our NAS, and we can do this in several ways:
- Directly from the NAS : from FileStation we select the folder and click on “Upload file” or “Upload folder” selecting the folder on our PC, so that everything inside is uploaded to the NAS.
- From the PC with shared folders : We mentioned earlier that if we set up a shared folder, we’ll have access to it via SMB. Therefore, in Windows File Explorer, we search for the NAS using its IP address, access the folder, and paste the desired content into it.
- Using a Sync App : QNAP provides several apps to sync content from your PC or mobile device to the NAS. On Windows, you can use Qsync for any type of file, but there are also specialized apps like QuMagie , designed for photos and videos, Qmusic , for music, and Qvideo , for videos.
How to name files so Plex recognizes them
This is a very important point when installing and configuring Plex on a QNAP NAS, because, depending on the name we give to our series or movie in the files, we may find that the program does not detect content, or does so incorrectly.
There are certain guidelines to follow to ensure that our media center is well organized, with correct information and has a professional presentation :
- Movies : We must write the full, real name of the movie. If Spanish or Latin American doesn’t work, we write it as it was published in the US.
- Series : The ideal structure should be <series name (year)> – sXXeXX where “S” is the season, “E” is the episode, and “X” is the number. The year would not be necessary in many cases. For example: Fallout – s01e01 , Game of Thrones (2010) – s01s07.
- Music : The file name isn’t important in principle, although it’s ideal to include at least the song name. The important thing is that the file’s metadata includes the title, artist, album, and year.
- Videos and photos : It doesn’t really matter what name we give to our personal photos and videos, but the ideal way for Plex to process and detect these files more quickly is to use the “Photos” type library for them .
My Plex server doesn’t show files in folders
After installing and configuring Plex, and uploading files, the server will normally automatically detect the items in each library . This can take some time if there is a lot of content, as it may have to download a lot of metadata.
But if we want an instant result, then we must access Plex, on the main screen we go to any of the libraries present on the left side.
Click on the ellipsis next to the library title and click on “ Search for files in the library ”.
Please be patient with videos uploaded from your mobile device or in a format other than MKV, as it will take time for the server to analyze them and render them in the correct playback format.
Set up and verify remote access in Plex
We’ve already gone through the hassle of setting up all the remote access to our server before installing Plex. Now we just need to sit back and check that everything is working as it should.
We go to the key icon in the upper right corner, then, in the left section, click on “ Remote Access ”.
Indeed, it tells us that it is fully accessible , and below we have the NAT rule used for access.
The final test will be to enter the URL:32400 that we previously created with DDNS and myQNALcloud to see if we have real access.
Indeed, that is the case, as long as we use the created alias, followed by “:<port>”.
Final Plex Server Settings
Our Plex server is now fully functional on both local and remote networks, but we can still make some additional adjustments .
An important option if we have a not very powerful network is to configure the streaming quality.
Depending on our upload capacity, especially in remote access, we can increase or decrease the video quality from the Plex Web > Quality option .
If we want more users to be able to access our server, we just have to go to “ Manage library access ”, add an email, and send a verification request so that they have said access.
Or we can create more managed accounts for access from the “ Plex Home ” option in the general settings. This is equivalent to creating users for Plex access.
Final result and conclusions
Installing and configuring Plex on a QNAP NAS is a task that will take approximately a couple of hours following this tutorial, unless something does not go as planned, for example, our network is within CG-NAT and we have blocked ports , in which case we will call the operator to see solutions.
But as far as the operation of the NAS and the server itself is concerned , we will very rarely have problems if we have followed the steps, since it is a completely guided and almost automatic process.
Plex is a very powerful tool, which we can access for free and have extremely professional results with content -unpaid- or even paid, as it is compatible with other platforms .
We have client applications for virtually any Smart TV, mobile, console, and computer platform, as can be seen on the official website , in the downloads section.
The power of the QNAP TS-216G has been more than enough to provide us with 1080p and up to 4K playback without interruptions on our local network, as long as clients use a good Wi-Fi or LAN connection. Remotely, it’s a different matter, although fiber optic connections aren’t a problem either.
It only remains to mention that you continue exploring the enormous amount of options and possibilities that Plex has , because here we have limited ourselves to “getting it up and running.”
We’ve got more tutorials related to QNAP NAS if you’re interested in expanding its functionality.