Install Plex on Raspberry Pi using Docker

1. Prerequisites

• Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 (Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit recommended for Plex).
• Basic knowledge of the terminal.
• Optional: External storage for media files.

2. Install Docker

2.1. Add Docker's official GPG key

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

2.2 Add the repository to apt sources

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

2.3 Fetches the latest package information

sudo apt-get update

2.4 Install the docker packages

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

3. Install Plex

3.1. Clone plex Docker repo

git clone https://github.com/plexinc/pms-docker

3.2. Change directory

cd pms-docker

3.3. Build Plex Docker image for Raspberry Pi

sudo docker build -t plexinc/pms-docker:latest -f Dockerfile .

here is the output of build command:

[+] Building 47.3s (11/11) FINISHED                                                                                                    docker:default
 => [internal] load build definition from Dockerfile                                                                                             0.0s
 => => transferring dockerfile: 1.74kB                                                                                                           0.0s
 => [internal] load metadata for docker.io/library/ubuntu:20.04                                                                                  4.2s
 => [internal] load .dockerignore                                                                                                                0.0s
 => => transferring context: 191B                                                                                                                0.0s
 => [1/6] FROM docker.io/library/ubuntu:20.04@sha256:fa17826afb526a9fc7250e0fbcbfd18d03fe7a54849472f86879d8bf562c629e                            0.1s
 => => resolve docker.io/library/ubuntu:20.04@sha256:fa17826afb526a9fc7250e0fbcbfd18d03fe7a54849472f86879d8bf562c629e                            0.0s
 => => sha256:fa17826afb526a9fc7250e0fbcbfd18d03fe7a54849472f86879d8bf562c629e 1.34kB / 1.34kB                                                   0.0s
 => => sha256:420b6f4cc783dc199667eae3316d9e066bd6e19931448c1e4b6f9a3759e52106 424B / 424B                                                       0.0s
 => => sha256:2788af2ba581a02af2023a67e83596fcf92f74591bdea327f03cc3fd9ca25fe7 2.31kB / 2.31kB                                                   0.0s
 => [internal] load build context                                                                                                                0.1s
 => => transferring context: 12.11kB                                                                                                             0.0s
 => [2/6] RUN useradd -U -d /config -s /bin/false plex &&     usermod -G users plex &&         mkdir -p       /config       /transcode       /d  0.5s
 => [3/6] RUN     apt-get update &&     apt-get install -y       tzdata       curl       xmlstarlet       uuid-runtime       unrar &&     apt-  36.8s
 => [4/6] RUN if [ "linux/arm64" = 'linux/arm/v7' ]; then         S6_OVERLAY_ARCH='armhf';       elif [ "arm64" = 'amd64' ]; then         S6_OV  3.5s 
 => [5/6] COPY root/ /                                                                                                                           0.0s 
 => [6/6] RUN /installBinary.sh                                                                                                                  0.3s 
 => exporting to image                                                                                                                           1.6s 
 => => exporting layers                                                                                                                          1.6s 
 => => writing image sha256:a2d5487473d878add0df0c191ec49b12daf5ecba44bec54a6536eb646367ad31                                                     0.0s 
 => => naming to docker.io/plexinc/pms-docker:latest                                                     

3.4. Create directories for Plex data

Create folders to store the Plex configuration and media files.

mkdir -p ~/plex/config
mkdir -p ~/plex/transcode
mkdir -p ~/plex/media

Replace ~/plex/media with the path to your external media storage if applicable.

3.5. Get Plex claim token

• Visit https://plex.tv/claim.
• Log in and copy the token.
• Use it for the PLEX_CLAIM option in next step.

Note - This token is only valid for 4 minutes.

3.6. Run Plex media server in Docker

Use the following command to start Plex:

docker run \
-d \
--name plex \
--network=host \
-e TZ="YOUR_TIMEZONE" \
-e PLEX_CLAIM="YOUR_PLEX_CLAIM_TOKEN" \
-v ~/plex/config:/config \
-v ~/plex/transcode:/transcode \
-v ~/plex/media:/data \
plexinc/pms-docker:latest

3.7. Docker compose stack

Here is the Docker compose file if you want to use the Docker compose

version: '3.5'
services:
  plex:
    image: plexinc/pms-docker:latest
    container_name: plex
    network_mode: 'host'
    volumes:
      - ~/plex/config:/config
      - ~/plex/transcode:/transcode
      - ~/plex/media:/data
    ports:
      - 8096:8096
    restart: 'unless-stopped'
    environment:
      - TZ="YOUR_TIMEZONE"
      - PLEX_CLAIM="YOUR_PLEX_CLAIM_TOKEN"

3.8. Access Plex

• Open a browser and visit: http://YOUR_RASPBERRY_PI_IP:32400/web
• Sign in with your Plex account and follow the setup process.

Now you have Plex Media Server running on your Raspberry Pi through Docker! You can add media libraries, tweak settings, and stream your content.