- NEW UPDATES ADDED on July 1st 2019: -
Hi,
Here is the unofficial guide of how to configure one’s Windows 10 PC and Plex Media Server to sleep properly, without being woken up by any Windows wake timers or scheduled maintenance tasks continually, and then only woken up out of sleep when you or one of your Plex remote friends/users triggers a Plex remote request by an official Plex app or a browser web app, and then allows the PC to sleep once not in use, eg. after 20 minutes of non-activity (meaning that either the Plex local or remote viewing has been stopped and the Plex apps’ in use have then been closed completely). This has been proven to work properly by not only myself but various other users who have completed these steps and process.
FYI, here is a new update on why your Plex Media Server may not be allowing your Server PC to go to sleep properly (On 7-01-19):
When one leaves the Plex web browser open in Windows, the Plex Media Player, any other official Plex app on any other device, or if anyone else is using your Remote Access Server and may have left a Plex app open, including the iOS or Android Plex app that may be paused in the background of one’s device, your Plex Server will continue to keep your Server PC awake. I’m not aware of any fix for this, at this point in time. To allow your Server PC to sleep properly, one must close any Plex apps first, including any apps still open or paused via your remote users using your Remote Access.
This guide also lists details and/or instructions on:
- Plex Remote Access monitoring
- Hard drive health and maintenance
- Internet & network bandwidth monitoring, and
- Power surges that may possibly happen to your PC/Server during a thunder and lightning storm.
Here is the step by step process to configuring everything properly:
A) Setting up the BIOS:
Your BIOS settings, to allow Wake On Lan to successfully wake the Windows 10 PC, may need to be set up correctly. When tweaking BIOS settings, one must be careful not to accidentally mess with things. Choosing the wrong setting could make your PC unable to load Windows 10. The WOL setting may also already be enabled, and/or your BIOS may need a firmware update for it to work properly. Please refer to the instructions detailed on your brand’s mainboard model’s website, and Google is your friend.
A.2) Make sure to set your Windows 10 Network type to Private:
As listed in the comments of this guide by both @stanleywebb and @InDaZone (Thank you both for this additional fix guys, it’s much appreciated), make sure your Network type is set to Private not Public in Windows, otherwise your Windows wake settings will be overwritten and not able to work properly. Here is how to do it:
B) Preparing for Plex Remote Access and waking/sleeping abilities in Windows 10:
- Make sure your Plex Server is installed, up to date and working properly,
- Along with your router having a steady internet connection - and your Windows 10 server being connected via an ethernet cable, and apparently this waking process can only be done via an ethernet connection, not via wifi unfortunately,
- Having a NIC ethernet adapter installed may also be the most appropriate way to configure WOL & remote access wake to work properly (My own being a ‘Intel Ethernet Connection I218-V’ NIC ethernet adapter),
- Having a fairly decent router with a modern user-friendly login interface is important. Be sure to research any potential purchases online via the brand’s model specs list official website, or from other credible sources, before making a purchase decision. TP Link is what I chose, and my router being a TP-Link Archer C1200, and keeping in mind that there are a few great router brands out there. A Google search of ‘What are the best value for money/best performance based internet routers available’ is a good starting point.
Your router once set up, may need its firmware updated via its system settings, and has had a possible power cycle, which you may want to re do every few weeks or so ~ meaning to turn it off physically via the power button on the back of the router itself, and then wait 10 minutes for it to cool down before turning it back on, - Also if you need clarification with your particular router settings, its best to Google the brand & model version of your router and find any instructions on the brand’s website, or from other credible sources, for what you may need to achieve. Each router has its own setup and individual settings and so doing research is important. I am not able to list every particular router settings I’m sorry. Please now see New instructions for a TP-Link Archer C1200’s routers settings in Part E.2) below!
- Windows updates should be up to date, along with any driver updates in need of updating. I have found that the ‘Easeware Driver Easy’ software downloads and installs correct drivers that have also been certified correctly - found here: https://www.drivereasy.com . I personally do not trust any other driver update software, it is indeed in my eyes legitimate driver software.
If you do happen to use a brand name laptop such as a Dell, Lenovo, HP etc, it may be best to follow their own online drivers support page website regarding any correct drivers to install, as doing otherwise with certain laptops may interfere with the computers interface, - And good anti-malware software is important, I use Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, found here: https://www.malwarebytes.com , and I have found it to be good value and has fast scanning capabilties, while not installing bloatware. I have also set up automatic scheduled anti-virus scans twice a day for any potential malware removal.
** When enabling or changing settings regarding- updating the Plex Media Server to a later version, updating firmware or drivers, removing malware, or changing your router’s settings, if these settings do not take effect straight away it is then best to restart your PC for changes to take effect, and/or a possible refresh of your router (but only if it is router related, I am not suggesting to continually play with your router), by turning off the power button at the back of the router, waiting 5-10 minutes and then turning it back on **
C) Configuring & enabling Plex Remote Access:
Important updates now added below (On 6-30-19):
Plex Remote Access may list it being “not accessible” at times on the Plex web server settings page. This “not accessible” listing may however not actually be a true representation of a steady remote access connection. My remote access has been working fine ever since applying the fixes that are listed in this guide, even if Plex shows Remote Access as being down.
If anyone continues to see this happen, try remotely connecting to your server via the official Plex phone app (for example, via your phone’s 3G/4G internet) and then playing something when it states as being “not accessible”. This may then prove that its not actually down.
And for people who are using Peerblock or another peer IP blocking program on their PC:
Please be aware that without an I-blocklist subscription and all relevant lists added being continually updated by their listed servers, servers such as Plex Remote Access likely won’t work properly.
At the same time, No ‘proxy’ blocklists, ‘IANA’ lists or possible blocklists that are listed from your country of origin (eg. a list named ‘Canada’), should be added and blocked from your list from the I-blocklist website.
Amazon server lists also need to be added, allowed and unblocked. This is only a reminder for people who do actually use a program such as Peerblock by the way.
Lists can be found here https://www.iblocklist.com/
————————————————
To correctly configure your Plex Remote Access Server, firstly the links to do so at Plex Support are:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200484543-Enabling-Remote-Access-for-a-Server
&
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200931138-Troubleshooting-Remote-Access
Plex Remote Access drop-outs may sometimes occur, so below is a currently active thread in solving these issues. I am not always on top of the Plex forum threads, so there may be other threads listed. Updating to the latest Plex Media Server when they are released is recommended, along with a restart of the PC as well:
How to manually forward the 32400 default Plex Remote Access port via the Windows 10 firewall:
The steps to allow a port through the firewall is also listed at: How To Open Firewall Ports In Windows 10 | Tom's Hardware
Navigate to Control Panel, System and Security and Windows Firewall, or simply type into the Windows Start Menu search box: wf.msc
-
[Updated 4-11-19]: Do this for both Inbound Rules and Outbound Rules in the left pane (so twice)
-
Under Actions, select New Rule
-
Select Port and click Next
-
Select TCP protocol and the Specific local port number of 32400 and click Next
-
Select Allow the connection in the next window and click Next
-
Select all 3 rules, Domain, Private and Public and click Next
-
Name the rule something like Plex TCP Allow and click Finish
The 32400 Port will now be open.Also, be sure to have, under the properties of the port rule ‘Plex TCP Allow’:
-
General tab > Enabled (ticked), Action = Allow the connection,
-
Protocols and ports > Protocol type = TCP,
-
Advanced > Profiles (all ticked), Edge traversal = DISABLED
(So just make sure they are set as above and best not to change any other settings)
Then check to see if your 32400 port is now open here:
*** Here is sa2000’s instructions on how to sort out the Plex, router and port settings required:
First forum thread: Remote Access keeps disabling
Second forum thread: https://forums.plex.tv/t/losing-remote-access-every-15-minutes-after-latest-update/105715/36
And TP-Link’s instructions on forwarding a port:
** [Edit 4-10-19]: **
One thing I have noticed is that Plex Remote Access may drop out at times and become unreliable in staying active as a steady connection, and this may be due to not manually adding your ISP’s DNS server addresses to your ethernet’s adapter properties section. So here’s how you can do it:-
- Find your ISP’s main server’s DNS IP addresses listed on Google, or at the following site. For example if you are with Dodo Internet, the DNS server addresses for whatever internet servers Dodo is using will be listed @ https://www.whatsmydns.net . You can find most DNS server addresses listed for your ISP (or ‘Internet Provider’) at this site.
- Then, once you have found the correct DNS server addresses (both Primary and Secondary digits), open Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > then Change Adapter Settings > then right click on your primary ethernet connection and choose Properties > then under Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4, or, in rare cases it may be under IPv6, if your ISP uses this type of connection, but it is unlikely) > Then ‘Use the following DNS server addresses’ and add the DNS server addresses you found, then click ok and restart your PC.
- This should then fix, in many cases, the drop outs that may happen within Plex Remote Access, including when you sleep your PC, and allow a remote user to wake and use the server at any given time.
** [Edit 4-16-19]: **
I have also found another good way to keep a steady connection with your ethernet’s internet connection and Plex Remote Access. This is by manually adding the DNS server addresses for your ISP (Internet provider) into the DHCP Server section of your router’s on-screen settings as well. Below is a screenshot of where to find this setting in a TP-Link Archer C1200’s on-screen router interface. For other routers you may find that these settings are located in a different section, depending on if a DHCP Server section does exist in your router’s settings. Since adding these DNS server addresses, my Plex Remote Access has been quite steady-
DHCP Address Reservation may occasionally interfere with one’s internet connection, so here is TP-Link’s instructions:
And Google your routers brand & model and ‘DHCP reservation’ to learn more about your particular setup.
If you continue to have issues with your internet connection, this article may be of help for other solutions- The Windows Report fix
D) Setting up Windows 10 sleeping habits:
For Windows 10s sleeping habits: Type ‘sleep’ in the start menu for ‘power and sleep settings’, and configure for the amount of time needed until the PC sleeps eg: 20 minutes, and you can also check the advanced sleep settings to configure any other settings that may be apparent, more info found here:
Here is also my own sleep settings FYI.
To configure your settings in the same fashion:
-
Locate the ‘Power & sleep’ setting tab in Windows 10 by going to Windows>Run: type ‘sleep’, choose ‘Power & sleep options’, then ‘Additional power settings’, then my preferred plan being ‘Balanced’.
-
Then choose ‘Change plan settings’, and my settings are: ‘Turn off the display’: 15 minutes, and ‘Put the computer to sleep’: 20 minutes.
-
Then choose ‘Change advanced power settings’:
-Hard disk:
Turn off hard disk after: 20 minutes
-Wireless adapter settings:
Power saving mode: Maximum performance
-Sleep:
Sleep after: 20 minutes
Allow hybrid sleep: Off
Hibernate after: Never
Allow wake timers: Disable
-USB settings:
USB selective suspend setting: Enabled
-Display:
Turn off display after: 15 minutes
Enable adaptive brightness: On
→ Multimedia settings: -
Option: Video playback quality bias: Video playback performance bias
-
Option: When playing video: Optimize video quality
[EDIT 6-23-19]: -
Option: When sharing media:
It seems for some people, a good way to get your PC to sleep is via the setting ‘Allow the computer to sleep’, and from what other people have mentioned, your server PC may still stay awake when media is being shared via remote access. I although are actually using the setting ‘Allow the computer to enter Away Mode’, which works well, and the PC still sleeps when not in use. I as well have also disabled the following setting under the Plex Server web settings > General section, which is “Support Away Mode when preventing system sleep”. Also, people may find that the setting (under the same Multimedia sleep settings): ‘Prevent Idling to sleep’ may also work as well, so its best just to see which option works best for you.For a great reference, please see the following thread where people have suggested a lot of great potential workarounds and fixes for when the Plex Server may prevent Windows from sleeping, and @laugope90_gmail_com 's suggestion who points out the ‘Allow the computer to sleep’ setting (thank you for this info, its much appreciated):
Plex Media Server prevents Windows 10 sleep/hibernation (both PC AND monitors) - #8 by laugope90_gmail_com
All other settings in this tab are then kept by default or how you want them (its probably best not to play around with rest of these settings).
E) Configuring and enabling your ethernet adapter:
Below is an update from a comment added recently regarding the correct NIC ethernet adapters to use, linked here: A guide to remotely waking & sleeping your Plex Windows 10 Server via Remote Access & WOL - #40 by SunnyDays 
::
Also, a ‘Realtek family controller’ or something different altogether may not be the correct adapter to have. People may have this on-board your motherboard, however a family controller is likely not the same as a NIC ethernet adapter. For anyone that has this listed in their device manager, you can always try this guide with such a family controller or what you may have on-board, but as mentioned I do not believe this particular device is the same as a NIC ethernet adapter, which allows for a true Windows waking process.
Here is a description from Quora.com that speaks of what a Family controller does-
https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-“Realtek-PCIe-FE-Family-Controller”-and-what-are-its-functions
And not to worry, if you don’t have a NIC ethernet adapter installed, there may be an easy fix for this. Below is a link that lists NIC ethernet adapter cards/and dongles available to buy online. Or you could simply head to your local computer shop and by it from them. This may be as easy as spending $20 on such a a device.
In Google, simply search for keywords such as ‘Buy NIC ethernet adapter online’, and then find an adapter card or a dongle (meaning a plug and play external USB stick-like device) which looks decent and usable. And remember, you get what you pay for.
Here is Amazon US’s store on internal NIC ethernet adapter cards-
https://www.amazon.com/Internal-Computer-Networking-Cards/b?ie=UTF8&node=13983711
I hope this then helps anyone that may be having issues with their particular internal LAN device configuration.
To configure your NIC ethernet adapter settings to correctly set things up:
-
Type ‘Device Manager’ in the start menu or via the control panel, then find the network adapter tab, and right click and go to properties on whatever your main ethernet adapter would be - for example mine is ‘Intel Ethernet Connection I218-V’, being a NIC ethernet adapter, which is likely to be needed to configure WOL & remote waking accordingly,
-
Then choose Driver > Update Driver. This may or may not find your current ethernet drivers via Windows Update, so it may be best to search for your official ethernet driver page, such as typing in “Ethernet driver [the version you have] download update” into Google, finding the official website to download the executable file and installing it properly, or using the application ‘Driver Easy’ as listed in Part B) which is indeed the best idea,
-
Then after it’s installed, under the power management tab in properties:
Power Management options:
→ It may have these options:
-‘Respond to ARP requests without waking system’ (is ticked)
-‘Respond to MS requests without waking system’ (is ticked)
-‘Energy efficient ethernet’ (unticked)
-‘Reduce link speed during system idle’ (unticked)→ But it could also have simpler options, and if so, configure them accordingly-
- ‘Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power’ (ticked)
- ‘Allow this device to wake the computer’ (ticked)
- And in most cases: ‘Only allow a magic packet to wake the computer’:
(being UNTICKED, as the PC should wake via “Pattern Match” Not “Magic Packet”)
Then, under the Advanced tab, there should be a list of properties. Keep everything as its default setting, except for the last 3 listings:
- ‘Wake on link settings’: DISABLED
- ‘Wake on magic packet’: DISABLED
- 'Wake on pattern match’: ENABLEDIt may be possible that on the odd occasion ‘Wake on magic packet’, and/or ‘Wake on link settings’ may address your particular setup, however in most cases ‘Wake on pattern match’ is the appropriate way the remote waking should occur.
If things do not change straight away, you may need to restart your PC for changes to take effect.
E.2) ** [Edit: 5-13-19} ** The full instructions of a TP-Link Archer’s on-screen router settings for clarification of what to enable via your own routers settings:
Below is 6 main TP Link Archer C1200 settings pages that are enabled for Plex Remote Access to work accordingly, thank you to @andcbii for pointing out that these instructions need to be clarified, its much appreciated.
These are the prominent settings that are required to be set up in order for Plex Remote Access to work properly. All other settings in your router’s on screen settings should be then not messed with, unless you know what you are doing, and have done your research, or your Internet Provider has told you to set things up a certain way.
- Under the Virtual Servers section, you can see that two different ports have been opened, the first being the default 32400 port, and then the second being port 7 and labeled as “WOL for binding”. This port needs to be opened to allow for WOL to bind, and both ports need to be added to this list,
- Then under Port Triggering, the same default port 32400 needs to be added to this section,
-
And in this third image below, you can see that ARP Binding is enabled, and the PC Server’s Mac Address has been added to the Binding List, and has also been linked under the ARP List. You can find out what your PC Server’s Mac Address is by following the instructions via this link:
- UPNP is then disabled,
- Next, NAT is then enabled, however NAT Boost is not (Also, CGNAT may be enabled on your Internet Providers end. It’s best to kindly ask them to disable this CGNAT feature on their end, otherwise Plex Remote Access may not work accordingly, and if CGNAT is enabled the Plex Server may pick it up and state that this feature is enabled under the Plex Server web app Remote Access settings section, and Remote Access may not work properly if it is enabled). DoS Protection settings is defaulted to its “Middle” settings under the Security section in the next image section, No 6) below,
- Then the routers SPI firewall and DoS protection is enabled as Remote Access should still work in many cases, so best to try to get it to work with it on first. If things are not working, you can also try to lower DoS Protection to the “Low” setting and see if that then helps.
F) Disabling all other Windows 10 wake timers:
Then here’s how to disable all wake timers within Windows 10, that being scheduled maintenance wake timer, a Windows update wake timer, so that your PC does not wake for any other reason other than for Plex Remote Access, as believe it or not Windows 10 PCs are waking randomly, especially overnight regularly now. You will most likely need to re-do this list once a big, or cumulative (or it may be other updates Windows installs too) update is installed, as usually the wake timers are reset each time. Please also read the instructions below this Superuser link first, including the “IMPORTANT” details before going ahead:
The link is:
IMPORTANT: There is also a Powershell script written by “Mousio” that you will find at the bottom of this linked page. Do NOT run this script, as it may disable Plex from being able to wake the PC from sleep and remotely play content, by disabling your ethernet adapter from waking your PC.
FOR ACCIDENTAL EMERGENCIES ONLY: If you accidentally end up running this script written by “Mousio”, and in turn have then accidentally disabled your ethernet connection from waking the PC, here is the CMD command that re-enables your ethernet adapter to be able to load the PC out of sleep
-
Under a administrative command prompt, (windows run: type ‘cmd’, right click for administrative rights) and type in:
powercfg–deviceenablewake “devicename”
for instance, this is the command that allows my Intel ethernet connection to re-wake the PC:
powercfg-deviceenablewake “Intel Ethernet Connection I218-V”*you would indeed replace the Intel Ethernet Connection command with the name of your ethernet adapter,
*and include quotation marks
The above link also has info on what to do when Windows may randomly wake, with answers from all pages 1-6.
** [Edit: 4-08-19] **
Ok, so after formatting my Windows drive recently, I also needed to get rid of an unruly waking problem waking my PC constantly after I put it to sleep. This is mentioned in the below link, however it does not describe the exact process I needed to accomplish to get rid of this waking issue-
Here is then the process of getting rid of the Windows ‘UpdateOrchestrator’ and ‘Reboot’ triggers that would wake my PC constantly:
Firstly, open a Command Prompt with administrative rights:
Windows Run> CMD (right click for administrative rights),
Then type:
takeown /f <directory> /r
<directory> being the following windows directory:
C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator
(This maybe located on a different system drive letter depending on your setup)
So, it should look like this:
takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator /r
Then the following:
icacls C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator /grant <user>:f /t
<user> being the email address associated with your windows login (or the administrators email address windows login for your PC).
Then, taken from the following link,
Do the following:
-
Right click the C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator folder Properties > Security > Advanced > Permissions > Tick “Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object” under EVERY PRINCIPAL that has FULL CONTROL enabled,
** [Edit: 5-16-19] ** 2. Then, under Security > Edit , give every “Group or User name” Full access to the allow abilities, meaning to tick every Allow box for every “Group or User name”,
2.1. Then delete the files in the UpdateOrchestrator folder manually, then the UpdateOrchestrator folder itself.
This then gets rid of the unruly waking issue that is triggered constantly when trying to keep the PC asleep. This will need to be re-done each time a cumulative or security Windows 10 update happens on your PC, to override and delete the commands to allow your PC to wake randomly for whatever reason. However, it may not completely rule out the ‘Backup Scan’ or ‘Reboot’ triggers listed in the below next step.
** [Edit: 5-16-19] ** The below next step may need to be re-disabled each time you restart and then go to sleep your PC. The below process although may or may not be relevant anymore due to completing the above step (and therefore deleting the UpdateOrchestrator folder itself):
It seems that Windows 10 has a habit of re-enabling a scheduled task in Powershell to re-wake the PC randomly or overnight (and sometimes being constantly) when a Windows update is installed, and therefore not actually being someone remotely connecting and waking up Plex. I have noticed that these Windows updates continue to re-enable the scheduled tasks on my PC from late 2018, to now the current update being any cumulative update. The culprit is that it re-enables a scheduled task in Powershell. Luckily I have found out how to disable this from occurring. As the above Superuser link states initially (but although does not cover everything listed below, I have added my own workaround to this fix):
"Step 3: Check Wake Timers in PowerShell:
You have disabled wake timer functionality, but Windows 10 has a habit of not respecting that setting, so to be safe, we’re going to run a PowerShell command to weed out all tasks that can, feasibly, wake your PC. Open an Administrative PowerShell command prompt (Start, type ‘Powershell’, Ctrl+Shift+Enter) and place this command in the window:
Get-ScheduledTask | where {$_.settings.waketorun}
Go through all the tasks it lists and remove their permission to wake your computer"
This is the Powershell command, by going to Windows Run > Powershell > right click to run as administrator, and then copying and pasting the above Powershell command. If you do see that a Windows update has re enabled a scheduled task, such as the “UpdateOrchestrator” TaskPath, here is the commands to use to disable whichever tasks are running:
Get-scheduledtask "Schedule Retry Scan" | Disable-ScheduledTask
or
Get-scheduledtask "Reboot" | Disable-ScheduledTask
or
Get-scheduledtask "Backup Scan" | Disable-ScheduledTask
Windows 10’s latest automatic updates are continually trying to not allow people to disable the above Powershell scheduled tasks, so that Windows can still wake your PC randomly when it wants to, for I am guessing maintenance requests. Luckily I have found another fix for when or if you get a ‘Permission denied’ paragraph of an error from Powershell when or if you may try applying the above command/s. The workaround is as follows, and the PSExec tools part is mentioned in this link:
Firstly, download the PSExec tools from this Microsoft website link:
Then once extracted, copy the ‘PSExec.exe’ file into the C:/Windows/System32 folder, and then run it with administrative rights (It’s a utility program that allows for Administrators to change these settings when needed, and it is a Microsoft utility program).
Then open an administrative command prompt (Windows Run> CMD, right click for administrative rights) and enter the following commands:
- 'PSEXEC /S CMD.EXE ’
(PSExec should load up within CMD)
- ‘SCHTASKS /Change /tn “\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Reboot” /DISABLE’
- And you should get the following message: “SUCCESS: The parameters of scheduled task “\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Reboot” have been changed”
or
- ‘SCHTASKS /Change /tn “\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Schedule Retry Scan” /DISABLE’
- And you should get the following message: “SUCCESS: The parameters of scheduled task “\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Schedule Retry Scan” have been changed”
or
- ‘SCHTASKS /Change /tn “\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Backup Scan” /DISABLE’
- And you should get message: SUCCESS: The parameters of scheduled task “\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Backup Scan” have been changed.
*And without the ’ ’ quotation marks.
Then, check the same Powershell command (in Powershell, not CMD this time) to see if the scheduled tasks such as “Reboot” & “Schedule Retry Scan” have now been removed, the command line again being:
Get-ScheduledTask | where {$_.settings.waketorun}
And if the scheduled tasks are still showing up (still enabled), just run the initial applicable Powershell command/s again to disable the scheduled task/s, those again being:
Get-scheduledtask "Schedule Retry Scan" | Disable-ScheduledTask
or
Get-scheduledtask "Reboot" | Disable-ScheduledTask
or
Get-scheduledtask "Backup Scan" | Disable-ScheduledTask
This should on most cases then disable these randomly waking-out-of-sleep Windows occurrences.
Also, if you find this happens again in the future - and I have recently noticed that these scheduled tasks are being re-enabled by certain Windows updates, re-applying the above commands is then recommended.
There is also another fix that you can make to disable wake timers, which is via your Windows 10 registry:
This registry edit fix was found from the following suggestion via the below link, and you may want to view this suggestion first before going ahead with it:
** [Edit 5-16-19] ** And the same fix also listed at this Microsoft Answers forum link:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_perf/windows-10-wakes-randomly-from-hibernate/247e69c3-cc7a-40db-b34e-43d8d60e6947?auth=1
The tweak is as follows:-
- Under Run, type: regedit,
- Then edit the registry key: hkey_local_machine\software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon and modify PowerdownAfterShutdown and change it to 1.
G) Plex Remote Access monitoring
Now if you simply have a Plex Pass, you can take advantage of integrated features in the Plex browser web app’s ‘Dashboard’ section under Settings, which acts much like the monitoring program Tautulli.
The official Plex Dashboard info can be found here, along with other Plex Pass features: https://www.plex.tv/plex-pass/
And regarding Tautulli:
To receive push notifications from your mobile device about various triggered events, such as remote access going down or back up, and updates from both the Plex admin as well any Plex remote friends/users, including media viewing notifications - notification agents, such as the ‘Pushover’ notification agent, can be used via their iOS or Android app and website, which can be set up via the monitoring program Tautulli, along with the ‘Remote for Tautulli’ mobile app found on the mobile app stores:
- More about Tautulli can be found here: https://tautulli.com ,
- The Pushover notification service can be found here: https://pushover.net ,
- Information on how to install Pushover, and all other integrated notification agents, built into Tautulli, can be found here: GitHub - Tautulli/Tautulli-Wiki: Wiki for Tautulli
- Information regarding the Remote for Tautulli App: Remote for Tautulli iOS App is here!
- And reddit’s info re the Remote for Tautulli App: Reddit - The heart of the internet
H) Hard drive health and maintenance
Hard drive health and maintenance (as listed in the comments below as well):
I have also configured my external hard drives, via a decent USB hub with USB3.0 ports, to also load when the PC loads, and then they sleep after 20 minutes of non-activity also, being that while the PC is still awake or not.
Internal or external HDDs do not live forever, they have a certain lifespan and if one does install this software they may notice that one or some of their HDDs are actually getting older - between 100% - 0% life, hard drives do fail and you may then loose your data on this particular drive, unless it’s backed up, or you have the below program installed with warning alerts setup via the applications settings.
A great HDD monitoring tool for ones HDDs health, for surface error scans, to potentially fix bad sectors and to re-initialize the drive, but also being mindful of using such these bad sector fixing features, as knowing how to use it and doing your research is vital, as the drive itself may not last under the tests involved, and to monitor if certain or all HDDs are sleeping or not via their desktop status window, is the ‘Hard Disk Sentinel Pro’ Windows application, found here:
I) Internet & network bandwidth monitoring
I would recommend using a bandwidth monitoring program for Windows, as it allows you to see accurate real-time download and upload speeds via line and bar graphs, and network bandwidth for any given moment, and logs your internet usage as save-able logs and reports as well.
I have found a great ‘previously free-ware’ program called Networx, and the version I am using being version 5.5.5 64 bit. This software works fine for me, and has a good always-on-top desktop graph that is fully customizable. It’s good to also go through the settings and customize as you please.
NetWorx became a paid application with its first paid version 6.0.0 released January 1st, 2017; although the last freeware version is 5.5.5 and that was released on 9-20-2016, found here:
This software is now an application that does cost money to initially buy, but would indeed recommend purchasing this much-valued software, and it also includes a 30 day trial, found here:
Other alternatives are listed below, Networx being the second most popular the last time I checked this site, and GlassWire being the most popular, and looking like decent software too, and also being a paid application. The link title states ‘Bitmeter alternatives’, however Bitmeter 2 is in my eyes now too outdated and has too many bugs to properly utilize:
https://alternativeto.net/software/bitmeter-2/
=================================
Part J) is now located near the bottom of the comments section, due to reaching the limit to how much one can post in the main thread’s body text, and is linked here: A guide to remotely waking & sleeping your Plex Windows 10 Server via Remote Access & WOL - #62 by SunnyDays
=================================
This then covers everything for your Windows 10 PC to be able to sleep properly, and then wake only when you or a Plex remote friend/user triggers a Plex local or remote request when using your server, and then sleeping once not in use, eg. after 20 minutes of non-activity. This has been confirmed of working properly by not only myself but various other users.
