A guide to remotely waking & sleeping your Plex Windows 10 Server via Remote Access & WOL

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
43

I have now updated the guide again (on 4-4-19):-

  • Please see Parts C) for the updated section about manually forwarding a port in the Windows 10 firewall settings,
  • And Part E) for the updates on configuring and enabling your ethernet adapter.

And @leandronb , thanks for your patience, I have now listed the steps to take regarding your network adapter properties in Part E).

Also, I am looking to add sections soon about:

  • How to properly configure USB selective suspend for individual HDDs to sleep when not in use, say after 20 minutes, even when the PC/Server is still awake,
  • How to be able to view in CMD (Command prompt) when the PC/Server has anything stopping it from sleeping properly,
  • How to rectify the waking issue of when the PC wakes out of sleep and has the error in CMD of “[DRIVER] legacy kernel caller power manager”

I am also now aware of the DLNA server not allowing Windows 10 to sleep properly when it is enabled, and are currently awaiting feedback on how to resolve this. Please see this thread and post to see if you can solve my request of knowing what the full script listing of the DLNA config code is, as I too are unsure:

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I have now added an important section to the guide (on 4/08/19):

Part F) Now has a section that solves an unruly waking problem that constantly wakes the PC when going to sleep the PC for any friends in need of remote access.

& I will be adding the other mentioned parts soon, likely this week,
Enjoy

45

I have now also added an important section to the guide (on 4-10-19):

Under Configuring & enabling PMS Remote Access,

- Part C) Now has a section that fixes Plex Remote Access from dropping out in many cases, including when you sleep the PC and allow remote users to wake and use the server.

:+1:

46

A new fix has now been added to the guide (on 4-11-19):

In Manually forwarding a port in the Windows 10 firewall settings,

- Part C) Now has an important added addition to the 32400 port configuration in Windows Firewall.

:))

47

A new important fix has now been added to the guide (on 4-16-19):

Under Configuring & enabling Plex Remote Access,

- Part C) Also now has an important fix for your router’s on-screen interface to keep Plex Remote Access running steady

:))

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Is there a update you can download to fix it ?

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This is what fixed it for me. After hours of banging my head and buying a new NIC, I just needed to change this to private. Now it wakes up when I access it. :clap:

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Ah @InDaZone please excuse me for not adding this fix that @stanleywebb has listed in the comments, sooner, to the actual guide. I’ll add it now, and thanks for letting me know, your feedback is much appreciated!

  • An important fix has now been added to the guide (on 4-27-19):
    - Part A.2) Has now been added and has an important fix to make sure that your Windows Network type is set to Private not Public
1 Like
52

No problem. Appreciate this guide. It’s a great check list. Very helpful to sort everything out.

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53

You are so welcome man! Anything for people like you and the Plex community! :orange_heart: :slightly_smiling_face:

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I can tell A LOT of work went into this post and I want to say thank you! I do have one suggestion. You very clearly lay out 99% of what needs to get done, but at no point do you explicit mention opening port 7 on your router. Please add some text to E.2. Please note I’ve seen others post that it’s port 9…

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Hi to @andcbii ,

Thanks for pointing out that these router instructions need to be clarified and updated. I appreciate your advise and compliment!
I have now added new instructions:

- Part E.2) Has now been updated with new instructions of a TP-Link Archer’s on-screen router settings for clarification of what to enable via your own routers settings, thank you everyone for your patience.

56

Bookmarked, I’ve played with getting Wake on Pattern Match to work of and on since 2017. But always failed, with my server always randomly waking up from other devices on my network.

WIll try when I get some time.

Thanks OP

57

@vinhla - Good luck buddy & all the best.

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An important addition has now been added to the guide (on 6-23-19):

- Part D) Now has a important addition that lists the best options to select when trying to get Windows to sleep properly, and also the best options to not allow the Plex Server to prevent Windows from sleeping.

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Great guide thanks. Spent a couple of hours today going through it with a fine tooth comb an on my very first test it worked!

1 Like
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Hey, that is my pleasure man! Your v welcome, and I am glad to be of help! :smile:

61

Two new important updates have now been added to the guide (on 6-30-19):

- Part C) Now has two new important updates, including what is and is not actually a true representation of when Plex Remote Access becomes unavailable, and what you need to do if you do use Peerblock or another peer-IP blocking software, and what is needed to be configured if you want Remote Access to work properly

62

Part J) is now located here in the comments, due to reaching the limit to how much one can post in the main thread’s body text:

J) Power surges that may possibly happen to your PC/Server during a thunder and lightning storm

If a storm happens in your area, and if lightning strikes your electricity in your home or surrounding area, you may find that hardware incidents may happen to your PC/Server/or hard drives. Previously I had left my PC server on while there was a storm, and unfortunately lightning happened to hit quite close to the house. My PC was actually sleeping, however even in sleep mode lightning can affect the hardware of computers. I found that one of my internal HDDs lost its health from 85% to 53%. I then decided to do a surface scan (a bad idea at the time) with the above Hard disk sentinel pro software, however seeing that the hard drive was affected by lightning, after the scan was completed the health of the drive went even further down, to 27%… so its best to be wise with how you look after your hardware, and when to use the scanning and disk repairing features of this program as well.

A good amount of information regarding computers left on while there is a thunder and lightning storm, including what power boards you should be using, such as surge protection devices (SPDs) that may stop any electricity surge from happening, along with an attached UPS device to protect equipment against power surges, can be found at the link below. The UPS details were suggested by @TrialMaster in the comments below, so many thanks for this suggestion:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/06/11/3760939.htm

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@SunnyDays, I’ve tried every possible configuration of settings following your guide and I cannot get it to work.

OS: Windows 10 1903 build 18362.295
Mobo: Asrock X570 Phantom Gaming 4
Processor: Ryzen 3600
LAN: Intel I211 Gigabit (on mobo, driver from intel, 1/1/2019, version 12.15.184.1)
Plex: 1.16.4.1469
Router: Archer c7 v2 with DD-WRT (build 30082)

I should also note that I built this computer 10 days ago with a fresh install of Windows, so I highly doubt there is registry or setting creep from an old build (which I know can cause problems with wake/sleep as your excellent guide points out solutions to). It sleeps and wakes perfectly from power button/keyboard inputs.

I have successfully configured:

  1. BIOS Wake on LAN enabled
  2. Static IP for the Plex server (remote access confirmed working in Plex Dashboard)
  3. Private Network over ethernet in Windows
  4. Both Firewall Rules (incoming and outbound)
  5. Port Forwards
  6. Port Triggers
  7. Ethernet adapter settings (Wake on Link Disable, Wake on Magic Packet disable (tried enable as well), wake on pattern match enable)

My issue, I think, is that something with DDWRT on my router (Archer c7 v2) is conflicting with your recommendations on how to setup ARP.

From this DD-WRT WOL wiki, it appears that the ARP binding should be set to a DIFFERENT IP address than the Plex Server.

In the DD-WRT WOL tutorial, the wake port forward (9 in their case) is forwarded NOT to the Plex server IP but instead to it’s own IP which has been setup in the ARP table (in the example, 192.168.1.254).

In addition, the MAC used in the “broadcast” from the ARP table (not 100% certain what this means but it’s what it is called in the tutorial) is FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF, which is explicitly supposed to be NOT the same as the MAC of the Plex Server (aka. triggered device)

I have tried pure DD-WRT tutorial setup (port forward, ip, and MAC all set as they recommend, DIFFERENT from Plex server), a mixture (all possible combinations of your setup and DD-WRT tutorial on port,IP,MAC) and also just your setup (port, IP, MAC all from plex server).

I’ve also confirmed that with pure DD-WRT tutorial settings, I can use a website like http://mobile.wakeonlan.me/?ip=HOSTNAME&mac=MACADDRESS (with my specific plex server details entered) and it WILL wake the computer.

Unfortunately, opening plex on a local or remote client in ANY of the configurations does NOT trigger wake from sleep.

I’m at a loss what else to try.

Any thoughts? Am I missing something obvious?