A lengthy photo library just disappears, when connecting remotely.

General Discussions
1

I have the latest version of the Plex server installed on my Linux / Debian 8 computer, which is working fine more-or-less. I have created a Movies Library with two Folders, plus a Photos Library, which eventually contains thousands of photos - the latter, because I felt that setting it p as a Plex Library would be easier, than to store all those photos directly on all my Android devices.

I use the Android app, as well as the Plex Roku app, to access both Libraries successfully, from within my LAN.
When I try to Browse m Photos Library from a remote location however - i.e., from my Android Phone when not connected to my LAN, the result is slightly different. In this case, at first the app shows me my Photos Library - as I wanted, By Date, but then, after I have scrolled the Photos beyond a certain time in the recent past, let’s say 1% backward in the timeline of the Library, the app resets itself, and next acts as if my server possessed no Libraries at all. It does show me my Home Screen correctly tough.

I can reset the app, after which it shows me that the server possesses its Libraries again, because only after I reset the app, does it requery the server for what Libraries the server has. And it then does so successfully again, while still connecting remotely.

OTOH, If I try to start viewing m Movies remotely, where I really only have 2 in my Library, playback is without problems of any kind.

One suspicion I have, is that this could be due somehow to the connection having to be Secure, which I set to Required on both sides, and which I insist on having. After all, when I connect to the server from within my LAN, the connection is Not secured via encryption, and the problem doesn’t take place.

Also, the Libraries never actually disappear from the server, so it seems to be some sort of connection issue.

Can anybody else shed light on this?

Dirk

( Edit : )

Instead of inviting a lengthy diagnostic procedure for the time being, I decided to change a setting, and to see next, whether the behavior improves.

What I did was to ‘Disable HTTP Pipelining’, which was Enabled by default (and immediately to restart the server). Yet, my ability to test this settings-change was slowed down by the fact, that I only leave the comfort of my home, and my LAN, occasionally. When I next stepped outside, I got to test, whether this works as a full solution.

Result: The behavior did not change. :frowning:

2

(Bump)

I have just updated to the latest Plex version for Linux / Debian, from 1.9.1 to 1.9.2 . Also, I have re-enabled ‘HTTP Pipelining’ , since that setting was obviously not causing the problem. But as I wrote before, I cannot know the results of this, until I leave my home next, since the problem only takes place when connecting remotely. So I’ll have to give this thread an update, after I next test Plex from a remote location.

Also, I’m noticing that within the past 2 days, the Android app, which I’ve been basing this thread on, has also received an update. After the update to the app, the refreshing of thumbnails has changed, when Browsing my Photos Library - from within my own LAN. Since the malfunction has been taking place, while doing so, when thumbnails were merely updating, the update to the app itself could be significant, and could also change the behavior, when connecting remotely.

Result: The malfunction has stopped happening. Further, while outside my home, I also did the test of sliding the progress-scrubber half-way down the lengthy list of thumbnails - deep into photos I took in 2006 or 2004 - and then of scrolling those up and down. And the link remained stable.

Yay! :smile:

Dirk

3

This morning I found that the Android client-app has received another update, to learn later on that this update had as purpose, to add the News entry above my Home entry in the side-bar.

This is a good thing.

But unfortunately, this update also caused the malfunction to reappear, which I first wrote about in this thread, and which an earlier update had solved. :confused:

Dirk

(Edit 09/29/2017 : ) Even though I can’t explain why, this bug just seemed to disappear again - which would also make attempts useless, to try pinpointing what might have been causing it at first.

Sorry to waste people’s time.