Android devices cannot Cast Plex to Chromecast

General Discussions
1

Been searching for a while, as I’ve had this issue for several months. Since we also have an iPhone and iPod Touch, and they are readily available, I just reach for them when the Android devices fail (which is all of the time now).

Not a single Android device using the Plex app can Cast to Chromecast.

It might be easier to explain what does work, so y’all can understand what doesn’t.

Plex App for iOS and Android has the following that works perfectly fine (Nexus 10, Nexus 7 FHD, Nexus 5X, iPhone 6, iPhone 5S, iPod Touch 4th gen, Surface 3 LTE w/Windows 10).

  • can play any movie, TV show and music.
  • can play under Limited User under Android.
  • can switch users (local users for family members, single Plex Pass account).
  • can sync across all devices.
  • can sync to limited user account on Android.

In addition, all Android devices can Cast anything else to Chromecast such as: Netflix, Google Photos, the actual Screen/device view itself, Google Play (Music and videos), YouTube, etc. Only Plex on Android cannot Cast.

Basically, the Windows, Android and iOS Plex apps work perfectly fine for any normal use on those devices.

Only iOS Plex apps can Cast to Chromecast.

However, my Android devices cannot Cast to Chromecast (Windows 10 cannot Cast, without the Chrome Extension that is).

This is an issue across all of my Android devices, as noted above:

  • Nexus 10
  • Nexus 7 FHD
  • Nexus 5X

All of the Android devices have the latest versions of:

  • 6.0.1 firmware.
  • Plex app.
  • Chromecast devices firmware.
  • Plex Server is technically 1 version behind, but I didn’t see anything in the update notes about this.

NOTE: This all worked fine last year, with the older Chromecast. During Christmas, I bought and installed the updated version of the Chromecast. Nothing worked then as everything needed to be reconfigured. Only over the last few months have I sat down and gone through all the devices to connect them to the new Chromecast. not sure if the issue is related to changing devices, or Plex app update.

NOTE2: I’ve never got “Secure” connections or whatever that is working. I constantly have random issues across Windows 10, Android and iOS devices trying to use the Plex all. Completely unstable. It is so bad that the first thing I do when install Plex on any of these devices is to immediately jump into settings and “Allow Insecure Connections.”

NOTE3: I do not allow Remote Connections to Plex Server (basically, I disable the remote connections thing that does UPnP and opens a port). I use all of my devices on OpenVPN using my router and that handles all of our remote needs, and very securely.

2

Spent a lot of time with it today…

I can and have always been able to “Connect” to the Chromecast device from within Plex by pressing the Cast button. But, I am not able to send anything to it.

The common error on the Chromecast is “unable to play media” and “media not found” on the Plex app for Android. BS, I can play it locally.

If I reboot an Android device, and power cycle Chromecast, then I can get Plex to connect…

…But, the above does not work for Limited Accounts on Android (Android user accounts that are “Limited”, like my 4 year old’s account where she can watch Plex). Nothing I can do will allow Plex to Cast to Chromecast under an Android Limited User, nothing. You can still " connect", but you can’t as end any data/image/video to Chromecast.

Limited users used to be able to stream from Plex. So that’s a regression.

…and now that you tried to connect under a limited account, no other Android device can cast. It “connects”, but now they all get the same errors above: unable to find media and unable to play media.

But yet at anytime, I can grab an iOS device, connect to the Chromecast, a d play anything.

Also note that once an iOS device connects to the Chromecast, the Android Plex app will connect but no longer play. I " rebooted" everything like before, could log into an Admin account on Android a d Plex-Connect-Stream just fine. I connected with iOS and streamed just fine. I then connect with Android Plex again, but now I can’t find the media/unable to play errors all over again.

This is obviously a Plex App for Android issue.

3

Just to bump this up, we are still experiencing the same problem on the two Android devices.

4

Can you provide the log from the Android app after trying to cast?

5

Over a year with this issue… Started around November 2015! It is ONLY with Plex Android client. 100% of all other apps can cast with zero issues. Server logs showed no attempt at a connection.

Only yesterday did I stumble upon someone else with the exact same problem… and a fix!

**## Disable the Router’s DNS Rebind Security Feature## **

Obviously this raises alarms. More and more routers these days are starting to enable this security feature out of the box. DNS rebinding - Wikipedia

Since I run custom firmware on my router, i was able to leave DNS Rebinding Prevention enabled, and bypass it for Plex by adding this to my DNSMasq settings:

rebind-domain-ok=/myhomedomainsuffix/anotherdomainsuffix/
(I run two domains in my local home, so I added both above, separated by “/” - read DNSMasq help for more information on how to enable this security bypass)

This tells DNSMasq to allow DNS attacks on those specific domains. Which now, I have to allow attacks on my own local domain to get Plex working. :frowning:

I had to do this for work because work uses Local Non-Routable IP addresses (10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x, 192.168.x.x) registered to public DNS domains for AWS for our VPN. That was ok.

Technically, I guess this is ok to do locally as technically I am resolving DNS names to local IP addresses. But, it has worked completely up to this point with other local development and domain lookups.

THIS IS A PLEX BUG, USING THE WRONG IP/DNS CASTING URL

It must be the streaming URL that Plex is giving to Chromecast to stream from (e.g. my local server on my local network), trying to point to a made-up server name or something non-standard.

Trying to think what else may be streaming locally on the local network only as a test… The only app I can come up with is Android OS itself: it is able to cast itself, the entire screen, to Chromecast. And this works flawlessly including sound!

^- We’ve actually tried watching several movies from Plex like this, as this was the only way to get Plex on Chromecast: by casting the entire Android screen. :frowning:

Up until now that is, now that I have enabled the security bypass to allow DNS rebinding attacks on my local network - Plex now works. :frowning:

This is NOT resolved. This bug must be fixed.

6

@eduncan911 said:
Over a year with this issue… Started around November 2015! It is ONLY with Plex Android client. 100% of all other apps can cast with zero issues. Server logs showed no attempt at a connection.

Only yesterday did I stumble upon someone else with the exact same problem… and a fix!

**## Disable the Router’s DNS Rebind Security Feature## **

Obviously this raises alarms. More and more routers these days are starting to enable this security feature out of the box. DNS rebinding - Wikipedia

Since I run custom firmware on my router, i was able to leave DNS Rebinding Prevention enabled, and bypass it for Plex by adding this to my DNSMasq settings:

rebind-domain-ok=/myhomedomainsuffix/anotherdomainsuffix/
(I run two domains in my local home, so I added both above, separated by “/” - read DNSMasq help for more information on how to enable this security bypass)

This tells DNSMasq to allow DNS attacks on those specific domains. Which now, I have to allow attacks on my own local domain to get Plex working. :frowning:

I had to do this for work because work uses Local Non-Routable IP addresses (10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x, 192.168.x.x) registered to public DNS domains for AWS for our VPN. That was ok.

Technically, I guess this is ok to do locally as technically I am resolving DNS names to local IP addresses. But, it has worked completely up to this point with other local development and domain lookups.

THIS IS A PLEX BUG, USING THE WRONG IP/DNS CASTING URL

It must be the streaming URL that Plex is giving to Chromecast to stream from (e.g. my local server on my local network), trying to point to a made-up server name or something non-standard.

Trying to think what else may be streaming locally on the local network only as a test… The only app I can come up with is Android OS itself: it is able to cast itself, the entire screen, to Chromecast. And this works flawlessly including sound!

^- We’ve actually tried watching several movies from Plex like this, as this was the only way to get Plex on Chromecast: by casting the entire Android screen. :frowning:

Up until now that is, now that I have enabled the security bypass to allow DNS rebinding attacks on my local network - Plex now works. :frowning:

This is NOT resolved. This bug must be fixed.

You were asked for logs from a Plex employee 8 months ago. Maybe if you provided them…

7

Please check out the bottom of our support article discussing DNS rebinding. https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/206225077-How-to-Use-Secure-Server-Connections