Thanks for the interest. I have enabled verbose logging in the web client but the problem has decided not to show up today. As stated earlier in this thread, sometimes it won’t happen at all, sometimes only once and other times over and over. It is very fickle for a component that I expect to be stored on my local drive and not changing every day.
Regardless, the next time it occurs I will capture the logs and provide them.
OK, it happened again today. I downloaded the logs (after logging in to the Plex server using a different method, since I AM having a problem CONNECTING!)
All I did was to Right-Click the Plex Media Server icon in the system tray and choose “Open Plex.” I was asked to choose a user and then to enter my PIN (for the owner/admin user account) and then I was given “no soup for you” … In order to download the logs I then restarted the browser and connected using the app through the Plex web site.
PS: Since Plex is a living, changing entity, the documentation should also be living and changing. However, the instructions for how to download the logs are wrong. They say to use Settings->Server->Help but the only download link I found was on Settings->Server->Troubleshooting. Not trying to be whiny here, but some customers will be baffled by screen shots of (and instructions for) no longer existing version of the product.
PPS: It could be extremely difficult to use the Plex Web Client to configure and collect diagnostics when one is trying to resolve problems with the Plex Web Client connecting to the server. You REALLY need to design a better way to collect diagnostics that doesn’t rely on something that can [apparently] easily break.
The upload didn’t work. Trying again…Plex Media Server Logs_2019-04-07_17-33-39.zip (4.1 MB)
I’m sorry, but that’s the wrong log. The problem you are having appears to be an issue with Plex Web, not your server. I need the log from the Web app. See the link I provided above.
Sorry for my mistake. I used the only “download logs” link I could find, not realizing that the Web Client does not include such a feature for its log(s).
I would actually think it is BOTH the server and client. Since the problem only manifests when the client connects directly to the server, it would appear that something the server is providing to the client has a problem or requires something from the internet – which it should not.
Regardless, when I went back to look, something had disable logging in the web client (could a Plex Media Server update cause that or did it somehow turn logging off for itself?) I re-enabled it (only Enabled, not Debug level, so let me know if I should set it to Debug level.) Now I will wait until the problem triggers again and try to upload the *correct *logs next time. Again, sorry for my error.
One question, though… Will the log contain at least the previous few sessions? Because it is IMPOSSIBLE to obtain the requested log while the problem exists because the problem is that I do not have access to the web client. Ergo, I am required to connect using the web client through the Plex web site instead of direct from the PMS “Open Plex” link. If that makes the logs different than you need, then what you want may not be possible unless you have a way that doesn’t require me to use the functionality that is not working to report on itself.
The logging in the Web client doesn’t persist. It’s saved into memory, not a file like PMS. It will disable itself after some time. I thought you were able to recreate the issue on demand. If it only happens sometimes, then it’s going to be hard to catch. I will need the setting to be set to “debug”.
But you do have access to the client, just not the server. You should still be able to get to the page to grab the web logs. But like I said above, if you can’t reproduce this while the setting is enabled, you won’t be able to get the logs covering the error.
Another option is to use Plex Media Player. It has a desktop mode which is just like Plex Web and runs locally so it might do the same. It also logs some info to a local log file so that might help.
[A] The only options for the settings are “Disabled”, “Enabled”, and “Verbose” so choosing “Debug” is going to be tricky.
[B] I thought it was clear from the beginning that this “no soup for you” issue is very inconsistent. The issue appears to last until I successfully connect, somehow, then it may not occur again for days or might occur again within an hour. The most frustrating thing about this is that supposedly, this is using only the local Plex Media Server as host for the web pages and NOTHING from the internet. Given that, different behavior from run to run is EXTREMELY frustrating, since one would expect it to either work or not work for a given version of the PMS and browser, but the behavior of the web client may change even with nothing but time changing.
[C] The primary reason this is an issue is that it is the primary method provided with the Plex Media Server to manage the server from the local computer. I have trouble trusting anything in the product if I cannot trust local access to the management interface to function when invoked directly from the program itself! If it is not possible to manage a Plex server without internet access, I think that needs to be made very clear to customers.
Oops sorry. Enabled = debug
We are looking into the issue. It might be a race condition somewhere, but these are hard to identify.
Internet is not always required, but it is in certain situations. These situations are described in our support article, https://support.plex.tv/articles/200484903-internet-and-network-requirements/.
I just got the exact same issue as well. Today was the first time getting it, and I agree, when the problem is I can’t access the SETTINGS while opening it up on the PC running my plex server, there is something really wrong. I followed the advice of someone on this thread and connecting to the https version works, at least for now.
I started seeing this problem a few weeks ago maybe? and today found this thread. I was hoping it ended with a solve, but apparently not. Adding my name to the list of people who has the problem. I have no new information, @nurbles described it perfectly.
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