[BUG] Setting "Custom server access URLs" with a Port other than 32400 causes Android devices to stop displaying Posters

Plex Media Server Remote Access
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Server Version#: 1.25.4.5468
Player Version#: 8.29.0.30433 (Android as well as AndroidTV)

I had set “Custom server access URLs” to “https://myurl:32000,http://myurl:32000,http://myexternalP:32000,http://myexternalP:32000”

This caused my server to do this whenever I open a library on my Android-Devices:
Jan 31, 2022 20:07:09.200 [0x7f99efbdcb38] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:32000/library/metadata/52429/thumb/1643452740
Jan 31, 2022 20:07:09.200 [0x7f99ef935b38] WARN - [HttpClient] HTTP error requesting GET http://127.0.0.1:32000/library/metadata/52429/thumb/1643452740 (7, Couldn’t connect to server) (Failed to connect to 127.0.0.1 port 32000: Connection refused)

When I do the same thing on a browser-player (or the Windows PLEX Player), it uses the correct (internal) address.

Interestingly enough, once I remove my Custom URL entries, the server queries the correct address when browsing on android.

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  1. Don’t use \ in the URL. Use proper // notation.
  2. Don’t use port numbers. Plex.tv and the apps know which ports to use (as brokered by Plex.tv)
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Regarding 1:
I used // - that was a mistake typing it up here (probably wouldn’t have at all)

Regarding 2:
Documentation explicitly states to include the port:

The implicit option of defaulting to Remote-Access pages port is only mentioned as a tip, which means that it should work the way I originally used it.

All of that doesn’t matter though, fact is:
Setting a remote access URL shouldn’t affect the way pictures are queried for an Android-Client. It should especially not change to something that isn’t even set there.

It doesn’t even affect the Actors pictures by the way. Literally everything else works…

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I’ll address that with them.

If you’re letting Plex broker your sharing, you don’t need the port. It already knows which port.

If you’re doing it manually – then sure.

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I have an update:
I tested it like here suggested without the port.

Exactly the same result.
All my clients work, but Android clients don’t get pictures after they restart.
Interestingly enough, they do get new pictures as long as they aren’t restarted.

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Related post.

In that post, excluding the port from the custom server access url caused plex to use port 80 for the photo transcoder loopback address.

But that thread never figured out why the photo transcoder loopback address is using a port other than 32400.

@Volts was unable to reproduce it. I also tried to reproduce it independently but was unsuccessful (I didn’t post about my attempt).

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I’m not sure if it’s clear from that other post - or if this is what you were doing - but don’t include the server’s actual IP addresses in the Custom Server Access URLs field.

Plex gets weird when you do that.

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Regardless of what is entered in the Custom server access URLs, there should be absolutely no reason Plex is calling a port other than 32400 for the photo transcoder when using the loopback address 127.0.0.1. It should only be using a different port of its requesting a transcoded image from a different IP / URL.

I decompile the Android apk today and found the lines of code where it calls the photo transcoder. It appears that the app is parsing the port from the connection url then appending it as 127.0.0.1:PORT when it should likely be hardcoded to 127.0.0.1:32400. This is just my interpretation as decompiled code is difficult to follow.

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