I had to make some additional changes to my firewall to support the NAT hair pining to get mine to work. The echo definitely looks to be making it’s request to the outside WAN interface when it starts to play the music and if your router cannot turn that around correctly then it will not work. This definitely appears to be a problem in how the Echos are told to connect to the PMS. All the other internal clients don’t have that issue.
no change for me 
Given the feedback on the amazon skill and the lack of any effort by Plex to even discuss the issue, pretty disappointed in Plex support and wish there was an alternative…
I can’t get Plex to play thru Alex speaker
There doesn’t look like an answer here
I’m switching to “My Media for Alexa” which does work
Got it working…
Plex – Plex (FreeNAS 9.1 jail, running Plex Server 1.11.0.4633)
Echo – Amazon Echo (Gen 1) - Alexa Skill
Router – Ubiquiti Edgerouter-X
Wireless – Ubiquiti UnFi AC-PRO
Router – Set Firewall/NAT – Port Forwarding –
Enable hairpin NAT – ON
Port Forwarding Rule – 32400 BOTH 32400
Plex Server – Server Settings – Remote Access – Advanced
Enable Remote Access
Manually specify public port : 32400
Seems to be working fine… been streaming from my FLAC collection (and transcoding) for about an hour - no truncated tracks or cut outs…
(Without the router settings - Hairpin or port-forwarding, Alexa would say “Playing music by ‘The Cure’”, spin blue for a bit, and stay completely silent)
Hope this helps
I think I’ve done everything I can to set this up. My router (Virgin Media 3.0 hub) doesn’t appear to have a NAT hairpin setting. My plex server confirms it’s enabled for remote access via a manual port, an external port scanner confirms my chosen external port is open but still alexa on my echo dot 2nd generation does not see itself as an available player. My echo dot can is connected to my plex server and offers to play on other devices such as a web browser if it happens to be connected to my plex server or a Kindle for example but not itself. Anything I’ve missed? This seems too difficult to set up.
@mmaskery said:
I think I’ve done everything I can to set this up. My router (Virgin Media 3.0 hub) doesn’t appear to have a NAT hairpin setting. My plex server confirms it’s enabled for remote access via a manual port, an external port scanner confirms my chosen external port is open but still alexa on my echo dot 2nd generation does not see itself as an available player. My echo dot can is connected to my plex server and offers to play on other devices such as a web browser if it happens to be connected to my plex server or a Kindle for example but not itself. Anything I’ve missed? This seems too difficult to set up.
The Echo is never listed as an available player. I believe it defaults to it if no player is referred to in your verbal command to Alexa. To test - turn off all your players and then say “Alexa, ask Plex to play music by ???” (??? Being an artist in your library).
Does the Echo play, or at least states it’s playing even if no sound is heard?
Try switching off IPv6
I had the problem listed above where Alexa would say a song will start playing, but there wouldn’t be any audio. After switching off “Enable server support for IPv6” in Plex, under Network settings for the server, it started working.
I’m doing IPv6 over a 6to4 relay, so maybe the instability of a relay caused the problem.
It works! Tried what @Geoff555 suggested and it started playing through the echo.
Should I be concerned about Hairpinning - I see no reference to it on my BT HomeHub (5), and my setup is sort of working, albeit not very consistently…?
Any suggestions for those of us who are not networking-savvy? I actually took a networking class back in college, but had to drop it because I could never understand what the teacher or book was trying to get me do. I’ve tried to follow the suggestions in this forum to get my Echo dot to play music from my Plex library, but I don’t understand how to do most of the things which are suggested. I’ve sent several hours researching this, and all I come across are more terms and numbers that I don’t understand how to use or implement.
Hi there, have been looking at playing plex music via my echo and found many of the same problems others have experienced on the forum - ie alexa will find the music and tell you its playing but no sound. Reading between the lines - I think the problem lies in the fact that the echo is trying to find your plex server externally not internally even though they are on the same network. I can play films from plex on my firestick using alexa for some time but the music required a little tweak on my modem(Virgin Media hub 3).
First make sure that remote access in plex server is active (green) and defaulted to private port 32400, public port 10742 (this port may be different for you. This is the port that plex server has allocated)
Then set up port forwarding in your router - advanced setting/security/port forwarding (this will be different depending on your router. Make the rule - local ip address(address of your static plex server), internal port 32400, external port 10742, both protocols and confirm.
This will then point any external calls to the plex server to where your server actually is.
I think this problem does not lie with plex or alexa or the alexa skill, but with the fact that the echo has been designed for an external input(from outside your network - ie the amazon servers) and has to be told that the plex server is inside the network (port forwarding). Have been using this with albums and searching for individual artists and will play track after track.
NB: I have used a static ip address for my server but as long as the port forwarding is updated if the server address moves, it should work with dynamic addresses.
Hope this helps
Yes, remote access needs to be enabled and functioning…
Alexa lives in the cloud, not your LAN.
No need for Dynamic as Plex handles this every time it phones home.
I started using My Media for ALEXA per a suggestion I found here.
Skip Plex for playing music on Alexa and use My media. It is only $5 per year and it works
https://www.mymediaalexa.com/
If they can get this to work why cant plex?
My understanding of mymediaalexa is that it is designed to be run on a
computer, whereas Plex can be run on a NAS - which I’m assuming is what
most people here do…
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Andrew
I just reposted my post from another topic “Amazon Alexa In Canada” with exact instructions on how to set it up correctly to make it work - it did work for me. But as it was a duplicate post I got the message that “it will appear after it’s approved”. If it doesn’t get approved - look for the other topic and see it there.
There are some elaborate steps involved, but it works just fine in the end, just not by default. To summarize: manual port configuration in Plex, static IP and port forwarding in the router, set default Plex server in Alexa, do not try to make it recognize itself as a Plex Player (it wont), have your entire music library in MP3 only (transcoding form FLAC or other lossless formats leads to playback cutting off within minutes).
OK, I got it to work! Here’s my entire set up, I think all of this is required to make it work. The process is tricky and I did remove and reinstall Plex skill a couple of times during the process when trying to make it work. I think if you set it up this way, it should work immediately, but if not - remove and reinstall the skill.
- Amazon account is set to shop at Amazon.com, country of residence is Canada, Alexa language is set to English (United States). I think this language setting is crucial for Canadian users, otherwise skill does not appear of refuses to work at all.
- Plex server is latest version on PC connected by wire to the same router that shares wifi.
- Manual public port setting: Plex Settings -> Server -> Remote Access - check “manually specify public port” to the same port as “private”, default is 32400, so set it and click “Apply”. At this stage you will most likely see red message that server is not accessible outside. It has to become green and “fully accessible outside your network” later after the steps below.
- Static IP: router is configured to always give the same IP address to the PC with Plex server (DHCP setting in your router)
- Port Forwarding: you have to forward port 32400 set up in step 3 to the static IP that you set in step 4. (port forwarding settings in your router).
- I also set up a DDNS service so my network is always accessible with a static address. I don’t think this step is necessary but I’m listing it just so you can reproduce everything I have done.
- At this stage you should see a green status in your Plex server stating that is’t accessible from outside. You might have to “Apply” or “Retry”. Make sure it’s green.
- Say “Alexa, ask Plex to change server” - it will list servers that it sees, and will set the default if it only sees one. If you have more than one, set it to the one you need. Note that if you ask “Alexa, ask Plex to change player” it will NOT list itself as a player. I tried for a long time, but it will NEVER list itself as a player, but it WILL act as one if you don’t set another player! It can play music on another device with Plex player if you explicitly tell it to, something like: “Alexa, play music by Pink Floyd on Living Room Kodi Box”. The caveat is that on that device Plex client has to be actively running. My Kodi box kills it when not open, so that command will only work if you open Plex on the device first. However that’s a secondary goal, primary goal is to play Plex music through Alexa.
- At that stage Alexa should respond to “Alexa, play music by Pink Floyd” and start playing. However in my case playback would cut off after a couple of songs or during a song - within a few minutes every time. The trick to avoid it is have all your music on the server in MP3 format. I have found out that cut-off only happens when Plex is transcoding from FLAC or other lossless formats. So I used my car version of music library - all encoded as MP3 with v0 preset (highest VBR) or 320 mbps CBR. I set Plex to index MP3 folder for music library. After that it plays perfectly and does everything that it should including playing by artist, album, shuffle etc. But it doesn’t know how to play by style. I connected Echo Dot to a decent 2.1 stereo in the kitchen/dining area and now it plays anything we want when we need it to, in great quality compared to Echo Dot itself or any normal Bluetooth speaker.
OK, I got it to work! Here’s my entire set up, I think all of this is required to make it work. The process is tricky and I did remove and reinstall Plex skill a couple of times during the process when trying to make it work. I think if you set it up this way, it should work immediately, but if not - remove and reinstall the skill.
- Amazon account is set to shop at Amazon.com, country of residence is Canada, Alexa language is set to English (United States). I think this language setting is crucial for Canadian users, otherwise skill does not appear of refuses to work at all.
- Plex server is latest version on PC connected by wire to the same router that shares wifi.
- Manual public port setting: Plex Settings -> Server -> Remote Access - check “manually specify public port” to the same port as “private”, default is 32400, so set it and click “Apply”. At this stage you will most likely see red message that server is not accessible outside. It has to become green and “fully accessible outside your network” later after the steps below.
- Static IP: router is configured to always give the same IP address to the PC with Plex server (DHCP setting in your router)
- Port Forwarding: you have to forward port 32400 set up in step 3 to the static IP that you set in step 4. (port forwarding settings in your router).
- I also set up a DDNS service so my network is always accessible with a static address. I don’t think this step is necessary but I’m listing it just so you can reproduce everything I have done.
- At this stage you should see a green status in your Plex server stating that is’t accessible from outside. You might have to “Apply” or “Retry”. Make sure it’s green.
- Say “Alexa, ask Plex to change server” - it will list servers that it sees, and will set the default if it only sees one. If you have more than one, set it to the one you need. Note that if you ask “Alexa, ask Plex to change player” it will NOT list itself as a player. I tried for a long time, but it will NEVER list itself as a player, but it WILL act as one if you don’t set another player! It can play music on another device with Plex player if you explicitly tell it to, something like: “Alexa, play music by Pink Floyd on Living Room Kodi Box”. The caveat is that on that device Plex client has to be actively running. My Kodi box kills it when not open, so that command will only work if you open Plex on the device first. However that’s a secondary goal, primary goal is to play Plex music through Alexa.
- At that stage Alexa should respond to “Alexa, play music by Pink Floyd” and start playing. However in my case playback would cut off after a couple of songs or during a song - within a few minutes every time. The trick to avoid it is have all your music on the server in MP3 format. I have found out that cut-off only happens when Plex is transcoding from FLAC or other lossless formats. So I used my car version of music library - all encoded as MP3 with v0 preset (highest VBR) or 320 mbps CBR. I set Plex to index MP3 folder for music library. After that it plays perfectly and does everything that it should including playing by artist, album, shuffle etc. But it doesn’t know how to play by style. I connected Echo Dot to a decent 2.1 stereo in the kitchen/dining area and now it plays anything we want when we need it to, in great quality compared to Echo Dot itself or any normal Bluetooth speaker.
hmmmmm, most of my music is mp3 but I’ve started to re-rip my favourite cds as m4a as I feel this sounds better…
@romandesign thanks very much for the detailed instructions, I followed the steps and it worked!
It seems Virgin Home Hub 3 needs to have manual port forward setting created so that Alexa can play Plex through the Echo. A router reboot was also required once changes applied.
@mamvcivm said:
My understanding of mymediaalexa is that it is designed to be run on a
computer, whereas Plex can be run on a NAS - which I’m assuming is what
most people here do…Virus-free.
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Andrew
You know what they say about making assumptions right?
