I first realized this was a problem when Plex’s servers went down on NYE
I have a local PLEX server, and a local PLEX Client, and I got a message saying PLEX is down for maintenance, this made me pretty angry since the one and only reason I use PLEX (And paid for a lifetime PLEX Pass) is so that the only person in control of my media is ME
So I entered the IP of my server manually (What happened to it automatically seeing it like in the old Plex Home Theater?) and it did connect, however whenever I tried to watch anything I got a red box with the message “Sorry, there was a problem playing this item”
I tried to change as many settings as I could, and nothing resolved it. So I got on with my NYE Celebrations and forgot about watching my media
Today I ran a test, and just something as simple as not having internet connection, means I still can’t watch any of my media which is 100% local.
I have no authentication for local clients, I have remote access disabled, I am running the latest versions of PMP and PMS
What can I do get back in control? This is insane, you guys know that right?
If your plex client on the same PC as your server, it does not matter whether you have internet connection or not, you can easily browse through your medias.
You have to understand that Plex is great with its metadata and media structure, it uses the internet to fetch you metadata and also gives you access to remote access to stream outside your local network.
If you do not want any of that or you purely want an offline server, why not check out Kodi? Or Emby.
I love Plex the way it is, even when the lights were out (when server went down) I was still watching Friends series, did not have any problem whatsoever.
I can see his concern on this, I too was frustrated when the system was down a few days ago. I could watch from my local Plex server, but was not able to watch at my TV’s using my Fire Sticks. So my question along this line would be, do items like my Fire Stick need to have the local IP added to the app manually so that in the future I would be able to access the local server while without internet? The page you shared talks about opening it in the web-app, but I use the Android Plex App on my Fire Sticks.
Certain things are going to require an internet connections.
Being in a Plex Home, Enabling Secure connections, and anytime the server is signed in the clients need to be signed in. Some caching probably does occur which would allow you to still use your server during an internet outage. There are workarounds in case not. I don’t use the Plex Home feature and have my server and the laptop I use to manager the server listed in “List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth”. Also there are certain entries that can be removed or changed without being able to access the server, that would after deleting or changing, allow access without plex.tv. How, depends upon the OS.
Also, regarding the FireTV. I do have one of these things and when I completely lost my internet connection, I was able to use it. However, without an internet connection there was no FireTV menu. I had to access the Plex app via Settings on the FireTV.
@Ashus said: @SeanBond123 I don’t know what you did that restricted you from viewing your medias or why you felt that you were not in control of your media but…
I didn’t do anything, the PLEX Media Player application will not play media without having an internet connection, so how am I able to watch anything using Plex Media Player?
Sure, I could use the web app, but then anytime I want to watch HEVC/x265 content it will transcode it using 100% CPU on the server, and I will get worse quality. I should be able to use Plex Media Player
If your plex client on the same PC as your server, it does not matter whether you have internet connection or not, you can easily browse through your medias.
Its not on the same machine, and it shouldn’t have to be. The whole point of having both a server and a client is that you can separate the two
You have to understand that Plex is great with its metadata and media structure, it uses the internet to fetch you metadata and also gives you access to remote access to stream outside your local network.
As in my original post, I have remote access disabled. And I never complained about Metadata not downloading with no internet, that would obviously be the case. I am complaining about not being able to play media.
If you do not want any of that or you purely want an offline server, why not check out Kodi? Or Emby.
Or they fix the problem…
I love Plex the way it is, even when the lights were out (when server went down) I was still watching Friends series, did not have any problem whatsoever.
@cdhodgdon said:
I can see his concern on this, I too was frustrated when the system was down a few days ago. I could watch from my local Plex server, but was not able to watch at my TV’s using my Fire Sticks. So my question along this line would be, do items like my Fire Stick need to have the local IP added to the app manually so that in the future I would be able to access the local server while without internet? The page you shared talks about opening it in the web-app, but I use the Android Plex App on my Fire Sticks.
Did they work when you entered the IP? If they do that would be very interesting. Plex Media player can see the server, and see all the media but can’t actually play any of it for some reason
I’m not sure about that with the IP address manually listed in the Firestick. I will have time this weekend to try it out, when I can “kill” my internet and see what happens. I’ll have to look at some of the other settings that are talked about in the post. I am brand new to the Plex Pass, and only been using Plex itself for about 6 months (give or take a few). I know I still have a lot of settings to go through really. I just want to make sure that if my internet goes out, we can still use it locally. Will be following this post and I will report back after I set the sticks to a manual IP and kill the net at the home.
Quite frankly I have lost all faith in PLEX, and I now regret spending $150 for my PLEX Pass. I didn’t even want the extra features, I just wanted to support them. This is the ONLY channel for support (That I can find, anyway), and no one from PLEX has even replied
Its absolutely absurd that you can’t watch local content while having no internet connection, it just doesn’t make any sense. I spent another hour today changing every setting I think would have an impact, and still no dice
I had the same issue on NYE, only I was trying to access via the Xbox One client. I could not find any solutions and eventually gave up for the night. Very frustrating that I couldn’t access local media on my home network. Hopefully this will be addressed by an admin with some guidance.
When the outage happened last week I couldn’t watch local content even with the direct IP. This is because I turned guest access off. It was a security concern with me. Didn’t want anyone from the outside bypassing my server getting access through the guest portal.
Security changes that came in with version 1.2 of Plex Media Server means that all plex clients need to authenticate to access the server if the server is signed in to plex.tv. To access the server within a local network without need for plex.tv or internet access,
server itself not signed in to plex.tv (server / settings / general) - or local network whitelisted in the Server Network setting of List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth
secure connections disabled (this would be the case any if the server is not signed in)
Plex client app setting for Allow Fallback to insecure connections switched from Never to Always or On Same Network
System components needed to transcode the media in place - this would happen the first time a media file is streamed
No Plex Home managed users / pins in use
Not using Plex clients that download the app on every launch
It is already acknowledged that there is a need for better handling of offline working and whilst client apps and server do keep cached credentials information, there is room for improvements there and this is raised as an issue that is being looked into
