Yeah, it’s only this one App that’s misbehaving and going on the behavior, it almost has to be the server app that’s the issue. The only other apps that don’t work are old 32-bit apps that don’t work now that Catalina is on there, but those were all special use cases anyway and I have a VM of Mojave that I can boot up if I need to run any of them.
I’ll just remove all traces of Plex backing up the files you mentioned just to have it. I’ll let you know what the results are.
That’s normal on macOS.
Argh. You’re right, I knew it at one time as well. I so seldom go anywhere near the caches folder that I completely blanked on it. I plead reduced cognition due to getting older.
Nuked Plex. Ensured there was absolutely nothing left related to Plex on the machine. And that was more annoying than I would have liked. It kept reinstalling the old servers. Then I finally found the cache folder and all was fresh. Reinstalled Plex Server App. Created new server. Added just the movie library for expediency with plans to add the rest later.
And…
Success, I think.
After some testing where everything was still almost the same except for the fact that were two servers, I rebooted both the Smart TV and the AppleTV, and finally they are both working. The AppleTV was working before the reboot with one of the servers, the other one it said was unavailable. Once rebooted, they both lost the duplicate library and even the Sony TV started working. At that point, it was a Hail Mary move because I had rebooted them countless times before, but this time with the complete Plex Server rebuild, and it’s working.
Remote access is working from my phone. I’ll ask my friends to test it tomorrow and hope for good news. Fingers crossed. But as it stands right now, it looks like it’s working. I can’t thank you enough!
No problem, glad it worked. Fingers crossed that it stays working!
It is still working, thank you! Except for a (relatively) minor problem with thumbnail generation with individual TV episodes. But the server is working with the clients just fine. I’m so happy.
See the new post for details about the thumbnail issue. I thought about continuing it here, but it is a different problem.
But thanks again! I now can use one app for everything. Plex client is working for movies, TV shows, Live TV with my tuner card… its glorious! The episode thumbnail issue is an annoyance, but it is working!
Can you access your Plex Media Server via it’s local network IP address from your iPhone? I am facing a similar issue with the macOS Plex Media Server Version 1.21.1.3830 (the latest as of 18 Dec 2020). I have the firewall off but somehow I cannot access it via IP.
As for the rest of the clients, they cannot direct stream from the server, which is on the same subnet, UPnP enabled, secure connections disabled, everything.
I have to mention I was desperate enough to reinstall the OS to no success. I will try to nuke it as well, maybe it helps, and give it a different name.
Yes, it works from my phone from the servers local IP as well, so long as the phone is on the network.
In the settings tab, under Network, make sure you don’t have anything listed under ‘LAN Networks’ if everything in your home is on the same subnet. If it’s not, make sure you have the correct network address/netmask listed. From what I can tell, that field will not accept CIDR notation.
You can try entering your network address/netmask in the ‘List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth’ further down, but again, don’t use CIDR notation. I haven’t seen definitive proof of this under documentation, but in my experience, CIDR notation just won’t work. But if you’re using only the 254 IP addresses between 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.254, then 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0 will work whereas in my experience 192.168.1.0/24 will not.
I’d like to know if I’m correct in these fields, but at least in my experience, it works.
They do accept CIDR notation, but they’re very picky, and they don’t report errors in the GUI. If you have multiple entries, there must not be spaces between them, no matter what subnet notation you use.
This works: "192.168.0.0/23" and so does "192.168.0.0/23,10.0.1.1".
These all cause errors because of spaces:
"192.168.0.0/255.255.252.0, 10.0.1.1"
"192.168.0.0/23, 10.0.1.1"
And sneaky spaces at the beginning and end are invisible, but will cause errors.
"10.0.0.0/8 "
" 10.11.12.128/25"
Ahh, good to know. Thanks! I don’t have it saved what I had in there before, but it is possible I had a leading or trailing space.
Thanks for your reply. I’ve tried that as well but to no success.
Well, that is odd. I think somewhere, somehow, there’s some issue with my MacBook and Big Sur because I cannot access the 192.168.0.52:32400/web address from my iPhone while on the same network. And for some reason, it doesn’t even respond to pings even though it receives them. I detailed the investigation here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/408790/macos-big-sur-macbook-does-not-respond-to-ping-on-neither-ethernet-or-wifi
And yes, stealth mode is turned off, the Firewall on my MacBook si also off but I cannot connect to it’s IP address from my iPhone no matter what.
Now for example if I open the Plex app on my iPhone, that’s on the same network, same submask: 255.255.255.0, it just won’t load any of my libraries even though it shows up under more. Nor will it work if I open it on 4G and try to access it remotely (because I have remote access enabled).
At the same time, accessing http://app.plex.tv/ in Safari only works on my MacBook with insecure connections and it loads my library. Not from my iPhone.
UPnP is enabled on my router. I even tried with a different router, to no results.
To me it seems there’s an issue somewhere with the release of Big Sur - not sure what - but after the update it went all down the drain. I had the Big Sur beta but didn’t had this issues in the beginning.
And I am having the same issue with a Samsung TV from 2019, Apple TV, Phillips TV, and iPhone.
The console logs (inside the Plex Web app) don’t seem to throw any Warning or Error messages.
So I am kind of stuck with no idea what could cause this.
I’m not experiencing those same network issues, between iPhone and PMS on a Macbook.
In your ifconfig output on Stackexchange, it looks like you have multiple interfaces with 192.168.0.0/24 addresses.
en0 - 192.168.0.124
en7 - 192.168.0.52
Is that deliberate?
Do you have any VPN software installed/configured?
What is the output of netstat -rn -f inet
Thanks for jumping in to help.
I have a Wifi connection and a cable connection via a USB-C dongle. Thus the different IP addresses.
Here’s the output of the netstat command:
Routing tables
Internet:
Destination Gateway Flags Netif Expire
default 192.168.0.1 UGSc en7
default 192.168.0.1 UGScI en0
127 127.0.0.1 UCS lo0
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 UH lo0
127.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 UHW3I lo0 5
169.254 link#16 UCS en7 !
169.254 link#6 UCSI en0 !
192.168.0 link#16 UCS en7 !
192.168.0 link#6 UCSI en0 !
192.168.0.1/32 link#16 UCS en7 !
192.168.0.1 54:67:51:20:f7:81 UHLWIr en0 1198
192.168.0.1/32 link#6 UCSI en0 !
192.168.0.1 54:67:51:20:f7:81 UHLWIir en7 1189
192.168.0.52/32 link#16 UCS en7 !
192.168.0.52 48:65:ee:1d:59:23 UHLWIi lo0
192.168.0.80 dc:52:85:d:41:c6 UHLWI en0 1087
192.168.0.80 72:4f:56:d:41:c6 UHLWI en7 1087
192.168.0.88 cc:d2:81:5d:bf:89 UHLWI en0 1089
192.168.0.88 cc:d2:81:5d:bf:89 UHLWIi en7 1089
192.168.0.124/32 link#6 UCS en0 !
192.168.0.124 38:f9:d3:83:18:e6 UHLWIi lo0
192.168.0.125 84:d8:1b:dc:40:b4 UHLWI en0 1189
192.168.0.125 84:d8:1b:dc:40:b4 UHLWI en7 1193
192.168.0.255 ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff UHLWbI en0 !
192.168.0.255 ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff UHLWbI en7 !
224.0.0/4 link#16 UmCS en7 !
224.0.0/4 link#6 UmCSI en0 !
224.0.0.251 1:0:5e:0:0:fb UHmLWI en7
239.0.0.250 1:0:5e:0:0:fa UHmLWI en7
239.255.255.250 1:0:5e:7f:ff:fa UHmLWI en0
239.255.255.250 1:0:5e:7f:ff:fa UHmLWI en7
255.255.255.255/32 link#16 UCS en7 !
255.255.255.255/32 link#6 UCSI en0 !
That seems almost identical to the problem I was having. In the end, it was Plex itself. I had to completely nuke it, and that wasn’t easy. If even a single configuration file remains, it fails. And unfortunately searching for Plex in Finder only shows files that are in visible folders. I had to use a 3rd party app that examined the app and then found all the files.
/Applications/Plex Media Server.app
~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server
~/Library/Caches/Plex Media Server
~/Library/Logs/Plex Media Server
~/Library/Preferences/com.plexapp.plexmediaserver.plist
In addition to anything mentioned above, all need to be deleted to nuke it. In my case, if even one file remained, it rebuilt it the way it was. But also, in my case, the caches folder was the last one I found.
After I nuked it and reinstalled, it finally started working again. Backup before you do this if you do. I hopes this helps.
OK - I was curious, so I went ALL THE WAY to the OTHER ROOM to get my adapter.
I confirmed that everything still works for me with both WiFI and Ethernet (Thunderbolt) connected. I can ping both addresses from the phone, I can load Plex from both addresses.
Your routing table looks sane.
Have you ever used any network filtering software? Little Snitch? Uhhh, fancy network-filter Adblock?
systemextensionsctl list
kextstat | grep -v com.apple
I finally found the issue. Thank you all for your help.
It seems that the Endpoint Security VPN (I have the Checkpoint client but the Symantec is also culpable) mingles around and blocks any incoming connections and any PING echo requests.
So the solution is to kill the agent:
sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.checkpoint.epc.service.plist
sudo kextunload /Library/Extensions/cpfw.kext
and turn the AutoLaunch off by setting the RunAtLoad and KeepAlive PLIST values to false:
sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.checkpoint.epc.service.plist
I have a script that can be used here:
At the same time I contacted CheckPoint about this as they do not mention this anywhere in their app nor do the offer an option to opt out:
Now I can both access the Plex Server via IP address and can direct play. Funny thing is that I had it for a couple of years installed and only a month ago started acting up.
If someone can pin this comment please do as I susspect a lot of users might run into this issue with the necessity of running a VPN client on their personal computer while working from home through this pandemic.
Nice walkthrough on the removal process.
I wonder if the product changed how it works, under the hood. Big Sur made some changes to how network extensions are allowed to interact.
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