Do I have to sign in to Plex account so that my media server works?

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Server Version#: 1.12.2.4929
Player Version#: n/a

Hi. Sorry for creating maybe another topic on this, but everything I found was either old or people were using wrong URLs to access their PMS, which I don’t believe to be the case with me.

I know that since several years, Plex has been pushing users to connect their PMS instances with Plex account. I always avoided it, since I use my server only on LAN and have zero interest in adding dependency on external web service. Using Plex account was always avoidable and this support article indicates it still is: https://support.plex.tv/articles/207538527-do-i-need-a-plex-account-to-stream-locally/

However, I recently updated my server to 1.12.2.4929 and ever since, when trying to access http://192.168.4.50:32400/web I’m redirected to https://app.plex.tv/auth/ with this screen: https://imgur.com/a/MOl9yQk

There doesn’t appear to be any button or link allowing me to skip it. Is logging into Plex a hard requirement for using PMS now and above support article is outdated?

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That article is only outdated in that the screenshots are old. (I will ask to get them updated)

There are some apps that do require sign in but the Web app does not. You don’t need to sign in if your server is not signed in/claimed. If it is claimed it is required unless you set certain apps IP’s to not require in it network settings.

if you might have accidentally signed in/claimed at some point you can remove your account from the advanced settings file ( or registry on windows) and delete the four setting that begin with PlexOnline.. Same instructions if you are “locked out” https://support.plex.tv/articles/204281528-why-am-i-locked-out-of-server-settings-and-how-do-i-get-in/

You can also manually add IPs of devices to the allowedNetworks setting there that won’t require sign in (again some players do require sign in but not the web app). I would just put the individual IPs of your local computers there. https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/ ( this is in the regular network settings in for server in web app as well)

I have found that you might need to close reopen browser and/or clear cache as it will often redirect you because signed in at some point and it is trying to take you back there.

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Additionally if it is the first run of server/web app on the bottom right there will be a “Whats this?” link which will bring you to another page where there is a skip sign in link at the bottom. If you choose to skip it it should never ask you again (unless you sign in/claim server)

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Hi, thanks for trying to help. As you can see on the screenshot I linked before (this one: https://imgur.com/a/MOl9yQk) there’s no “What’s this” link on the page I get redirected to. I tried your other suggestions, but I don’t have any preferences starting with PlexOnline and adding allowedNetworks didn’t seem to make any effect (i restarted the server afterwards). Here’s my Preferences.xml if it helps (I redacted identifiers):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>                                          
<Preferences AcceptedEULA="1" AnonymousMachineIdentifier="redacted" CinemaTrailersFromLibrary="0" CloudSyncNeedsUpdate="0" FSEventLi
braryPartialScanEnabled="1" FSEventLibraryUpdatesEnabled="0" MachineIdentifier="
redacted" MetricsEpoch="1" OldestPreviousVersion="1.
1.4.2757-24ffd60" ProcessedMachineIdentifier="redacted" ScheduledLibraryUpdateInterval="21600" ScheduledLibraryUpdatesEnabled="1
" TranscoderH264BackgroundPreset="slow" TranscoderQuality="0" agentAutoEnabled.c
om.plexapp.agents.lastfm.Artists.com.plexapp.agents.vevo="1" collectUsageData="0
" disableRemoteSecurity="1" allowedNetworks="192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0" />
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What browser are you using? what OS do you have PMS installed on? and what version of web app is it? ( i don’t recall which came with PMS 1.12.2

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can you use Chrome and go to http://192.168.4.50:32400/ in browser. You should see the server root xml, which would have things like is there are creds in there

also open up the web inspector Console in Chrome and enable “Preserve logs” so logs don’t get wiped when redirected to the auth app when doing it normally, and then share them with me (you can PM them to me.) hopefully we can see why it is redirecting if you are not signed into server

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I managed to access the app, though I still get redirected when I try it through local domain. I sent you log file with requests. To me it looks like the JS in web app tries to call this url: http://media.home/?X-Plex-Product=Plex%20Web&X-Plex-Version=3.39.5&X-Plex-Client-Identifier=q2z53jp429qs3n4bv36nu8kx&X-Plex-Platform=Chrome&X-Plex-Platform-Version=70.0&X-Plex-Sync-Version=2&X-Plex-Device=Linux&X-Plex-Device-Name=Chrome&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=1366x631%2C1366x768&X-Plex-Provider-Version=1.1

Which returns 401 Unauthorized, but it passes through with 200 OK when the URL is: http://192.168.4.50:32400/?X-Plex-Product=Plex%20Web&X-Plex-Version=3.39.5&X-Plex-Client-Identifier=hxi7leais4six1gsgp3ixje8&X-Plex-Platform=Chrome&X-Plex-Platform-Version=70.0&X-Plex-Sync-Version=2&X-Plex-Device=Linux&X-Plex-Device-Name=Chrome&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=1366x631%2C1366x768&X-Plex-Provider-Version=1.1

Is there any way to set my custom domain within Plex or am I restricted to using the IP address? It’s worth noting that custom domain worked with previous version. It’s full configured on my router with DNS and port forwarding.

9

Ok, solved that! What fixed it for me was setting PMS hostname to my local domain. So, inside jail i execuded hostname media.home and the URL above now authenticates correctly. Looks like hostname check was added to authentication as security measure.

I have one remaining problem that I’m redirected to sign in page when trying to access settings inside web app, but I understand it’s a known bug that has been previously reported:

I shouldn’t expect it to be fixed until I use latest released version, and it’s my own choice to depend on FreeNAS package, so I accept to live with that inconvenience. Server settings aren’t changed often anyways.

@BigWheel Many thanks again for helping me!

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