I run the Plex server on a usually-idle but never-sleeping Core i7 16GB RAM PC that is plugged directly into the router. My internet speed is fast in my estimation: 150Mbps+. The Plex Server only has one library, and it’s all music (MP3s and WMAs). Remote access says “Fully accessible outside your network.”
To access this library, I use 3 Plex apps across various devices: Amazon app (Amazon Fire TV Stick), Windows 10 (on various machines, including a Surface Pro 4 i5 4GB), and Windows 10 Mobile (on a Lumia 950XL).
I can connect to the server and browse at will on all the players. However, when I click “play” on an album or track, 7 out of 10 times, it will not play. It will go to “now playing” with the album art as if to play, and the play button will turn into a pause button to indicate that it is playing, but it stays at 00:00.
This is beyond frustrating, as you can imagine. Sometimes restarting the device works, sometimes not. Sometimes I can still play locally synced music, but sometimes not even that will play. Frankly, I find it bizarre that I was able to stream my own music to myself more reliably using WinAmp over a decade ago that I wasn’t paying $5 a month for.
Thanks! I’ll check it out, but would it make sense to be able to listen to an album one day and then not be able to the next, using the same app on the same device?
@tghowe said:
Is the server on a Windows platform? Can you play the music from the Plex Web directly on the server?
Yes, it’s on Windows (cannot wait for my invite to Cloud). Now that you mention it, playing using the web player is much more reliable. For example, I’m on my work PC and the Charlie Brown Christmas album wouldn’t play on my Windows 10 app just now (which reminded me to check this thread). However, it started playing immediately using the web player on the same machine.
Turning off Windows Firewall didn’t help, unfortunately. Is it weird that I also never see any of my Windows 10 devices under “devices” on the web interface? The Amazon FIre Stick app always show up (not that that means it always works, mind you). I’ve just spent my entire 40 minute train ride trying to get music to play on my new Lumia 950XL - FRUSTRATING.
UPDATE: My father-in-law has a Chromecast, so I installed Plex on his iPad, logged in as myself, and had my music streaming to his Chromecast in minutes. No problems whatsoever. This was outside my home network, of course.
Contrast that to me spending my entire 1.5 hour train commute yesterday trying to get anything to play from the freshly-installed Plex app on both my Surface Pro 4 and Lumia 950 XL. (The web app played immediately on both, but isn’t as good an experience, particularly on a smartphone.)
FWIW, the Amazon app seems slightly more reliable than the Windows 10 apps, but even it isn’t as rock-solid as the iPad app was, or the web app.
It is possible that the problems you are seeing are due to poor cell coverage while on the train. That is just a guess. To try to identify the problem, can you recreate the problem using one of your Windows devices (either the service or mobile), then grab the local app log and the PMS logs as soon as you can and provide them for me to review. You can find links to instructions on where to find these logs in my signature.
