EDIT: Plex will not address this issue since having users log into Plex’s servers is part of their business model of collecting and selling user data & analytics. I recommend checking out Jellyfin which is actually user & privacy oriented:
https://jellyfin.org/
My Android TV device (MiBox S) is in a different subnet than my Plex server. I would like to manually specify the IP address of the Plex server. The option to do this is available in every other client version I’ve used (Roku, browser, etc).
I’ve seen this question asked about and ignored in posts going back to 2017.
I’m wondering why even the Android mobile client has the option to manually specify the server IP but not the Android TV version.
Am I going to have to sideload the Android mobile version and run it in TV mode ?
Server Version#: 1.18.9.2571
Player Version#: 7.30.0.16390
So apparently there is there is no separate apk for Android TV. Both Android TV and Android Mobile install from the same apk, and then Plex detects which you are using and chooses between the two layouts.
But if you are in the TV layout, there is no way to switch back to the mobile layout to manually add the server IP address. I find it unbelievably ridiculous how Plex has locked this down, and for who’s benefit???
Fiddling around with this more. If I use a mouse cursor as my input, a popup appears asking me to switch to the mobile layout or stay on the TV layout. If I choose change to mobile layout, the Plex interface reboots, but just reloads the TV layout?!? This is maddening!!
Is this a bug or is this by design? Searching through the forum I see others mentioning the same thing as far back as 2018.
Any input here?
Same issue here. With MI Box on separate VLAN it wants to connect out through WAN instead of directly to server. All other Plex clients have this option available even on Roku which is a TV device
I have the same problem, my plex server is running on a subnet in a docker, and I can’t connect to it on my NVIDIA shield… This is a basic option on every plex client I use except the android tv app 
Same as you, i have a PMC on docker, work great on every machine except on my Nvidia Shield, cant do a direct connect on local network, but can get the stream trough the internet…
The solution I recently used was to create a second docker running on the host rather that the subnetwork but I’m not a big fan of this
I maybe found a workaround, on your shield you can activate the “unsecured” connection on the local network only. With this activated my shield play my videos with a subnet/bridge network mode
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Bump.
With the latest plex authentication/link server crash, I was unable to use my Plex system on my TV.
I could log in via laptop, and under my old app could have entered the server ip manually…but not in Android TV.
There has to be a way.
Bump
Maybe a kind Plex representative could FINALLY give a response on how to manually add the server address on the Android TV platform.
There are at least a half dozen posts that have asked this question over many years, either directly or indirectly, and I don’t know why Plex refuses to give an official response???
You can’t. If you could the setting would be there.
So if you are on Android TV and need to specify the IP address are you just ■■■■ out of luck?
Is there a reason why every other Plex client (including Android mobile) has the option to specify the server IP but not Android TV?
Maybe you could give a little more information to help us understand?
Is there a reason why every other Plex client (including Android mobile) has the option to specify the server IP but not Android TV?
The honest answer is that it really it wasn’t included at the beginning and is not a frequently asked feature. Especially given that there is a far better way to have every client access your server via one server setting:
In Plex/Web, you can specify what URLs you want your server to be “found” via. That means you can just put your server’s IP address and then don’t need any custom client side configuration. Just log in and the client will be told the URL where your server is expected to be. See https://support.plex.tv/articles/200430283-network/ for more info.
This is by far a better way to do it, rather than having to have users manually configure every client as well as the poor experience of entering IP addresses via a TV interface.
Ok great, so I can put the IP of my server here instead of at each TV, and the TVs on my local network will automatically discover the Server and not need to phone out via the internet to connect to my local server?
I’ll give this a try. Thanks
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that even if I specify my server’s local address in the list of custom server access URLs I still can’t access Plex from our Shields if the internet is down, which is crazy. Am I missing something?
I have used the custom server access URLs option, but from what I can see, this doesn’t work over different subnets. And as others have mentioned this requires you have internet access (as the screenshot says, the URLs are published to plex.tv).
“This is by far a better way to do it, rather than having to have users manually configure every client as well as the poor experience of entering IP addresses via a TV interface”
Give me a break!! I would think that the Plex developers would respect their users enough to give them the choice to decide what’s ‘best’ for them. The fact is that the android APK mobile interface already has the option to manually enter the server IP. So adding and extra configuration option in the TV layout settings to access that would take no effort at all if the developers wanted to do what is ‘best’ for the users.
It is widely agreed upon that any home network should separate their IOT devices as much as possible from their trusted devices. Not letting us manually specify the server address just makes that more difficult.
The cynic in me wonders if Plex is just becoming another data collection company that wants us to sign into their servers so that they can collect information on our viewing habits, to be sold to the highest bidders.
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I’d also really like to see this feature.
@IanDBird can you guys just add this in? Since it’s the same apk it should be easy and it will satisfy people who are having issues with the current setup
Side note: why is every Plex employee I’ve interacted with so dismissive of their users?
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