How to watch Plex in more than one location using synced servers

Plex Media Server
1

As I spend my year in two locations I’d like to have a Plex server at each location and keep them in sync so that I can watch programs at each location and know that the server at the other location will be in the same state when I transfer back there.

Can I run two Plex servers on my Plex Pass, and if so, I assume there is a way to keep them in sync?

I’d love to be able to watch Plex away from one of my ‘homes’!

2

You can run more than 1 servers but there’s no means to keep them in sync.

There might be ways to achieve that technically but it’ll require quite some tinkering… a „simple“ approach could be syncing the actual media (e.g. using rsync). If you want to enforce having the same metadata, ratings, viewstates… that’ll digg deeper into database synchronization (for which the database used by Plex isn’t built) and other obstacles.

3

Thanks. It sounds complicated.

If there was a way I could watch what’s on my Plex Server when away from home I could avoid having two servers running. Perhaps the sync capability will be in Plex’s future.

4

There is… it’s called Remote Access.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200289506-remote-access/

As for a native server-to-server sync – I doubt that… that’d bring Plex awfully close to a file-sharing platform (which it’s not supposed to be).

5

After five years of trying, I have never been able to get Remote Access to work. I thought as that doesn’t work I could have syncing servers so I could at least use Plex one place away from the existing server.

The people on the SynoForum have really tried to help me to get Remote Access to work but I understand it just doesn’t work for many people. I’m all ears as to how to get Remote Access to work if you have any suggestions. Your help is much appreciated.

6

From all I can tell / what I have seen it isn’t working through Synology’s Quick Connect service.

The basics are simple enough:

  1. Check if your router supports automatic or manual port forwarding – from experience I’d suggest going with a manual forward whenever you can (I’m not a fan of any apps just publishing themselves to the world)
  2. Take a look at your home network – if you have different subnets and your Plex Media Server isn’t connected straight to the subnet of your router, you might need to configure / troubleshoot multiple hops
  3. Inside Plex… enable remote access and configure it to use the public port you specified in the manual port forward (#1)
  4. Test if you can see your router’s public IP address and the IP address specified in your manual port forward from outside your home network – you can e.g. use a service like canyouseeme.org
    • if the test succeeds but Plex remote access fails, the issue is usually between your router and the Plex Media Server (e.g. local firewalls, communication restrictions…)
    • if the test fails, the issue is usually between the ISP and your router

Common pitfalls…

  • your ISP is organizing their backbone like a private network (e.g. CGNAT) – in this case your router gets an IP address but it’s not routable from the outside.
    Indicators for that are the use of a private network address as your router’s public IP. In such a case your best shot is to get in contact with your ISP… some are able/willing to give you a routable IP address… some do it for extra money – some won’t allow it / support you.
  • your home network is setup using a custom IP band that’s not an actual private network

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200931138-troubleshooting-remote-access/

7

Thank you for your suggestions. I’m going to try them out now.

I haven’t been able to do anything since May as Plex has been down - not recording and not playing. This happens intermittently for several months, where the link to the drive has -1 added to the end of the folder and it won’t connect. Despite trying to reconnect to the volume on the NAS from the Mac Plex server, it generally takes weeks to fix it and suddenly it comes good again. It is frustrating that I can only use Plex for about half the year each year!

Anyway I really appreciate your advice above and will look into it now that Plex is working again. Presumably I can hire a network tech to investigate the points, like “subnet”. I’ll speak to the ISP about a routable IP address.

Re 1 and 3, a forum member on Synoforums got port forwarding working for me, so I don’t think that is the problem.

8

The only issues I have with remote access is that if the internet connection is dead, you have nothing.

We live in the country…and our only choice is WiFi. My plan is to install a second server @ our beach house and just use RSYNC to mirror the 2 systems. It will mirror EVERYTHING from the main system to the remote one…so the database used by PLEX should copy over as well.

Since the house is under construction I won’t be able to test it for a while, but on the QNAP systems you can ignore identical files and ensure the files in both locations are identical…so you shouldn’t have an issue having a remote server.

Add to that it’s insurance…your data is in, at the least, 2 places so if one or the other NAS blows up on you, you’ve got a backup to use for restoring.

9

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