I bought plexpass and lost all connectivity to everything... can not get it back.

General Discussions
1

After using Plex for a year, I finally bought a plex pass and now everything broke… and I mean EVERYTHING.

Web, android, I can’t access anything (and yes the server piece is running correctly). All any clients do is spin… “Looking for Servers”. It seemed to work once and now I’ve lost access to everything from any client.

Server is plex server v1.3.3.3148. The server has not been touched. It’s running on FreeBSD in a jail. It’s been running since the VERY day 1.3.3 was released.

I run split DNS but block nothing. I have confirmed DNS resolves forward and reverse correctly from both the clients and the server itself. plex.WHATEVER to your domains resolves fine… I get redirected to your portal ad nauseum.

EVERYTHING was working fine (v1.3.3 was) BEFORE I BOUGHT PLEX PASS (yes, this is MADDENING). I have even resorted to using the plex server’s IP address and that doesn’t work either. Nothing else was changed in my environment.

I am unable to connect using ANY client… all clients say “Looking for servers”.

After I log in, it gave me a choice of the 3 accounts I registered with it… I type my PIN, then “Looking for Servers”. I have now attempted to delete all users (including mine). I can not add them back now because it seems to not connect.

I have deleted all web clients, servers, devices under my account setting on plex.tv with this account and attempted to re-added them… now I can’t seem to re-add my server because I can’t reach it… even with the plex server’s IP address.

I have followed the directions here:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/204604227

I have disabled all browser extensions. I’ve tried Firefox, Chrome and Safari. None work. I have disabled ALL extension in ALL 3 browsers, NONE WORK… “Looking for servers…”

I have registered the Android client running on Android TV. It also does not connect after registering… “Looking for Servers”. I have since removed the device from my account.

I have rebooted the jail and restarted plex server numerous times. Every client I can use is “Looking for server”… again, all this was working fine BEFORE I changed my account over to plex pass.

Right now, I’m thinking I want my money back!

So in short, plex pass broke my plex server… yes, you read that correctly.

What else can I troubleshoot here? I need some suggestions… very frustrated.

Bob

2

You can’t access the server via the local web app?

serveripaddress:32400/web

3

@astrofisher said:
You can’t access the server via the local web app?

serveripaddress:32400/web

That’s what I’m saying… to tried this to troubleshoot possible dns issues. It gives me a log in page, I am able to log in but I get the following… screen shot.

ps -aux in the jail shows the following plex related processes running…

[root@plex ~]# ps -aux | grep -i plex
plex 87583 0.0 0.1 294160 32904 - IsJ Sat21 3:33.85 /usr/local/share/plexmediaserver-plexpass/Plex_Media_Server (Plex Media Server)
plex 87650 0.0 0.1 186748 18712 - INJ Sat21 7:48.70 Plex Plug-in [com.plexapp.system] /usr/local/share/plexmediaserver-plexpass/Resources/Plug-ins-b3
root 70256 0.0 0.0 10700 1532 0 R+J 19:23 0:00.00 grep -i plex
[root@plex ~]#

Again, this worked before I bought a lifetime plex pass.

For plex pass to work, is it absolutely required to open a port for it to the internet?

I’m grasping at straws here…

4

Sorry… here’s the correct screenshot BY IP address…

5

I do remember reading a few posts where users couldn’t find the server after upgrading. Don’t remember the solution. Probably signing out of the server and the clients and then signing back in.

You mentioned having three accounts. Any chance the server was signed into a different account then the one you are trying to use to access the server? There are two different logins - the server and the client. If the server is signed into account A and you are logging into account B, then you could see that screen, unless you have shared account A with account B.

It appears from that screenshot that you have signed the web app into Plex. If you access that url (serveripaddress:32400/web) and it requires you to login, that means your server is signed into Plex. If the server wasn’t logged in, then Plex would not require you to sign in the web app.

There is another support article that might come into play here. There certain entries you can delete that might help. Removing “Plex Online Token” should allow you to access the local web app without signing in.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/204281528

6

Wow… thank you for that Jim… after deleting the Plex Online Tokens, I believe 1.3.3 is broken for me with Plex pass.

I can reproduce this.

If I delete the Online tokens as outlined in the above support doc. I can then log in using the web app. I then can “claim this server”, then enter my plex pass ID and password. Everything behaves correctly UNTIL I log out and then log back in again.

Once I log out, there is nothing I can do on any client to successfully log back in again… all I get after the initial log in and log out, is “Looking for servers”…

If I stop plexmediaserver and go in and edit the Preferences.xml file and take out the online tokens, then restart the server processes, I can get back in but then need to “claim it now”, enter my username & password again and once I log out, it’s broken again.

It’s a vicious cycle.

So right now, it appears v1.3.3 will not work with plex pass.

I have logs if anyone cares… although I would rather not post them publicly.

7

Another thing you can try. If you had a Pin set for your account, remove it. See if things work normally after that.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/204245033-I-forgot-my-Plex-Account-PIN-how-can-I-reset-it-How-can-I-change-my-PIN-

8

I initially had a pin but I removed it in the early stages of trying to troubleshot this.

9

Ok, I’m out of ideas here. If you could, you should remove the “Answer” tags - people have a tendency to not look if a post has been marked as answered. You are going to need somebody else to help here. I run on a Windows machine and would not be much help going forward.

There is a special forum for folks running FreeBSD. Might have better luck in that forum.
Here is the link: https://forums.plex.tv/categories/freebsd

10

will do… I’ll remove the answer and cross post… strike that… I can’t figure how to change the answer tag… unless I’ve missed it… sorry… if you’re a moderator and moderators can do that, feel free.

The saga continues here:

11

@tazmo said:
Wow… thank you for that Jim… after deleting the Plex Online Tokens, I believe 1.3.3 is broken for me with Plex pass.

I can reproduce this.

If I delete the Online tokens as outlined in the above support doc. I can then log in using the web app. I then can “claim this server”, then enter my plex pass ID and password. Everything behaves correctly UNTIL I log out and then log back in again.

Once I log out, there is nothing I can do on any client to successfully log back in again… all I get after the initial log in and log out, is “Looking for servers”…

If I stop plexmediaserver and go in and edit the Preferences.xml file and take out the online tokens, then restart the server processes, I can get back in but then need to “claim it now”, enter my username & password again and once I log out, it’s broken again.

It’s a vicious cycle.

So right now, it appears v1.3.3 will not work with plex pass.

I have logs if anyone cares… although I would rather not post them publicly.

Sorry for the delay getting here. This is not my usual patrol area :smiley:

Can you get me the log files as you demonstrate the problem where it contains the failure and how PMS reacts after you’ve edited the Preferences file? DEBUG level log file is fine. Use Settings - Server - Help - Download Logs afterwards to grab the ZIP file for me.

I will then go and create here per your logs.

12

I am having a similar issue here too. I am a long-time plex pass member and the only way I can access my server is via local IP.

All appeared to be working fine this afternoon, but is not tonight. No changes on my network for over a year.

13

The first and obvious question about accessing the server , to be sure I’m in complete sync with everyone…

The problem is signing into the server when outside your home or is it to have the server show up automatically while everything is on your home LAN?

I’m going to ask everyone to catch me up because I see a number of possible issues. a) Jail b) split DNS and c) the invalid token / unable to sign back in issue.

To pick off the easy things, please humor me and let’s check the boxes as we go through… again. (i’ve seen stranger things happen haha)

  1. For local host discovery to work, all the ports and protocols listed here have to make it from the local LAN into the server (server firewall passes them). https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201543147-What-network-ports-do-I-need-to-allow-through-my-firewall-

  2. Wireless clients can’t be in wifi isolation mode and the wifi must be on the same subnet as the server (flat local LAN topology) based on server computer network subnet mask.

  3. You open your server initially by hitting it at the loopback port http://127.0.0.1:32400/web (or it’s LAN IP if on a NAS) and

  4. Sign the server into your Plex Account ( Settings - Server - General ). NOTE: If signed in before Plex Pass but now have Plex Pass, sign it out and back in to update it’s active feature list.

  5. Go to the upper right corner of Plex windows in the browser (the avatar) , click it and sign in. (if already signed in, sign out then back in)

  6. Press the House icon in the upper left corner to bring you back to ‘home’.

  7. Everything should be there, No login requirement or anything.

  8. Now close the browser completely

  9. let it die off (chrome is slow)

  10. Start it up again.

This is the point I need to know. How are you accessing the server? (FYI: at almost the stroke of midnight, as I write this… Plex.tv is spitting a ‘500’ error. Obviously the web server partied a bit too much. I’m checking on it now.

Please let me know how you access the server.

From a Roku, With it signed in (Pinned) to the account, When started up it will find the server and put it up on the list of servers which can be selected in the upper right corner.

14

Local network = fine IF you manually set the server to the local IP. If you try to have Plex auto-discover based on the plex pass login, it finds no servers.

I rebooted my Plex server
Logged out of Plex on the server
Logged back into Plex on the server
Logged out of Plex on a PC and Roku
Logged back into Plex on a PC and Roku

Nothing works until I manually set Plex to point to the local IP of my Plex server (PC and Roku).
I tested out-of-network access via my Android Plex app - this does NOT work.

I was watching Plex fine with no manual set local IPs until this afternoon sometime (I think around 2pm CST).

15

With the log files sitting there as they are. Please capture them so I can see what it is complaining about . Settings - Server - Help - Download Logs.

16

@tazmo said:

@astrofisher said:
You can’t access the server via the local web app?

serveripaddress:32400/web

That’s what I’m saying… to tried this to troubleshoot possible dns issues. It gives me a log in page, I am able to log in but I get the following… screen shot.

ps -aux in the jail shows the following plex related processes running…

[root@plex ~]# ps -aux | grep -i plex
plex 87583 0.0 0.1 294160 32904 - IsJ Sat21 3:33.85 /usr/local/share/plexmediaserver-plexpass/Plex_Media_Server (Plex Media Server)
plex 87650 0.0 0.1 186748 18712 - INJ Sat21 7:48.70 Plex Plug-in [com.plexapp.system] /usr/local/share/plexmediaserver-plexpass/Resources/Plug-ins-b3
root 70256 0.0 0.0 10700 1532 0 R+J 19:23 0:00.00 grep -i plex
[root@plex ~]#

Again, this worked before I bought a lifetime plex pass.

For plex pass to work, is it absolutely required to open a port for it to the internet?

I’m grasping at straws here…

For you to open Plex like you are showing in the window, IF that DNS (.org) resolves to an external IP address, then you MUST have the port open in your modem/router and port forwarded. Without port forwarding, it will not know where to send the inbound connection request. When manual port forwarding is used, you need to make the IP address of the server either static or create a MAC address reservation in the server so DHCP will always give it the same LAN IP address, otherwise, when you reboot the server it can get a different local LAN address and completely invalidate the Port Forwarding rule.

17

Getting the exact same screen with Firefox, but not Chrome on a Windows 7 machine with Plex in FreeNAS. Been working perfectly for months, and now cannot access the server except through chrome on a windows machine. All other devices giving server access errors.

18

To All:

  1. AWS (Amazon) went down last night and took the part of plex.tv you see with it. The Plex operations team was able to work through it after about an hour.
  2. I need to see log files from those of you with these authentication failures showing the failure and success after you’ve edited Preferences and restarted Plex. The best log file ‘package’ to give me is the ZIP file you get from Settings - Server - Help - Download Logs as it will contain everything I need to see.
19

Mine is working now. Thank you Plex Team!