T-Mobile is struggling to get internet running in many states right now.
I’m struggling to watch recorded (OTA NVR) content on my Google TV with the plex client. Sometimes they work, sometimes they do not.
The PC client in a browser works. The TV’s and Plex server are all on my local, wired network. This is not a networking question. And I realize I can’t watch streaming content.
But sometimes the Plex clients work fine, at least for a while, sometimes not.
What is SUPPOSED to work on a client player (such as the one on Google Store)?
Is there some media server configuration I need to make to ensure it will work cleanly?
Note this is all local, no VPN’s, no remote access, hardwired ethernet; lifetime license (and I am not getting login prompts, oddly, which is what I would suspect first).
Clients are 10.30.8.4222, media server on windows 11 pro is 1.43.0.10492 which is slightly old but not very.
What SHOULD work, and is anything I can do to improve my odds for my next internet outage?
I think its going to device dependent. My internet fritzed out Tue night. My Fire stick wouldn’t even load it’s home page. I was able to watch a few episodes on my laptop with the web app but eventually that stopped working. I have Emby on the same server and ended up watching a few more episodes with that.
Turns out it was my router. Even after doing a soft reboot, things still didn’t work. Eventually I power cycled it and connections were restored.
Simply put Plex, as a platform, isn’t designed to function without Internet access. Clients will cache auth for a period of time but they expect to be able to contact their auth servers from time to time to refresh it.
There are certain things you can do to (partially) mitigate this. Specifically, you can configure:
Settings → [Select Server Name] → Network (Show Advanced) → List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth
This will allow clients on the specified networks to access the server without authentication. But the client apps must support this, via manual connections.
Here’s an older “how-to” which describes some mitigation steps you can take before an outage occurs but, like I said, it only applies to certain modern clients.
I use another media server as a backup. It’s not ready for primetime as its clients are, frankly, terrible. But any port in a storm.
Plex SHOULD be designed to function without internet for local content. Shame on developers for either (a) being lazy, or (b) doing this as some mechanism to get revenue or other profit. I can see no other options for LOCAL content viewed LOCALLY.
I already had my local subnet set to not require authentication (maybe that’s why I’m not getting login prompts0.
Thanks for the pointer to the other topic, though in a quick read I didn’t see anything to address what I’m seeing.
Some apps also have a setting for allowing insecure connections. Make sure this is enable for the local network, otherwise it defaults to the secured remote address which won’t work without internet.
To be fair, that’s an opinion based on a particular expectation. A reasonable one.
However, in a larger context, a centralized Plex account offers some advantages, specifically to those who may not (or may) own their own Plex Media Servers and who may be using shared media from several servers.
The centralized account allows them to view all of their shared servers without having to log into each individually. The design choice Plex made was to centralize this to ease the process for client devices. There were certainly other options, such as requiring users to have different accounts for every server to which they had access.
I do agree that, at the very least, a server admin should always have access to their server, with or without Internet access being available.
Single signon is implemented widely, but almost always these systems allow local admin logins.
What happens one day if Plex.tv just disappears? If you look widely at the world of smart home devices, it happens all the time either by failure of companies, or companies deciding to monetize the control they have over uses.
I hope it doesn’t happen to plex, but I believe they SHOULD build it so the local aspects keep working regardless.
I went through both Ian and Irma in Florida, which both times lost internet for days (in one) and weeks (in the other). It’s another great example of why local control should always be available.
I use Kodi for my player piano system (tied to Home Assistant) but Plex’s real feature for me is managing DVR’s of off-air shows (I have two HDHomeRun4k’s for different antennae). It’s 100% of my usage.
I’d probably switch if I found a good alternative, avoid all the complexity of Plex trying to use me as a product, but it does this very well and I’ve found no equivalent, though I have not looked hard.
But I’m going to stick with my opinion that any failures during internet outage to access local media is a failure of design, and/or of implementation, whether on purpose or lack of competence, and it would be nice if they (whoever they are) would address it.
I have both 12 cable tuners off of Xfinity recording 24/7 deleting commercials with MCE buddy puts it back onto the Plex server which is shared by Kodi also also use tmm personal scraper that puts posters and nfo files in the folders that way if I ever have to take my drives elsewhere I can quickly scan set up Kodi and the library no internet required
I use Jellyfin as a backup media server, in the event that Plex is unavailable because of an Internet outage. It runs side-by-side with PMS on one of my servers. Its clients are not great (lacking polish and stability), but I have the benefit of using primarily Apple devices, so I can use the Infuse client which supports JF directly.
when you have to manually have to setup addresses! Don’t need to for Kodi to use the same drives over the local network
that way if I ever have to take my drives elsewhere I can quickly scan set up Kodi and the library no internet required