# Internet down - plex clients stop working? Intent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Players\ **Tags:** server-windows, android-tv\ **Created:** [May 29, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/internet-down-plex-clients-stop-working-intent/939261 "2026-05-29T19:10:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 4
**Author:** ![pshanew](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/pshanew/32/160555_2.png) [@pshanew](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pshanew)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2026, 8:12pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/internet-down-plex-clients-stop-working-intent/939261/4 "2026-05-29T20:12:45Z")
Simply put Plex, as a platform, [isn’t designed to function without Internet access](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200484903-internet-and-network-requirements/). 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. [There’s a feature suggestion to allow for local auth on PMS itself](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-built-in-local-authentication-server-prevent-plex-tv-outage/111339/90), but I don’t know how popular it is. 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. > [@\[HowTo\] Use Plex with No Internet](https://forums.plex.tv/t/howto-use-plex-with-no-internet/383325): > > I’ve seen far too many posts regarding “can’t connect to Plex with no internet”, and an uprising/outcry always ensues. It eventually settles down, but the lack of single point resources can be frustrating. I’ve been there, no internet - can’t google anything from a computer so a phone will have to do, but navigating through results and trying “solutions” can be daunting. I’m creating this How-To to help alleviate those posts and help everyone access their servers when the net is down. Couple of … 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. --- _[View the full topic](https://forums.plex.tv/t/internet-down-plex-clients-stop-working-intent/939261)._