Live TV, HDHomeRun, No Internet. Loose Local Access To HDHomeRun Later?

[urbnsr]

Server Version#: 1.23.0.4438 and one previous version back
Player Version#: Various
Tuner Make/Model: HDHomeRun HDHR5-4US

I have read through various info on how to setup a local Plex server so there is still access to the server when the internet goes down. I followed the info as best I could and then disconnected the internet and all seemed well - We could still use our Plex server on the local network accessing local media and Live TV, so I thought the job was complete. And maybe it was.

Recently, we lost our internet connection for real and we could access the Live TV through our HDHomeRun. About 14 hours after loosing the internet, we could still watch live TV. But, after 15 hours, though, we could only get an endless circle spinning with no percentage displayed while trying to watch Live TV. I guess the circle wasn’t endless because it would timeout and display an error message. From the same server I could access the HDHomeRun through a webui, ping and even the HDHomeRun config program running on Ubuntu 18.04LTS verifying that TV channels were available. All devices are either using static IPs or are specified IPs through DHCP using MAC address to ID the devices.

Approximately 20 hours after loosing WAN access, our internet connection was restored and instantly we could watch Live TV again. Was this just a coincidence? I was under the impression that there is no other connection requirements to use this setup…?
I wish I would have tried to record a show during this 5 hour window, but I didn’t.

Something else that I came across was that during this outage time, on a different network outside our local Plex server network and on a browser that has never connected to anything Plex related, I connected and logged in at plex.tv and then clicked on Launch. I didn’t know what I was going to get on screen since our Plex server was not available, but it came up with all our custom Libraries in the left-hand column and also in the order they were placed (unavailable, obviously).

So, just how much of our server information is also stored externally on, at least, Plex’s servers?? And why couldn’t our Plex server offer live TV through the HDHomeRun after 15 hours without an internet connection?

[OttoKerner]

I cannot say anything about Live TV, but the pinned libraries (and their order) was stored in your account on plex.tv, due to this button being activated:

[urbnsr]

Thank you. I didn’t realize this would store data outside of the server. I assumed it held the sync data locally to provide to any web request in or out. Since the sync of Libraries would more than likely need to be able to access the server’s content, I’m not sure why it would be better to store this data externally…?

[OttoKerner]

It cannot be stored on the server, because a user can have libraries from several different servers pinned to his side bar.
So it has to be stored centrally, where it is available even if one of the servers is temporarily unavailable.
And the plex.tv user acccount is already there, so it is easy to store some ID numbers for server and library which are pinned.

[urbnsr]

OK. Thanks. I didn’t even think of multiple server library pinning.

[urbnsr]

As far as the Live TV access, is it possible that Plex wants to verify every so often that the local server is attached to an account with a Plex Pass. Maybe, without verification after a set amount of time, the server cannot verify and the tuner(s) become unavailable?

[urbnsr]

Anybody?

[pl_5309]

As you suspect, Live TV is a Plex Pass feature which the server “checks” every 24 hours to validate.

[urbnsr]

So, if I decide to get rid of the internet someday , I won’t be watching much OTA TV with Plex?

[pl_5309]

LOL, not unless the upcoming Live TV&DVR redesign decouples the constant checking with the mothership for EPG and metadata.

[urbnsr]

Ha! Guess it’s not much without an EPG. Of course, if there was a way to record by time…