Location of Secure Connections ("Preferred") option in Plex Web becomes server unavailability

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Server Version#: DSM 6.2.2-24922 Update 2
Player Version#: 1.16.4.1469-6d5612c2f

Hi there,

Last night my Plex began to list itself as unable to connect securely by both myself and 2 friends. This morning I attempted to follow this guide to solve it, which had me look for the “preferred” option of secure connections.

I think that the UI has been updated since that guide was made because the layout is entirely different now. Unable to do that, I attempted to follow a different guide to refresh the permissions. I got as far as attempting step #5, but because I’m on a remote connection I don’t think I was able to connect to the specific address. I attempted to simply log in via app.plex.tv and now its telling me that my server “is unreachable. Make sure it’s running, double check your network, and try again.”

In the process of doing this I’ve restarted the Synology NAS, stopped the process within the package center and restarted it, and signed out and in again.

Does anyone know what’s going on and how I can fix this?

Thanks much,

JH

2

May we have the logs please?

Given this occurred last night, Recreating by restarting PMS (DEBUG logging on, VERBOSE off)
then recreate what you see will tell me more about what’s happening.

Most likely, the logs will show as it starts.

If noticed, Trumpy instructed to access locally via the LAN IP address instead of app.plex.tv
This is the best way to get control of it again.

3

I’ve never uploaded logs before; I’ve put the entire zipped folder here. If that’s not what you were looking for let me know!
Plex Media Server Logs_2019-08-07_11-35-45.zip (2.2 MB)

4

I am seeing proper playback activity in the logs.

This is telling me the issue is most likely with the player. Can this be replicated in other players?

If you’are using PMP, I unfortunately can’t be of any help (not used it)

Aug 07, 2019 11:30:34.308 [0x7f00917ea700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: vaapi, final encoder: vaapi
Aug 07, 2019 11:30:34.309 [0x7f00917ea700] DEBUG - Job running: EAE_ROOT='/volume1/Plex/tmp_transcoding/pms-3fce8787-7798-4f66-8746-87c4933ee788/EasyAudioEncoder' FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS='/volume1/Plex/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/dd95667-2434-linux-x86_64/' XDG_CACHE_HOME='/volume1/Plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache' XDG_DATA_HOME='/volume1/@appstore/Plex Media Server/Resources' X_PLEX_TOKEN='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' '/volume1/@appstore/Plex Media Server/Plex Transcoder' '-codec:0' 'hevc' '-hwaccel:0' 'vaapi' '-hwaccel_fallback_threshold:0' '10' '-hwaccel_output_format:0' 'vaapi' '-analyzeduration' '20000000' '-probesize' '20000000' '-i' '/var/services/homes/plex/TV Shows/Regular Show/Season 06/Regular Show - S06E24 - Brilliant Century Duck Crisis Special.mkv' '-filter_complex' '[0:0]hwupload[0];[0]scale_vaapi=w=720:h=406:format=nv12[1];[1]hwupload[2]' '-map' '[2]' '-codec:0' 'h264_vaapi' '-b:0' '684k' '-maxrate:0' '912k' '-bufsize:0' '1824k' '-r:0' '23.975999999999999' '-force_key_frames:0' 'expr:gte(t,0+n_forced*8)' '-map' '0:1' '-metadata:s:1' 'language=eng' '-codec:1' 'copy' '-copypriorss:1' '0' '-f' 'dash' '-min_seg_duration' '8000000' '-skip_to_segment' '1' '-time_delta' '0.0625' '-manifest_name' 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/sep2by2d03rkldk8kek9i1yq/60b8aaa4-1b1a-40e4-960a-c39f24842e47/manifest' '-avoid_negative_ts' 'disabled' '-map_metadata' '-1' '-map_chapters' '-1' 'dash' '-start_at_zero' '-copyts' '-vsync' 'cfr' '-y' '-vaapi_device' '/dev/dri/renderD128' '-nostats' '-loglevel' 'quiet' '-loglevel_plex' 'error' '-progressurl' 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/sep2by2d03rkldk8kek9i1yq/60b8aaa4-1b1a-40e4-960a-c39f24842e47/progress'
Aug 07, 2019 11:30:34.310 [0x7f00917ea700] DEBUG - Jobs: Starting child process with pid 25461

PS: Having the logs this way is perfect. Thank you.

5

I assume PMP refers to Plex Media Player?

Here’s what I can tell you, if this helps at all:

  • my friend can technically access all my media, but gets a little yellow warning (exlamation mark in a yellow circle) next to each of the libraries for the server.
  • I can technically access the server from app.plex.tv, though the results are bizzarely inconsistent. I’ve tried to refresh the web player a bunch and the behavior seems to follow a pattern: the server says that it’s unavailable (can’t connect securely), but sometimes, not always, it suddenly corrects itself and shows me all my media without issue
  • I dont know if this makes this more or less complicated, but accessing from my iPhone app seems to result in zero issues. I can stream things and there’s no problem. Does this help?
6

It also says that it’s not available outside my network, if that helps at all

7

Using the generic URL app.plex.tv , which works for both internal and external, is the source of the confusion.

  1. App.plex.tv is where Plex/Web gets loaded.
  2. It still must find your server.
  3. This is why it works when on your LAN but not when remote.
  4. You also state it’s not remotely accessible which further tells me it is switching to local mode.

Please do clarify, in event I have misunderstood above, what you mean by technically access the server ? Is it accessible in the manner I stated above?

Have you attempted to open the server directly on your lan by using it’s IP address ?

8

What I mean is that to the best of my knowledge, I believe she’s been able to watch things. So technically, using her account (I’ve enabled her access as a friend), she can reach things on my server but it’s alerting her that the connection isn’t secure.

Your explanation is helping me understand this, I think. It sounds like I don’t have any issue accessing the server from my LAN, but when I attempt over a remote network the server can’t establish a secure connection. I haven’t attempted to open the server over my LAN via it’s IP (I’m currently at work, I can’t reach it right now), but would that entail the process that Trumpy was talking about?

Also, as far as I can make sense of this, while it is technically “remotely accessible” (sorry if I’m retracting things I said earlier), it’s giving me all sorts of warnings that it’s not available/secure. And yet I’m able to stream things? I’m getting a notice that it’s “indirect”…

9

Thank you. You said the magic word: “Indirect” :slight_smile:

Indirect is when the playback outside your home must be sent through plex.tv.
Normal operation is to connect direct to your server and have full quality.

It seems we’ve answered the bulk of that and now which remains is to determine why you don’t have Remote Acccess (Direct) capability.

Do you need assistance with testing and diagnosing this?
What was the last known state of it ? Remote should be working or not working?

10

I would love some help diagnosing this, thank you.

By remote woking/not working, I assume you mean Remote Access (Direct) should be working properly, yes? I have occasionally had issue with this way in the past (last time I remember is probably almost a year ago), but up until the last 24 hours it was working fine. I access the server through app.plex.tv maybe even daily, so in the past the indirect alert hadn’t been happening.

Is this what you mean? or does “last known state of it” refer to something else?

11

Yes, There are folks who access via app.plex.tv but don’t have Remote Access enabled.

Since you would like it enabled, now come the plethora of questions :wink:

  1. Has server restart had any impact on restoring remote access?
  2. Did the modem/router/firewall receive any firmware updates?
  3. Did DSM receive an update ?
12
  1. As far as I know, it hasn’t.
  2. It’s a modem/router combo, and as far as I know it hasn’t received any updates.
  3. I manually updated DSM this morning thinking it would fix something. It updated node.js v8, synology drive server, and synology application service.

At first it may seem like the obvious issue was with the Drive Server, but I’m not so sure about that. Unless you know that by default Plex works with it? I don’t actually use that application (I don’t think), though it does seem to have some info in the console that could be related to indexing some plex stuff.

Something odd that happened recently however is that it looks like in the log it’s turned off and on 10 times in the past day. It says its operating correctly right now…

I think it’s more likely an issue between the node.js v8 and the Synology Application Service, as there’s a series of recursive-looking alerts:

Please install the following package(s) before installing this package: SynologyApplicationService 2019-08-01 11:29

Please install the following package(s) before installing this package: Node.js_v8 2019-08-01 11:29

and those two would just repeat, I think 24 times.

I don’t know. Do you have a read on any of this?

13

Plex doesn’t use any of the Synology packages. It brings everything it needs with it.

It is dependent on the Synology firewall allowing the inbound connection to port 32400/TCP.

Is that perhaps blocked?

The next thing would be port forwarding from the modem/router stopped working and, if not automatic, needs to be set manually.

14

Hm. That actually may be it? I set up port forwarding for Minecraft last week and to do so required that I reset my router/modem, so perhaps in doing so that wiped settings related to Plex.

I don’t remember doing any port forwarding for the Synology before but I may have actually. Is that something I would allow specifically within the Synology’s DSM OS, or would I do it through the router/modem itself? The rule I set up for the Minecraft server was through the router/modem but the way you’re wording “Synology firewall” sounds like it’d be a setting through the DSM OS itself.

Is there a guide to what you’re talking about?

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