Server Version#: Tell me how to find that out as its not obvious (and not relevant as you will see below)
Player Version#:Version 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83
Ive u-graded to a MBP 2023 M3 Max and installed Plex versionas above and now although I can see my movies (at first it says no media or simiular and then they show after a few second) but although I can SEE them all - when i cliock play I get a nagging pop up saying buy XYZ
Im doing this WITHIN my home network but I USED to be able to do this within and beyond (remotely) my netrwork
“The show can’t go on…yet.
To stream from this library (or any other library you have access to) remotely, you’ll need a Remote Watch Pass subscription. Lucky for you, getting one is easy”
What the …..???
Q1 So is this the creeping cost of Plex? New charges ?
Q2 Web player works fine inside the network (with annpying chrome menu at the top) so why not Plex for MAC?
Q3 If Plex MAC can see my movies - why cant I play them (after upgrading my mac) Same server same Synology kit as before
Q4 Just checkied my old 2015 intel mac reunning plex mac 4.29.2 and that isnt asking mor money - it just works. Why is this new mac version asking for money to play my movies?
Q5 My ipad plays Plex IOS just fine - no cash requests… you get the picture
CLEALRY this IS NOT a SERVER issue. The same serever works on various platforms BUT NOT my new MBP 2023 running tahoe and Plex 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83
Q5 If the solution is to “help” my new mac and plex MAC player realise Im INSIDE my network - then please tell me how
Q6 if I then. (somehow) fix that - will I have another battle to watch my OWN media remotely?
Please help - we all love plex - but when it does this - it sucks. And I hope this isnt a new cash grab ratcheting
apologies if I don’t answer all your questions, but PMS treating local traffic as remote indicates a network or configuration problem. It won’t ask for money from LAN traffic when PMS and the player are on the same subnet and the config is correct. Remote traffic costs money now to stream unless you have a Plex Pass.
So problems could be
multiple interfaces running, wired and wireless is something Macs like to do.
macOS System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network turn on PMS & Plex
Firewall turn it off for now
DNS use top notch public DNS servers like Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1).
Check for double NAT if you have more than one Router on your LAN.
UPnP or NAT-PMP enabled? You could have a port mapping issue.
You could test the above by disabling PMS remote access for now.
Q2 - make sure Plex for Mac Settings → General → Allow Fallback is set to On Same Network As Server
Server Version#: No idea how to find that still (but niot relevant - it workls with pther players just fine remotely)
Player Version#:Version 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83
Ive u-graded to a MBP 2023 M3 Max and installed Plex versionas above and now although I can see my movies (at first it says no media or simiular and then they show after a few second) but although I can SEE them all - when i cliock play I get a nagging pop up saying buy XYZ
Im doing this WITHIN my home network but I USED to be able to do this within and beyond (remotely) my netrwork
“The show can’t go on…yet.
To stream from this library (or any other library you have access to) remotely, you’ll need a Remote Watch Pass subscription. Lucky for you, getting one is easy”
What the …..???
Q1 So is this the creeping cost of Plex? New charges ?
Q2 Web player works fine inside the network (with annpying chrome menu at the top) so why not Plex for MAC?
Q3 If Plex MAC can see my movies - why cant I play them (after upgrading my mac) Same server same Synology kit as before
Q4 Just checkied my old 2015 intel mac reunning plex mac 4.29.2 and that isnt asking mor money - it just works. Why is this new mac version asking for money to play my movies?
Q5 My ipad plays Plex IOS just fine - no cash requests… you get the picture
CLEALRY this IS NOT a SERVER issue. The same serever works on various platforms BUT NOT my new MBP 2023 running tahoe and Plex 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83
Q5 If the solution is to “help” my new mac and plex MAC player realise Im INSIDE my network - then please tell me how
Q6 if I then. (somehow) fix that - will I have another battle to watch my OWN media remotely?
Please help - we all love plex - but when it does this - it sucks. And I hope this isnt a new cash grab ratcheting
Thanks - that only gives me the PLAYER version
Leaving that aside (as the server happily works and plays nicely with many other players remotely) can you throw any light on how to make my MACOS PLAYER work without the cash grab?
VERY kind of you but I dont see those settings Im afraid - see below.
So problems could be
multiple interfaces running, wired and wireless is something Macs like to do.
macOS System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network turn on PMS & Plex
ANSWER: DONT SEEM TO HAVE ANY SUCH SETTING IN THAT LOCAL NETWORK SUB MENU - JUST APPS LIKE MICROSOFT WORD, DA VINCI RESOLVE ETC ETC
Firewall turn it off for now
ANSWER: MAC SYSTEM SETTINGS SHOW THAT IT IS ALREADY * OFF*
DNS use top notch public DNS servers like Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1).
ANSWER: IS THAT ALSO REFERRING TO MY MAC SYSTEM SETTINGS I TRY TO AVOID TINKERING WITH DNS IF POSS :-)) WOULD THAT BREAK EVERYTHING ELSE?
CURRENTLY IT HAS TWO NUMBERS UNDER “DNS SERVERS” - ONE STARTS 198. (etc) and the second one starting fe80: (etc)
Check for double NAT if you have more than one Router on your LAN.
ANSWER: NO JUST ONE BT ROUTER
UPnP or NAT-PMP enabled? You could have a port mapping issue.
APOLOGIES WHERE IS THAT TO BE FOUND - IF ITS ON MY ROUTER WHY WOULD THAT NEED CHANGING IF MY OLD MAC AND IPAD ALL WORK LOCALLY AND REMOTELY WITH PLEX PLAYER?
You could test the above by disabling PMS remote access for now.
SORRY AGAIN WHERE IS THAT SETTING?
Q2 - make sure Plex for Mac Settings → General → Allow Fallback is set to On Same Network As Server
MORE APOLOGIES BUT HOW DO I GET TO THE SERVER SETTINGS? THE WEB APP AND MAC APP ONLY TAKE ME TO THE SETTINGS FOR THOSE APPS?
thank you for your very generous ongoing help. Im really curious - if the ipad and old mac bith work fine with the players they have - remotely or locally - surely this looks like something solely on the M3 mac?
That’s odd. Normally as part of the initial install of Plex for Mac I see Apple pop up a notification saying Plex would like to find computers on my local network, then give me allow or deny options. The solution would probably be to completely uninstall Plex for Mac and install it again. That’s not as simple as dragging it into the trash. Are you familiar with the Terminal app on a Mac and the command line? Do you have any experience with BASH and commands like ls -l or pwd or something like cd ~
I ask because I have shell script that completely uninstalls Plex for Mac and is easy enough to run if you have a rudimentary knowledge of the command line interface (CLI) and permissions. Using that has a decent chance of fixing your ongoing problem. So let me know how much knowledge you have there.
PMS initial install also causes a pop up notification about local networks. Strange you have neither.
Sounds good. When on a private LAN with IP addresses starting with 192.168 and without a VPN you don’t need the firewall.
Your private LAN is often attached to your ISP supplied router where their service enters your house. The ISP router is usually the device that assigns IP addresses automatically to any computer that gets turned on. Along with assigning a computer an IP address, the router also tells the computer the two DNS servers to use. So my answer is the way to change your DNS servers to public ones is most often part of your router’s DHCP options. It’s 100% safe and faster to use Cloudflare DNS servers or Google DNS servers.
Right on. Both addresses are your router (one is IPv4, one is IPv6). The router then forwards the name lookups to the ISP. The disadvantage in using ISP supplied DNS lookups is that the ISP doesn’t update their cache of addresses in real time like CloudFlare and Google do, while Plex is constantly switching servers to different locations around the world based on load and maintenance. So some people find slow responses or lack of functionality.
Ahh that’s good news and eliminates one common problem.
Good question. It’s found on the Router and is used if you have PMS remote access enabled. The function of UPnP and NAT-PMP is to forward incoming player connections from the router to the PMS server. It’s specifically designed to manage the forwarding automatically so that if you changed PMS servers, it would still know where to forward remote player traffic. I was hoping it’s enabled on the router. (However it doesn’t always work perfectly. A green check mark in PMS settings next to the word Remote Access indicates remote access is working. I think you also get a message there that PMS is reachable.)
In the hosted web app or Plex for Mac you go to Settings → Remote Access to turn remote access on or off. See also the next answer below.
If you can’t see your server settings using the hosted web app nor Plex for Mac, this is a big part of your problems. We most likely need to solve this and many other things will just work. I have to think about it for a bit though. It should be easy fix and seems to be related to your not seeing the Apple Local Networks options for Plex nor PMS.
I think my answer will be to completely uninstall PMS and Plex for Mac using my scripts, then installing them again. I used to do this many times a week when testing the Plex apps to assist ChuckPA here on the forums develop his database repair utility, DBRepair. Give me some time to have a coffee and reread our thread.
You’re very welcome. I like things to just work
Yes I agree with your analysis. The problem is most likely on the new M3, but whether there are subtle problems with both PMS and Plex for Mac I haven’t concluded. Many things occur hidden from users like us due to proprietary software but are fixed by cleanly reinstalling.
I tried dleting the app and reinstalling the latest version and it all worked I chose allow local access from the installer (thats all it said / asked)
The it launched plex just fine I could see all my movies - when i cliock on any though it shows this… (still / again)
Back to the DNS suggestion. It will likely fix this issue.
There is a feature of many home routers, particularly when using ISP-provided DNS, called DNS rebinding protection. The purpose of this feature is to prevent DNS from resolving an FQDN (full-qualified domain name) to a private IP address. Ostensibly this is for increased network security.
The problem, as it relates to Plex, is that, for local access, Plex Media Server requires an FQDN to resolved to a local IP address in order to connect to a local server. This is because of how Plex implements their secure connection via TLS/HTTPS.
When Plex is unable to resolve the local IP address via DNS lookup, it relies upon the server’s remote connection info. It worked before because Plex didn’t enforce the local connectivity mandate for free accounts.
All that to say, it would be advisable for you to, as @nibbles suggested, set your DNS server to 1.1.1.1 (and 1.0.0.1 as a secondary). You can do this locally on most devices as a test. Once you confirm it works, you can configure your router to hand out 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 as DNS via DHCP.
If you don’t know how to do this on your devices (or on your router) just ask.
I TRY TO AVOID TINKERING WITH DNS IF POSS :-)) WOULD THAT BREAK EVERYTHING ELSE? 
