Server Version#: 1.43.2.10687 Player Version#: Plex for Android (Mobile) 2026.13.0 (971050317)
Title: “Network Error” on specific pre-playback decision call (checkFiles=1&includeChapters=1&includeMarkers=1)
Plex Media Server (bare-metal Linux), custom domain via reverse proxy on OPNsense/Caddy. Remote Access disabled, Custom server access URL set correctly, Secure Connections = Preferred.
Symptom: Plex Android app (2026.13.0) fails to start playback over mobile data with a generic client-side error on this exact request pattern:
GET /library/metadata/<id>?checkFiles=1&includeChapters=1&includeMarkers=1
status: Network Error (no HTTP status code)
Browsing, other metadata calls (even ones including checkFiles=1 alongside different parameters), and the mobile browser hitting the same domain all work reliably. Only this exact three-parameter combination, issued by the native app’s pre-playback decision logic, fails.
What’s been ruled out, in order:
- Caddy transport settings (HTTP/1.1 forced, keepalive tuned) — no change
- Firewall / GeoIP rules — no change
- PMS itself — the exact query string never appears in PMS’s own log, ever, across dozens of failed attempts
- Reverse proxy access log — same query string never appears there either
- DNS, certificates, phone-side blockers — all checked, none implicated
Has anyone on the dev/support side seen this specific query pattern fail before? Happy to share full Caddy access logs, PMS logs, and the app’s debug log if useful.
