No access outside your network since Version 1.13.4.5271

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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I have been running PLEX Media server on MAC OS for over 2 years, no changes to the modem, router or ISP, Seems that since last update it has been a constant struggle to keep my Plex Media Server, “accessible outside your network” for no apparent reason PMS becomes inaccessible, I can usually sign in and out and reclaim the server which seems to fix the issue for a day.

Anyone else having issues since the last update?

7/26/2018 Update–Still doing it, however, I have noticed that I will see users on the Plex Media Server , and it actually is indicating that its, “Not available outside your network” I can refresh, and stays the same, “Not available outside your network” but if I disconnect and reclaim it becomes accessible.

7/26/2018–Just Tested, Had outside user log out while watching an attempt to come back in and Server was not an accessible message was given an access denied, I logged out of the server then reclaimed the server, all is fine, Green and “Fully accessible outside your network” see how long it lasts again. So Users that are “In” are not being booted.

7/27/2018–Blocking outside access off and on all day, again the quick fix is to log off and reclaim the server which seems to fix the problem temporarily, I am now setting up port forwarding and seeing if that will be a more permanent fix. Not saying the latest patch is the cause, although I am suspicious, I also do not trust my ISP as doing some kind of shenanigans and causing this also. The router is an Older R6300 Netgear and has been a real workhorse and solid router for a couple years now, port forwarding was fairly simple set-up, once configured PMS, went Green and was accessible outside the network after refresh.

7/30/2018–PMS has stayed accessible outside network since applying port forwarding.

9/15/2018–PMS has more or less stayed accessible outside network since port forwarding was applied, become inaccessible once, nothing I did to the PMS would change its status, a modem and router reboot, however, did solve the issue and PMS has been rock solid since.

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I am having similar connectivity issues. They seemed to have reared their ugly head today. Started with a family members inability to connect… then checking my cell phone(on LTE) could not connect directly or establish a relay connection. Wifi worked fine. Oddly, I used my phone to hotspot to my tablet and plex worked without issue over the cell network in hotspot mode but not on the phone itself. Now, a friend is unable to connect over the cell network but wifi works fine, another friend has no issues on LTE or wifi. something is severely broken with this new update. I’m hesitant to downgrade to the previous release for fear of having to re-scan my whole library.

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I was hesitant to use port forwarding, on my router, it was very easy, and it does seem to have resolved the problem. I googled how to port forward with my router model # and the step by step was found.

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If you’re hesitant for security reasons, you should just upgrade your router period. A newer router I purchased has the option to port forward but only for a certain application. If traffic from another application goes through it, it’s stopped. I tested this out myself and thought it was pretty cool. Also consider security suite. I have Kaspersky. PMS and all the associated exe’s are flagged as Always Trust/Do Not Monitor Traffic. I have it set to monitor port 32400 since I opened my computer up to that port. Just in case other traffic besides Plex comes through it and not stopped at the router level.

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cbabb, What Router and Model # are you using?
Thanks

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I have this one https://www.linksys.com/us/p/P-EA9300/

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Remote access continues to be very unstable or me since I last posted. This is with the last couple updates being installed(hesitantly, as they usually break my remote access). I have it set up as a manual port (32400) - forwarded the ports in my Nighthawk R7000 router, I even went so far as to manually open them in the Windows Firewall - hoping to eliminate another variable/roadblock. I have noticed remote access will go down - but as soon as I click on the remote access settings page it immediately resolves and begins streaming. Tonight was the most frustrating issue yet - remote access was down despite the server showing it was accessible(green check). Nothing has changed network wise. I was unable to get a secure, insecure, or relay connection. I disabled secure connection entirely - not sure if that helped anything as I still couldn’t stream anything outside my network.

After rebooting my router, modem, PC to no avail I finally gave up and installed an older version from months back(1.12.1.4885) and everything resolved immediately.

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Same Here, very unstable, although hitting the “Retry” button seems to briefly enable remote access, then I noticed a refresh of the browser brings it back up all green, which made me doubt if access was truly disabled or not. So I tested… I allowed a day to go by, checked in the morning, “no outside access”, had a user try and access PLEX, sure enough, no access, hit the “apply” and retry button on “Manually specify public port” briefly flashes green, then goes red, no access, had user outside of network attempt access, success! , Refreshed Browser and all Green and PLEX reported access.
Conclusion, 1.something is going on in regards to arbitrarily dropping off the outside access with the new updates, 2. The reporting of access to the GUI is not real-time or somehow it is not “Live”.
I usually check daily the health pf PLEX, although I had rather not, I am an Apple user because I need the stuff to work and not have to mess with it, and eventually I want to turn the PLEX Media Server into a headless device.
Having said all this, there is still no better solution than PLEX and Apple in my opinion, and I have tried them all, Windows, LINUX and a NAS solution, perhaps the solution is to reinstall PLEX (1.12.1.4885) as you did and turn off updates.

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It appears my success was short lived - back to square one. As of now, I am at the office and my plex app states “Direction Connection Unavailable” when I try to connect it then says it can not establish a relay connection.

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I feel your pain, I am not sure that manually specifying a port solved my issue, seems I can switch between auto and manual and get the same erratic behavior. However, for me, I have had more consistent uptime by manually specifying a port.

Is it possible your ISP could be preventing or triggering something that causes a problem? if PLEX upgrades are an issue at least an affirmation from them of it being an issue would be greatly appreciated.

Good Luck and if you pin the problem down I hope you post your solution.
Thanks

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3 days, no drops - oddly enough, as right now, the server shows it is not accessible remotely and I’m NOT on a manually specified port. But, for some reason, I can access it from my phone over LTE without issue. maybe give this version (1.12.1.4885) a shot on yours and see if it helps clear up your remote access issues.

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I have port forwarding enabled and has been very stable with no issues until recently. first I’m running PMS on a 2014 MacMini on Mojave, I have 24TB external storage set up on 2 each X 4 slot USB HD docks, not that has anything to do with this problem, just wanted to establish what hardware I am running. Again since using port forwarding on PMS it has been performing very well and no issues for the most part with outside access, an occasional ISP hiccup that causes me to reboot the modem and router, but I just accept that as part of the facts of life.

This weekend, once again no outside access to the PMS, went thru normal troubleshooting procedures, rebooted modem/router, click retry it would “flash green” and go back red, I rebooted the MacMini Server, I also run NetGear Genie router app when I want to quickly see all the devices I have connected, reboot the router remotely and to make sure I have the latest router firmware etc…I noticed my MacMini had mysteriously changed its IP address, therefore my port forwarding was no longer valid because I was no longer port forwarding the correct IP and port.

Once I changed the port forwarding on the router voila no problem access was once again in the green.

When I tried to assign a static IP to this MacMini (PMS) I again got no access to PMS from the outside, so I changed it back to DHCP, verified I was still forwarding the correct IP and its been fine for a couple days.

Why the IP would mysteriously decide to change I have no idea, but I know in the future when I lose outside access, it will be added to the list of things I check.

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you could leave it as DHCP but have a DHCP reservation in the router for the hardware address of the ethernet card

With a manual port forward the IP address must not change

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