Please help : server vanished (including from local web app)

General Discussions
1

Now this is something I’ve never experienced in all these years with Plex : the 1.1.4 server hosted on my Synology vanished.

I can access the local web app on the NAS (http://192.168.0.100:32400/manage/index.html, 192.168.0.100 being the NAS IP), I can log in using my pin code, but the app says there is no server found.

What I’ve tried/checked :

  • access from plex.tv yields the same result
  • the server appears on the “devices” tab as last seen 19 hours ago
  • manually upgrading from 1.1.4 to 1.2.2 changed nothing
  • the PMS process is running (as seen by ps on the NAS)

I’ve seen the following errors in the PMS log when restarting :

Oct 13, 2016 22:03:28.186 [0xf3111b40] INFO - Plex Media Server v1.2.2.2857-d34b464 - synology DiskStation i686 - build: linux-synology-i686 synology - GMT 02:00
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:28.186 [0xf3111b40] INFO - Linux version: 3.10.77 (#7393 SMP Thu Jun 2 19:50:12 CST 2016), language: C
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:28.186 [0xf3111b40] INFO - Processor         Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU  C2538  @ 2.40GHz
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:28.186 [0xf3111b40] INFO - /var/packages/Plex Media Server/target/Plex Media Server
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:28.911 [0xf1fffb40] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining encoder 'libx264' (profile '')
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:37.076 [0xee911b40] ERROR - Network Service: Error in browser handle read: 125 (Operation canceled) socket=-1
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:37.176 [0xee911b40] INFO - Network Service: Abandoning browse socket, it was closed.
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:41.677 [0xf1fffb40] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'h264' (profile '')
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:50.932 [0xf1223b40] ERROR - Error issuing curl_easy_perform(handle): 28
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:50.933 [0xf1223b40] ERROR - PublicAddressManager: Unable to get public IP adddress from myPlex (httpCode=408):
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:57.707 [0xf1fffb40] ERROR - Error issuing curl_easy_perform(handle): 28
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:57.707 [0xf1fffb40] ERROR - HTTP 408 downloading url https://plex.tv/api/codecs/h264_decoder?build=linux-synology-i686&deviceId=e574972d-9d7e-4fdb-ad02-f16896622881&oldestPreviousVersion=legacy&version=5a2d9a2-1127
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:57.708 [0xf1fffb40] ERROR - Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec 'h264'/''; dec=1
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:57.708 [0xf1fffb40] WARN - Codecs: Failed to download h264 decoder; bailing out
Oct 13, 2016 22:03:59.674 [0xf07ffb40] INFO - Refreshing paths watched by LibraryUpdateManager

And in com.plexapp.system.log :

 2016-10-13 22:03:34,749 (-8f14900) :  CRITICAL (runtime:709) - Private handlers are no longer supported; couldn't register <bound method StreamService.token_handler of <streamservice.StreamService object at 0x8b5302c>

Any idea what could go wrong?

EDIT : including solution in OP

Thanks for the help! As suggested in your private message, clearing the following entry from the Preferences.xml and restarting fixed my issue :
allowedNetworks=“127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255”

I guess something unexpected happened when trying to reclaim the server remotely.

2

The com.plexapp.system.log error can be ignored.

The server log errors indicate that the NAS lost internet connectivity as it is getting timeout errors on communication with plex.tv. You have debug logging enabled so can only see logged errors /'warnings

I think you probably had Secure Connections set to Required and also you have Plex Home and pin on the admin account

Do you get the buttons for settings for plex web after you enter your pin ? that would allow us to see web settings and enable verbose logging in the web app (Settings / Web / Show Advanced / Debug) and retry to connect to the server and then getting the debug log

You could have a look at the xml from this request https://plex.tv/pms/resources.xml?includeHttps=1&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxx to see what the plex.direct routes to the server are and if they work and also test with nslookup

The token string you can get from Preferences.xml in item PlexOnlineToken

3

Spot on for the secure connections (only allowed on local network) and plex home. I have access to the web part, here’s the web debugging log :

! [
! {
! “type”: “info”,
! “host”: “192.168.0.100:32400”,
! “userAgent”: “Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:49.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/49.0”,
! “browser”: {
! “id”: “firefox”,
! “name”: “Firefox”,
! “version”: “49.0”,
! “gecko”: true,
! “platform”: “Windows”,
! “platformID”: “windows”,
! “platformVersion”: “10”,
! “platformModifierKey”: “ctrl”
! },
! “version”: “2.9.3”,
! “username”: “dpolombo”,
! “cloudUrl”: [
! {
! “scheme”: “https”,
! “address”: “plex.tv”,
! “uri”: “https://plex.tv”,
! “testState”: “connected”,
! “isBundled”: false,
! “isFallback”: false,
! “relay”: false,
! “isPossiblyCrossNetworkProtected”: false,
! “isUntested”: false,
! “isPending”: false,
! “isConnected”: true,
! “isUnauthorized”: false,
! “isUnavailable”: false,
! “isFailed”: false,
! “isAborted”: false,
! “isLoopback”: false,
! “isPrivate”: false,
! “isHttps”: true,
! “isSecure”: true,
! “isPlexDirect”: false,
! “currentTest”: null,
! “sources”: [
! {
! “id”: “internal”
! }
! ]
! }
! ],
! “cloudAccessToken”: true
! },
! {
! “type”: “navigation”,
! “route”: “logs”,
! “args”: [
! null
! ],
! “fragment”: “#!/logs”,
! “time”: “2016-10-14T05:32:26.086Z”
! },
! {
! “type”: “log:message”,
! “level”: 4,
! “message”: “[Servers] Populate any server chose plex.tv where servers = Chaos, plex.tv”,
! “time”: “2016-10-14T05:32:39.120Z”
! },
! {
! “type”: “navigation”,
! “route”: “dashboard”,
! “args”: [
! null
! ],
! “fragment”: “”,
! “time”: “2016-10-14T05:32:39.180Z”
! },
! {
! “type”: “ajax”,
! “url”: “https://plex.tv/api/subscriptions/plans”,
! “status”: 200,
! “headers”: {
! “X-Plex-Product”: “Plex Web”,
! “X-Plex-Version”: “2.9.3”,
! “X-Plex-Client-Identifier”: “9znpxbkiul4”,
! “X-Plex-Platform”: “Firefox”,
! “X-Plex-Platform-Version”: “49.0”,
! “X-Plex-Device”: “Windows”,
! “X-Plex-Device-Name”: “Plex Web (Firefox)”,
! “X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution”: “1920x885,1920x1080”,
! “X-Plex-Token”: “TOKEN”,
! “Accept-Language”: “fr”
! },
! “responseLength”: 339,
! “time”: “2016-10-14T05:32:39.432Z”
! },
! {
! “type”: “ajax”,
! “url”: “https://plex.tv/api/subscriptions/plans?X-Plex-Product=Plex%20Web&X-Plex-Version=2.9.3&X-Plex-Client-Identifier=9znpxbkiul4&X-Plex-Platform=Firefox&X-Plex-Platform-Version=49.0&X-Plex-Device=Windows&X-Plex-Device-Name=Plex%20Web%20(Firefox)&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=1920x885%2C1920x1080&X-Plex-Token=TOKEN”,
! “status”: 200,
! “headers”: {
! “Accept-Language”: “fr”
! },
! “responseLength”: 339,
! “time”: “2016-10-14T05:32:39.433Z”
! },
! {
! “type”: “log:message”,
! “level”: 4,
! “message”: “[Servers] Populate any server chose plex.tv where servers = Chaos, plex.tv”,
! “time”: “2016-10-14T05:33:27.781Z”
! },
! {
! “type”: “navigation”,
! “route”: “settings”,
! “args”: [
! null
! ],
! “fragment”: “#!/settings”,
! “time”: “2016-10-14T05:33:27.826Z”
! },
! {
! “type”: “navigation”,
! “route”: “logs”,
! “args”: [
! null
! ],
! “fragment”: “#!/logs”,
! “time”: “2016-10-14T05:33:30.570Z”
! }
! ]

The token is empty in the Preferences.xml on the nas, though. This might be because I tried to sign the server in again from a remote connection to the server yesterday morning, which I did because I was getting a PlexSync error message saying I had to be signed in for sync to work (that was also a new error for me, but obviously one that’s not as bad as the local Plex web client not seeing the server).

None of my apps can see the server at this point : PHT, Android devices, even the Plex Rarflix on my Roku.
EDIT : the iPad says “Not authorized” next to the server, instead of just saying it can’t find it.

4

@dpolombo said:
Spot on for the secure connections (only allowed on local network) and plex home. I have access to the web part,

The token is empty in the Preferences.xml on the nas, though.

Empty PlexOnlineToken does not look good and I don’t know how it arose.
Could you zip the Preferences.xml and send it to me by Private Message and after that we can try and see if we can recover the server by editing the Preferences.xml

So first thing we could try is changing Secure Connections from Required to Preferred by editing the item named secureConnections changing the value from 0 to 1 and restarting the server and then seeing if you can get through http://192.168.0.100:32400/web

If that does not work, you could disestablish Plex Home and remove the pin on your account first and then deleting a number of entries in Preferences.xml - see https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/204281528-Why-am-I-locked-out-of-Server-Settings-and-how-do-I-get-in-

5

I suspect it has to do with me trying to re-sign the server in remotely when I got a sync error. I typed in my plex.tv login/password, and lost access to the server when submitting the form. Something must have gone wrong at that point.

I’ve sent you the Preferences.xml, then disabled Plex Home (on the web app at least)/removed my pin, and deleted all the PlexOnline entries, but it didn’t change anything after the restart.

6

@dpolombo said:
I suspect it has to do with me trying to re-sign the server in remotely when I got a sync error. I typed in my plex.tv login/password, and lost access to the server when submitting the form. Something must have gone wrong at that point.

Signing the server in would switch the server into secure mode

@dpolombo said:
I’ve sent you the Preferences.xml, then disabled Plex Home (on the web app at least)/removed my pin, and deleted all the PlexOnline entries, but it didn’t change anything after the restart.

Thanks

The server has not been seen by plex.tv for 4 days so may be you have an internet connectivity issue from the server itself.

Please edit Preferences.xml to add logDebug="1" to enable Debug Logging - and restart the server - that way we can see if there are internet network connectivity issues from within the Plex Media Server process.

7

I’ll do that. In the meantime, does this mean Plex won’t work any more on my local network if I lose internet connectivity?

8

@dpolombo said:
I’ll do that. In the meantime, does this mean Plex won’t work any more on my local network if I lose internet connectivity?

The internet is needed for access tokens that are in plex.tv and certificate information for secure connections

Have a look at this support page for information on internet connectivity dependencies
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200484903-Internet-and-Network-Requirements

9

Thanks for the help! As suggested in your private message, clearing the following entry from the Preferences.xml and restarting fixed my issue :
allowedNetworks="127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255"

I guess something unexpected happened when trying to reclaim the server remotely.

10

Thanks for all your help @dpolombo in explaining what was done.

Basically if the server is signed out then the 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255 in List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth is restricting access to just that IP Address. And without browser capability on the NAS you cannot access the Plex Media Server anymore as you have no mechanism open the plex web client on the NAS

There is no way that I know of for that value to be in there unless you set it yourself. So by having it set then all access is authenticated with plex.tv but the moment you sign the server out then there is no authentication anymore and that list of networks and IP Addresses takes effect.