Plex Can't Find HDHomeRun

General Discussions
1

NOTE: the Plex server is running on a Mac mini M1 running macOS Sequoia v15.3. Could this issue be related to the macOS?

Issue: Plex server v1.41.3.9314 can’t find HDHomeRun device.

I can see the HDHomeRun device on my router’s attached device list.
I can ping the HDHomeRun device using the IP address from my router.
I can watch antenna TV on the HDHomeRun device using the HDHomeRun app.

When I log into the Plex server as administrator and look at the account settings page and scroll down to the “Live TV & DVR” page, I see the error: “Device not found. Ensure your device is powered on and connected to your network”.

If I try to “Add Another Device”, I get error: “We couldn’t find any hardware we recognize, but will continue to look for available devices”.

If I try to “Enter its network address manually” I get the error: “There was a problem adding the device: 192.168.x.xxx”.

Any ideas how to fix this issue?

2

Another user recently had a similar issue:

Did this ever work for you? Also, is the HDHR tuner on the same logical network as the Plex Media Server host?

(By the way, you don’t need to hide/redact local network addresses; nobody outside your own network will be able to access them.)

3

Yes try last as .127.

4

Thanks for the advice, but x.x.x.127 did not work. Getting same errors listed earlier. Any other ideas would be appreciated. Thanks again.

5

Oh, and yes, this HDHomeRun worked properly with my Plex server for months until 2 days ago.

6

In my case I had to change HDHR IP to x.x.x.127. Then it worked.

7

I found this in a log file for the tuner when it failed. Address in my case PLEX was looking for was 10.0.0.127

8

A while ago had this issue, I deleted the DVR in Plex settings.

Powered down my HDHomeRun, Routers, Server Computer. After powering up all devices, I reserved / LAN Static for the Homerun LAN IP in my router, Created a DVR in Plex and all was good again

9

Is there any way to submit a issue ticket with the Plex technical staff?

As suggested above, I tried powering everything down, deleting the DVR and setting it up again. But I get same errors as before.

Plex server shows spinner while looking for the HDHomeRun and presents message: “We couldn’t find any hardware we recognize but will continue to look for available devices”.

If I try manually adding the HDHomeRun IPv4 I get: "There was a problem adding the device: x.x.x.x.

Again, the HDHomeRun app finds the HDHomeRun device and displays all available over the air antenna channels. The HDHomeRun app works on the Mac running the Plex server, a Windows PC connected to the same network and an iPhone on the same network. So, I don’t think the problem is the HDHomeRun device.

Again, everything worked, for months, up until a couple of days ago. It was around that time that the Mac mini M1 did an OS update to 15.3. And so, I keep thinking the issue might have something to do with macOS Sequoia 15.3. Perhaps an OS API call changed in some way (additional parameters for security, I know Microsoft made changes like that from time-to-time impacting C++ code). And maybe Plex doesn’t support the new (now required) API call format?

Thanks again.

10

See if this can help you.
You will need to setup the tuner in Plex from scratch afterwards.

Another idea:
I seem to remember that MacOS made a security change recently-ish, which prevents all apps from accessing the local network by default. Of course Plex server needs this privilege to communicate with the HDHR tuner device, so be sure to explicitly grant it.

11

Thanks Otto, security was the issue.

Specifically, I had to grant Plex macOS privileges to access local devices (the HDHomeRun), by following these steps:

  1. Go to Apple menu > System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network.
  2. Turn the ability to access your local network on for the Plex application.

Now, my Plex server can connect to the HDHomeRun device.

It must have been that macOS 15.3 (first of the 15 OSs installed on this mac mini M1) implemented this security change as you suggested above. I did not do any of the Plex database edits/deletes mentioned above.

Interestingly, I went over this issue with Apple tech support in a chat session last night and they never suggested this security change/fix.

Thanks again Otto. This issue can now be closed.

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