I did this.
So, this is a little weird and probably offers some info into why this has been so hard to diagnose.
I look at server and see it is not accessible. I fire up my mobile app (not connected to wifi) and ,while it loads slowly, it still loads as if it is connected. I go to canyouseeme.org and it shows my PMS port as unavailable but my other service ports open. Then, within a minute or so, I’m back to fully accessible, canyouseeme.org says my port is open, and everything is fine.
I did go ahead and grab the mobile log, just in case you want me to send it? I’ll keep trying to get one where it fails entirely.
This is really aggravating. I restart plex and get remote access working again, leave the house, and when I go to watch it it’s down again. It’s been working for months with no issues until the other day. I tried updating today to see if that would fix it, no change.
My port is manually forwarded and will work for a short time and then craps out again. Seriously, can’t you guys fix this?
OK, maybe something with good-ish outcomes?
I have historically used port 32400. When I’ve been testing, I’ve noticed that the 32400 port fails when other ports are open.
Since I changed my external port to 32500 (last night) my port monitor (testing every 60 seconds) hasn’t failed at all. Maybe celebrating too early but, so far so good.
I’ve been up for more than 24 hours after nothing more than changing the public port. Give it a try and see if it works for you. To be clear, it makes no sense as to why it would work. Just add a new port forward to your router with the external port range being something different and the internal port being 32400. Then manually set the port for your remote access to the port that you made the external port.
I made the change at the red mark on my monitor below.
Looks like mine might be a VPN issue. When I turned it off it was staying active and not immediately losing remote access. I just updated to the newest version for my VPN to see if that will fix the problem. Contacted their tech support too to make sure I’m not missing something. I haven’t had an issue with it in the past. Now I just have to wait and see if I lose connection again.
It may be just coincidental
May be there were issues at our plex.tv / pubsub servers in handling of the load of persistent frequent connectivity tests. May be the infrastructure at the back end cannot handle every Tautulli managed server doing a connectivity test every minute
I had referred the evidence to our plex.tv team
May be ISP issue / dropping some 32400 packets?
could you check what pubsub server you are using
Look in the registry - area
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server
And value in field PubSubServer
184.105.148.114
Thank you. Still same pubsub server
Add me the list of people that is having problems. Frustrating as sometimes it worked and other times doesn’t. Now I can’t get it to work at all - shows connected for about 10 seconds than disconnects. If I reboot PMS, it will sometimes connect and stay connected but will not work outside the network on devices.
I hope this get’s fixed real soon. Anyone know where I can downgrade versions? Anyone know which version broke the remote access?
This is BS…This is why there are competitors. Consider me and 6 other people that I know that are having the same issue are going to move on from Plex. At least give us the ability to downgrade the OS until you can figure out a fix.
A complete joke!
I am sorry but each case needs to be investigated through diagnostics as they are not all the same underlying issue.
There have been two cases of problems when using Tautulli to monitor remote access asking plex.tv every minute to test the connectivity. It is possible that plex.tv servers could not handle the volume of requests from every Tautulli managed server doing a request every minute.
There was another to do with use of vpn and there was another to do with being connected through a CGNAT Public IP resulting in Double NAT and fixed after upgrading the ISP package to fix the public IP. Another was that a user replaced the server and forgot to update the port forward to switch it to the new server.
Please enable debug logging on the server.
See https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/
Restart the server to get fresh logs
Reproduce the problem
Note down the time when the issue arises and take screenshots
Collect the server logs - see https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/
and if using a port forward get screenshots of the settings in the router for the port forward rule and the dhcp reservation for the server IP address
Thanks
Thanks - I will probably have to tackle this sometime later this week or weekend.
@sa2000 thanks for all the thorough responses on this thread. I, too, have been experiencing remote access woes very similar to what @KnightCat83 has described. All of this was never subject matter until mid-last year. Now it gets brought to my attention as regular occurrence where all my other hosted services continue to be reliable. I have over 60+ external Plex family & friends that report connection problems from ATV, Roku, FireTV, and iOS clients.
There is no clear reason to the unavailable status that is shown on the server status screen. Canuseeme.org verifies, as usual, the custom port-redirect is available when being reported that it is not to various Plex clients. The recurrence happens 4-6 hours after my NAS (and Plex) are powered on each morning at 8AM. Again, all the other hosted services on my Synology that use a static port forward (static public IP & priv IP) consistently work fine. In Roku clients for example, when reported “Plex is not available” - I click “refresh” on the Plex “Remote Access” screen, they are immediately able to connect again for a few hours.
One strange new occurrence to note: I updated to the latest PMS recently in hopes PubSub issues have been corrected from previous versions after attempting recommendations you provided on other threads. After many hours of troubleshooting I found, as of late, remote connections are active longer after uninstalling/downgrading to 1.15.1.791 - but when PMS reports remote connections are no longer avail in the server section it lists the last available Synology approved package version running which is 1.13.4.5721. This is checking with both the web client using the internal static IP via port 32400 (obviously no port redirect for internal address), and the MacOS Plex Media Player. Screen shot below (keep in mind 1.15.1.791 is installed). Restarting the Plex service on my Syno 918+ refreshes this and reports the correct version.
I have no issue PM’ing logs if this helps
I’ve tried the same by changing my port to another then 32400, but no succes.
The green checkmark did last a little longer (instead of a few minutes it now stayed green to an hour), but the problem is still here.
My setup (VPN with a bypass for plex ip’s, see xflak script), static ip with port forwarding enabled has been working for years and now it suddenly stopped.
When I disable VPN (or disable the extra NIC that is created by it) I have no problems.
Whilst use of VPN is outside the scope of my support, I would be happy to have a look at logs covering time from launch of Plex Media Server and enabling remote access and to time of failure and indication of symptom and when it arose
Of course if there is evidence of vpn working consistently before with a different version of PMS and not any more then i can have a look at that and see why
Hereby the logs and screenshots. After restarting the server at 19:55u remote acces was working, a minute later (19:56u) it went downlogplusScreenshots.rar (4.0 MB)
Have you made any router changes since you posted the screenshots at 20:04 your time?
The port forward screenshot showed the local port as 32500 and not 32400. Local port should always be 32400
You mentioned this - was there a time in the periods covered by the logs when you had disabled the extra NIC ?
Can you provide me with logs when VPN is disabled and remote access enabled ok and working.
I presume the extra NIC you mention is this one
DEBUG - * 29 IKEv2-Surfshark Connection {A8DA3C54-CEA7-4520-A053-24B46BA471FF} (10.6.6.27) (loopback: 0)
First of all, thank you for taking time to look into this problem.
Hereby a new log with VPN disabled when the server is started freshly. I have also reverted the port forward change back to 32400 as it has always been set and also set this in plex media server.
Remote access now works fine.
Also included a 2nd log, with vpn enabled again. Remote acces first works, then it doesnt, and later it works again (while plex says remote access not working?)PLex media - remote acces working - then not - then again incl SS.rar (3.2 MB)
Plex Media - Remote acces working.zip (3.0 MB)
The IKEv2-Surfshark Connection is the one I meant indeed. This connection is created by the VPN software.
