I reestablished remote access by Port Forwarding. Working again. But something has changed. I have never had to port forward before. 5+ years using plex
It’s too early to make a definitive statement, but I made two small changes and my server hasn’t lost connectivity in the past 48 hours.
-
On the ‘Network’ settings, I turned off GDM for local network discovery.
-
On the ‘Network’ settings, I changed ‘Network interface to listen on’ from ‘Automatic’ to the actual network interface I use. (My server has a single ethernet port, so it was easy to do.)
Like I said, it’s still early, but the server has been (knock on wood) stable since I made these two changes and rebooted the server.
2 Likes
I’m even afraid to do any updates .Since the end of December 2017 anytime I update my windows 10 64 bit I have transcoder issues and nto all files will play. Every once in awhile i’ll try but as stated certain files fail to play. so I have to roll back to the end of December 2017 for things to work. anyone with this issue too.
Windows 10 64 bit
Version 1803
Installed 5/9/2018
OS build 1714.228
It seems the latest PMS update, being Version 1.13.5.5332, has fixed my remote access issues since updating it 3 days ago, which is great news.
Firstly try updating the Plex Media Server via the Plex web app, then also restarting your PC and refreshing your router. If remote access still has on-going issues, you can try uninstalling PMS and then re-installing it, along with a PC restart and router refresh. A great job done by the Plex team.
Hi sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve had free time. I tried updating to the newest version of Plex and all worked well for a week, then it started happening again. It was down this afternoon, but by the time I got home the remote service was back up and running. Do I need to download the logs only when the remote service is down, or will the logs I just downloaded be okay? I’d have to wait for service to be down to get the xml file for you though.
I had the same exact problem, and didn’t know where to turn and didn’t know what else to do. But, I did finally find a solution that worked for me, that may have worked for you. So I checked the firmware on my router to make sure it was the most current firmware. It wasn’t long and it took 3 minutes to reboot and update. After I reconnected to my router, and enabled remote access again, it worked seamlessly. I just woke up to recheck that the remote access was still available, it is. I hope this helps
2 Likes
There is a bug in this area that would arise if ipv6 is enabled with Plex Media Server Network Advanced Setting. Make sure it is disabled or switch back the network interface to All
Thanks for the info.
I don’t have ipv6 enabled, so (if I understand correctly) I’m configured appropriately. Right?
Yes that is fine. I would be interested if GDM does really impact remote access.
I’ve just enabled GDM. We’ll see what happens in the next couple of days.
thanks - capture logs then if it fails and then disable gdm and run for another number of days and see if drops
I’ll do that.
I’m glad to see there is some activity here. Unfortunately I’m still losing remote access, randomly. After the latest update Version 1.13.5.5332, I didn’t have any issues, at first. About a week later, I lost remote access. I was hoping it was just a fluke but it kept happening. I might go several days with no issues and then I might have to reconnect several times in one day. Totally random as far as I can tell. I uploaded a log file, shortly after one of the times I lost connection.
Thanks for the log
I cannot actually see failures before you decided to disable and re-enable remote access. What was the symptom that made you believe that remote access went down ?
The logs cover all the time from August 31st all the way to September 8th - excellent.
I can see you disabled and re-enabled remote access on 3 occasions. I would like to know what was the symptom before you disabled and re-enabled remote access
The times when you disabled remote access and re-enabled it were
Sep 06, 2018 16:43:37
Sep 07, 2018 10:48:48
Sep 08, 2018 23:22:06
Looking at the last one on 8th September when you reset it at 23:22, at 22:56 connectivity from outside was ok
Sep 08, 2018 22:56:56.311 [35632] DEBUG - PubSub: Got notified of reachability: 1 for 35.xxx.xxx.xxx:32400
so server was reachable and there is no evidence that Plex Media Server marked it as unreachable
There were periods where the public IP as seen by plex.tv but those times are not close to the times when you reset remote access. They were
Sep 01 during period 05:56 am to 07:56 am
Sep 06 during period 02:56 am to 04:56 am
Sep 07 during period 20:56 pm to 22:56 pm
Some router quirk? source IP address in request to plex.tv appeared as private IP 172.17.0.1
So i would like to know what the symptom is when you think the remote access is lost. Are you not able to access the server from plex mobile apps through cellular? which client were being used?
Next time this happens please could you also get me response from plex.tv for a specific request and copy it into text file and send it by private message to me as it will have security tokens
When you think you lost remote access and before you reset it please do the following
- confirm it is really down by trying to connect to the server libraries from a mobile plex app on cellular
- get the xml from this response in a browser
https://plex.tv/api/resources?includeHttps=1&includeRelay=1&X-Plex-Token=YOURTOKENHERE
and to find your token - see this article https://support.plex.tv/articles/204059436-finding-an-authentication-token-x-plex-token/ - get the logs as before
and the xml for the above request to be saved into text file and sent to me by Private Message
@sa2000 I have lost remote access again so I came home from work to get the logs. Even though remote access shows a green checkmark once I opened up server settings in plex, I am still unable to access remotely, just like you said the green checkmark and remote access are not always in sync.
Anyways, I grabbed the log files and the xml file using my token. I will post my log files here, and I will send you the xml text in a private message. Remote access was still down after obtaining all of this information.
Please let me know if you need any more information.
Thank you.
There is a Double NAT configuration and this may be the culprit. You must have an ISP Modem/Router and another router attached to that. The router is given a public IP address that is local 192.168.1.206
Could you look into re-configuring the ISP Model to be in Bridge Mode and not do any routing and then you would avoid the double nat
Sep 13, 2018 21:07:07.080 [11868] DEBUG - PublicAddressManager: got WAN IP 192.168.1.206 from router
Sep 13, 2018 22:05:56.112 [6932] ERROR - MyPlex: mapping failed due to potential double NAT configuration
You may be able to overcome impact of double nat with some advanced configuration - eg
- ensuring your router has a fixed IP address (DHCP Reserved on the ISP Modem/Router)
- Adding a port forward of 32400 on the ISP Modem/Router to port forward to your own router IP Address
- Add a port forward on your router to further forward 32400 to 32400 onto the server IP address
172.24.1.25which needs to be DHCP Reserved in your own router
So 2 options
- Modem/Router - configure in Bridge Mode to ensure no NAT / Routing
- Cascade a Port forward through the 2 routers
I set up my routers in bridge mode following the directions from Bitdefender. And access to Plex worked fine for 3 months before this issue started happening so I’m not sure if that’s the issue? My second router is a Bitfender Box 2 which will automatically block any suspicious activity, but I checked and Plex was not being blocked.
I know I have a fixed IPO address on my router, and I port forwarded port 32400 on the routers. Is there a tool that I can use to check if my routers were configured correctly? I will try tonight to avoid the double NAT and set up bridge mode correctly. I wonder if the routers restarting during a power outage could have changed my settings as well.
Thanks a lot for your help.
May be this setting has been lost following some firmware update?
If it is in Bridge Mode then your router should see the real public WAN IP address and not an IP Address on 192.168.xx.xx subnet
I’m glad you can read the logs, it looks like gibberish to me. As for symptoms… I have the Plex app on my Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, I log in and the server is not listed. I go to my laptop which is Windows 10 home 64 bit, log in and the server is not listed. On my Samsung Galaxy again, I try to access Plex though Google Chrome, not the app, same result. Once again, same result when I try to access the server through my Amazon FireTV app. It’s like it doesn’t exist.
I have to disable/enable before they show up. Sometimes I don’t do anything and it may show up on it’s own. I’ve uploaded another log file, my remote Plex server was down, I did not re-enable it. I checked it again several hours later and it was back working. I have the XML file and I will forward that in a moment.
So I guess my router isn’t in bridge mode. I could have sworn I set it up that way. Anyways, I’m using the port forwarding bypass method that you also described. I followed the steps in this youtube video How To Fix Double-NAT (Two Routers) | PLEX Media Server and my Plex is accessible on this website that checks if your port has access to the outside world: http://canyouseeme.org/.
I double checked all my port forwards and they are correct. The firewall on Windows Server 2012 R2 (which PMS is on) is also allowing Plex on the inbound rules.
From what I see online, people can’t figure out how set up the Verizon Quantum G1100 router in bride mode.
I will keep Tautulli (the new PlexPy) off for now in case that was somehow causing issues. Some people mentioned that their service which checks if there is access to PMS was causing issues (although I never had these checks enabled). If my remote access stays up I’ll just stop monitoring my Plex with it. If it goes down again, I will read up on networking as my skills in that area are not great.
