Due to the recent tornados in our city, in Kentucky, We have been without power and internet. and will be for some time. However we have shelters running on Generators, and we thought it would be good to connect a tv up to out Synology servers Running Plex Server to entertain all the children. Since the families here have already been through so much. However we now regret purching the Lifetime plex pass. Over the past year, Plex appeared to be great. and we even turned on local IP stuff just in case, as we tried to prepare for bad situations. However after much messing around, PLEX has failed to play anything. most things just wont play, Some things start to load, but then crash the app. The whole city and community has now come to realize just how bad PLEX is. our only solution was to find a laptop and open files on the server manually to play in media center, and then project to an overhead projector. Which totally defeated the purpose of trying to make tv searchable and watchable in an emergency. So as we recover, I will have to find other solutions for playing tv, for all our centers in the future. I am personally disappointed, and now I don’t think there will be a single family in our city, or county that would ever consider plex in their homes in the future. I am saddened to post this, as I never knew no internet would stop us from being able to entertain the children, since everything is local in our buildings. And I personally pushed so hard to allow plex on our servers for this purpose. And when we really could of used this solution, it failed us.
Depending on the client(s) you use, you may be able to enable the Plex DLNA server and play content locally. It’s disabled by default, but can be enabled via Settings → DLNA in the web client.
If your client device has a DLNA player, you should then be able to open it and view the content on your server; however, it won’t provide the rich metadata experience you’d get with the native clients.
@ChuckPa Is it possible for them to somehow set the server to not authenticate without internet access? I have only seen ways to do this while the server still has a connection.
Yes it is possible to setup the server and client to work without internet. I have done it with the android tv client. I am not going to explain how to do it, just search the forum and you should be able to find the directions. By default, internet is required.
To all following here:
You can do a lot with the server by disabling HTTPS and excluding the subnet from requiring authentication.
I’m checking with the team to make sure I’ve got all bases covered when I post.
This How-To article is still valid for disabling Plex authentication on your local network. Let me know if you have any questions. I’m running this configuration on a Plex SHIELD for a combined server/player configuration at a remote cabin in Alaska.
@msager9_gmail_com One issue I do see, and we’re looking at, is that I occasionally get some unusually long (30+s) spinners when loading different screens, but then it will work fine. Other than that playback functionality has been fine for me.
Is it not true Smart TV clients won’t work, option DLNA
This is the article I usually reference as well - but I think if there’s a HW transcoding requirement and the server hasn’t authenticated, then the Plex Pass based HW transcoding won’t kick in which could be an issue for some scenarios.
I use DLNA as a fallback option - and depending on the media, server and client you still get posters so navigation by thumbnails is possible and even get some of the sorting and org structure (like recently added when Plex is the DLNA server). On Roku, the Roku Media Player channel does pretty well as a DLNA client.
I’ve suggested that article in the past, but if I remember right it is explained in it that the server has to be set up prior to losing access. Likely due to the authentication steps it takes. I could be totally wrong though. The good news for OP though is that ChuckPa is the man and can hopefully get a solution.
I had originally set this server up with this information. and i remember testing it out before I was able to go live with this service. However apparently with long term outage, it has failed us.
I’ve asked the whole team in on this one.
It’s too important and needs to be perfectly communicated for everyone’s benefit because there is a lot an existing server an already do.
These were TLC “roku” smart tvs, and yes maybe it was a tv problem, However the few tablets we had here set up, just for individual viewings, failed to load or stream anything from the server. I tried changing setting from direct , to stream, and several other things during my attempts to make it work. Its already very stressful around here, and this was just one area i didn’t think i had to deal with. So after things get back to normal, ill have to look into Kodi or whatever i can. Something that will allow us to tend to the adults while keeping the children happy. Was the only Goal.
I understand your frustration and hope everyone is ok your way. However I believe a solution is definitely possible to get your server working without internet access. I was able to successfully stream from my Mac server to my Apple TV 4K when my entire street lost internet access for several days. The only inconvenience/issue can be when the device itself (especially roku) wants to keep checking your network for internet connections.
For Roku just hit “proceed anyway” when the roku notifies no internet access is detected so you can get inside the Plex app. After you are in the Plex app and everything on your server side is good you should definitely be able to stream offline over your network.
So I wouldn’t give up on Plex just yet! It has definitely entertained the kids and adults when prolonged internet outages have occurred in my area. The only time I didn’t have success during an outage was when I didn’t have my Mac server setup correctly to still allow connections.
I’m pretty sure the people here at Plex can help. I’d also recommend you look into the Apple TV 4K and then install infuse. That combo has let my lay to rest my HTPC setup and playback is 1000 times better as every format is allowed to direct play without transcoding. Hope you find a solution and stay safe out there!
Do you know you can allow multiple hosts or networks (subnets) to run without auth?
All you need to do is edit the Preferencs.xml file.
One of our team members (Server team) is doing the full write-up of all the things which can be done here and how-to.
For the immediate
allowedNetworks
string with ip/netmask,ip/netmask
A list of networks that are allowed to access PMS without authentication. Must be listed with full subnet.
192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0,10.10.10.0/255.255.255.0
In Preferences.xml, with Plex stopped,
SomeOtherPref="Value" allowedNetworks="192.168.0.0/16,10.0.0.0/8"
I’m willing to help with custom configurations for your servers and what you need to do for the networking aspect while the rest of the info is being written.
Tell me what you have (network adapter wise) and what you need. I’ll write instructions.
I’m not actually sure I’m doing any special networking, everything is internal on a 192. Network. A couple synology 1821+ server with Plex server installed. 2 tlc 65” smart tvs. And a few donated tablets from the community. The backbone is mikroik 10gb spf+ to synology, and 1gb to everything else including several Wi-Fi access points. All on the same network, no fancy routing. And I did the https thing and put the IP address thing for local network. Which is why I think I could connect even after the devices would say no internet. The issues were when trying to hit play, things would show a background and loading number pct. And the only common thing was everything stalled at 33pct. Everything that didn’t just crash plex, would just stall at 33pct. Till I’d get frustrated after 10 min or so, and try to load something else. The media being loaded was a mixture of local ally recorded tv. “In a .ts file” and many other files of x264, h264, mkv.
Can you make a ZIP of the Logs directory (or a proper logs download ZIP) so I can see what’s happening with that failure ?
I need to “see” something of what’s happening. What you’re describing might be subtitles , might be something else , ---- DEBUG Logs will show me what is happening
I think I read somewhere that this has to be setup prior to you not having internet but Icould be wrong.
