Couldn’t access streaming services and OTA TV not useful. OK I thought, let’s watch something off Plex, it’s here and local and there are a couple of things we’ve recorded recently and transferred to the box that would be good to watch.
In a nutshell neither TV client could access my local Plex server. They simply hung with a blank screen.
Worse, when Internet came back they both needed to sign in again. Which for me is a royal PITA because my PC with browser is at the bottom of the garden but it’s the only device I can log into to sign up to get to the link buttoin without typing in a 20 character random password, which on an android device isn’t fun.
So, are both these behaviours expected? If so why? Why does a TV client, previously authenticated, need Internet access to get to my server on my local network?
I didn’t try through the browser, but frankly asking the other half to trek down to the outbuilding through the rain to watch a movie on a 24 inch screen seemed a little dangerous…
…and watching it on an 8 inch tablet with tinny speakers as opposed to an 85" with full sound system not so appealing.
Whinge mode on. Plex is losing it’s utility for me and if I can’t watch my local content when the internet goes down (and it does here at least once a month, normally not so long but maybe an hour a time) what’s the point? Whinge mode off.
it takes a bit of preparation: [HowTo] Use Plex with No Internet Normally though, running clients should survive a few days of internetr outage.
some smart tv Plex clients are not installed on the device. Only a “loader app” is installed, which then loads the actual Plex client from the internet each time it is started.
It is clear that this must fail in the case of an internet outage.
Plex uses the internet for authentication of your accounts on login. If you use managed accounts, THOSE are entirely based on the internet (I wish it wasn’t), so you will be unable to swap over to one. If you don’t use managed user accounts, then ignore that.
With the internet going down, you follow the advice in Otto’s article. This change lets your server accept connection requests from “non-authenticated” clients on specific IP ranges. This is to protect someone from outside your home from being able to connect without authenticating as well. (You should do the article’s steps when you HAVE internet, to prepare for the future when you don’t have any.)
As for your app de-authenticating, I hope it’s as Otto said about the app not really being installed locally. Because that is not normal behavior - I think - for an app to de-authenticate after an outage.
Note that any Plex client covered by IP addresses allowed without authorization will have full administrative rights - access to Plex server settings, ability to delete media, etc.
Content restrictions are also bypassed. The client will see all libraries and all media. Just a heads up in case you’ve restrictions in place for kids, etc.
The above applies whether or not the Internet is available.
Thanks Both.
No, no managed accounts - see below - and when I trialled Tidal this became a +ve as you can’t share a tidal sub among accounts.
Interesting, presumably the IP addressing and unrestricted access are largely historical from when Plex was more home video only and maybe back before multiple user profiles were around.
In my case, we all watch from one ID anyway. Continue watching then becomes the best check on what’s being viewed. Until the first grandaughter starts watching TV in a couple of years those concerns are largely behind us. Personally I think conversation, joint viewing and physical monitoring are far more effective than any tech controls. Once the right habit is set you have a far better chance of guiding someone away from bad content of any description on any platform.
I’m just waiting for the TVs to become free so that I can try out the changes! As it happens it was all set apart from the allow local network IPs on the server.
Presumably there’s little or no debugging in the clients and it will depend on who wrote them in the first place, which I am guessing is not necessarily Plex towers for all clients?
