Plex needs wifi on despite full ethernet connections

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.32.5.7349
Player Version#: 4.113.2

I originally setup my Plex server on a mac that was using wifi for all internet connection.

I’ve recently wired my home to remove wifi, and have changed that mac to be ethernet connection (turned wifi off).

I noticed that everything in the house is going smoothly with the wifi turned off (netflix, seagate drive, all internet access, smart tv etc), however, plex seems to require wifi to stream my movies. It does not need it enabled on my mac, just needs it enabled on my modem/router… which of course given all is hard wired, I want to turn the wifi off.

Sorry for such a newbie style of question,
Why is plex requiring the wifi to be on to play movies onto my tv?

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We all start somewhere. The first place I’d check for Plex specifically would be in the webUI.

You can tell PMS to use a specific interface, it may just be stuck on WiFi for whatever reason.

Go to Settings > Network > then set preferred network interface.

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Thank you. While I haven’t resolved the issue you have pointed me in the right direction for testing and I found that when the wifi is turned off, my mac that is the server is no longer visible on the home network. It can access internet and work perfectly, but no one on the home network can see the mac, or plex server anymore. Weird as it is all ethernet so I have no idea why THAT is happening but at least it explains why Plex is not visible. The external hard drive with all the movie files IS visible and can be access on DLNA Server, but obviously not what I’m wanting to do. No idea where to dig for this issue.

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Can you post some screenshots of your settings? The answer must be in there somewhere, debug logs may help too.

If the drive is visible via DLNA through PMS then there’s at least portions working as intended, I’m willing to bet it’s something small that was overlooked.

Can you check to see if the IP address you get on your Mac with Wi-Fi enabled is in the same subnet as your wired connection? Also, let me know if that sounds like Greek to you lol (no offense or judgement) (ie. 192.168.0.35 vs 192.168.1.40)

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Don’t leave your PMS DLNA server on! …it has a known memory leak and will eventually cause other issues!

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I ran the following test.

Wifi ON at the modem.

Settings on Mac hosting Plex server: Ethernet only.
WOOKIE file server showing all files in the network view.

Plex is running correctly.

Ethernet connected with IP Address of 10.1.1.169

Turn the wifi OFF at the modem.

Mac that is the plex server no longer has internet and is no longer on the network, even though it is cabled in.

Network settings show that it is connected to the ethernet and still on 10.1.1.169

I have no idea how or why, but it must still be somehow using WiFi to connect to the network.

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I’m not sure I understand what you mean… how to turn it on or off?

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Are you running a VPN? Routers don’t normally give out 10.x.x.x IP’s, they’re typically 192.x.x.x. If you’re running a VPN, that causes a whole slew of other issues you could run into.

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Not that I am aware of, no. I have windscribe VPN on my laptop that I turn on occasionally but rarely. Definitely no VPN on the mac hosting Plex.

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typically, your wifi IP will be different than your ethernet IP. (because they have different MAC addresses, and they can both be connected at the same time).

I would disable the wifi and continue to troubleshoot on the ethernet connection.

make sure that your ethernet connection is pulling it’s own different IP from your router.

if you can’t get an ip from the ethernet connection, then you may have a bad cable or other network issue outside of the mac.

are you using https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/ or are you going to the http IP of the mac?

http://your.ether.net.ip:32400/web/index.html#!/

double check the image up above @ Plex needs wifi on despite full ethernet connections - #2 by kazz3r24 and make sure that your preferred network interface is set to AUTO (at least for now for troubleshooting purposes).

also, check the to make sure plex server has access to the ethernet connection, check any firewall rules the mac may have.

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