Plex not connecting securily; Remote access not working

[W_Irizarry]

Server Version#: 6.2.3-25426 Update 3
Player Version#: 4.52.1

I’ve noticed that over the past week, I have been unable to watch my Plex server remotely. So I thought it was just a remote issue and I needed to fix my settings. But now I’m trying to get onto my server at home and I’m having complications here too.

I have Plex on a Roku Plus and it works fine. The Roku is hooked up through our home Wi-Fi, the same network that our Synology is connected to. Plex works ok on the Roku. The problem I’m having is with the connection to the Plex App through the website on my computer. I go to Plex.tv and click Launch. I go to the home screen for Plex and this is what I see:

You can see the red triangle on the server stating it is unavailable. I also included a picture of the remote access which is not working either. And on the home screen, there is this button that says “Allow Insecure Connections”. If I click on this button, it seems to make the server work correctly.

As you can see in the above picture, after I select the button, the server is now “nearby” but it doesn’t have green triangle. The remote access still has the red ! and the button is prominent on the General page that says that the connection to the web app is not secure. If I click the button to “Reload Securely”, I start back at square one with the problems.

I’m unsure of what exactly happened. Just 2 weeks ago, I was watching a movie from my Plex App on my PS4 at work. It worked just fine. Then the next time I went to watch a movie from the same scenario…from my PS4 on the Plex app while at work (so remotely connected), it wouldn’t connect to my home server. Can anyone provide any help with what might be wrong and how we can fix it? Thanks in advance.

[W_Irizarry]

Thank you for the reply and advice. I tried doing what you asked and I was still unable to get it to work. I was able to access to my Plex NAS device while at work while using the Plex app on my phone. That worked fine. However I am still unable to access my Plex server on my NAS device on my PS4 while away from the local network (remotely). I’m not sure why it would work on my phone and not on my PS4. This almost leads me to believe something is wrong with my PS4. I’ll try and reset my network settings on my PS4 back to factory and see if this yields any different results. Any other suggestions?

[W_Irizarry]

I feel like I’m not understanding what I could be doing to fix this problem. But then again, I’m also very unfamiliar with NAS systems. But this has been working correctly for months, so I don’t understand why just out of the blue and all of a sudden, Plex decided to stop connecting to my server remotely. I took some pictures to hopefully paint a better picture of what is going on. I’m hoping that someone can help me in pinpointing in where the problem might lie.

NOTE: It’s also worth noting that I can access my server via Plex on the web remotely. I am currently at work, not on the same network as my server, and can access my movies/shows by going to Plex.tv and clicking the Launch button.

I did watch some videos this morning about setting your DNS. I think it is important to note that our ISP does not allow us to modify our DNS directly on the router.

Below are pictures of the Plex settings that are on my PS4. Please note that I have reset all settings on my PS4 in hopes that it would correct the issue, but unfortunately, it did not.

This is what I see when I log onto Plex on my PS4. Just spinny wheels next to my categories and a message saying my server is unavailable.

When I go to MORE…, it seems to show 2 different “servers”. But I think this is normal as the Plex dropdown is for Plex Live TV.

All of my Plex settings on the PS4:

This is my network information for my PS4, which is not the same network as my server. I am remotely connected as I am not at home and on public wifi.

These next 2 photos are the settings on Plex when I access it by going to Plex.tv in Chrome and clicking Launch. As you can see, it says the server is “Indirect” and there is the red ! by “Remote Access”. However, I am still able to watch my movies through this very same webpage just fine on my laptop.

I hope that this can provide enough information to help me figure out what is going on. And again, I sincerely appreciate anyone that is able to offer input to help me sort this out. Thank you so much for your help.

[W_Irizarry]

trumpy81,

Thank you for the suggestions. I did all of your recommendations and still had no luck. I do apologize. I’m not sure if this helps but I have included a screen shot of the port forwarding on my router. My router had another port forwarding rule already set up (it was permanent and I couldn’t make corrections to it, so I’m wondering if it was created with Plex?). Here is what that looked like:

I did delete that port forwarding rule and created the rule you specified. This is what it looked like when I put it in:

I’m not sure if this makes a difference or not but thought I would show it so you can see exactly what I’m seeing. And to further update, I can confirm that Plex still does not work on my PS4, and it also does not work on our TV at the fire station while I’m away from my home network. But Plex still DOES work on my laptop while away from my home network. But I also did realize that I still had Plex software installed in my laptop, so I’m wondering if that had any affect on why my Plex still worked on my laptop while away from my home network. To not mess things up, I un-installed the software off my laptop since it runs on my NAS and I’ll re-try this next time I’m at work. But hopefully this information helps.

[W_Irizarry]

Sorry to not specify trumpy, but I only have 1 rule. The first picture (somewhat greyed out and has the green tick and red x) was the rule that was originally in my router port forwarding rules. I deleted that because the ports were different from your specifications. The second picture (white background with only the red x) is the rule I created in my router port forwarding rules and is the only one in my settings at the moment.

[W_Irizarry]

Ah ok. Valid point. So I went on to the manufacturers website for help on port forwarding and found this article:

How do I set up port forwarding on my BT Hub?

It seems as if the rule is in effect. It just doesn’t give a green tick to rules that are custom created (or so it seems).

So in my plex settings for remote access…I noticed today that it always works and then just turns off after 10 seconds. For instance, I go into my Plex settings > Remote Access. It has the red ! as in it’s not connected:

I select “retry” for manually specify public port and the remote access works.

Now, I can stay on the screen for however long I want and it’ll stay green. The minute I click on another Plex settings tab on the left, it goes to a red !. What I have noticed is that it’s always after 10 seconds time. For instance, if I click retry and it goes green, if I immediately click on the dashboard menu and then go back to remote access immediately (less than 10 seconds have passed), remote access still says it’s green. But after 10 seconds time, if I go to any other menu and back to remote access, it goes red and tells me it’s not connected. Not sure if this is helpful or not either but I’m still having no luck. Oh, and it’s important to note that this is on my laptop while at home. So I am connected on the same network as my NAS. It also says “nearby” for my server status and has the green lock next to it saying “secure”.