I swear that it used to be that if I don’t log into Windows on my Plex server, I could not connect to it from another computer. I understood this to be because I had not setup Plex to run as a service. This was sometimes a problem because if we had a power cut when I was out of town, I would have to remote into my server and log-in.
But now I find I CAN use my Plex server after a restart and without logging in.
I have just setup a brand new server, it happens to be running on a VMWare Workstation. It’s this new server that does not need to be logged in. I quickly tried to play stuff and it does work. Seeing strange things though, only low quality settings are available. OK, this sounds crazy. More research needed, but I’m definitely watching content, not logged into Windows.
My existing server still behaves the way I am expecting: no library or content at all unless windows logged in.
completely new PC with new VM.
only 2 pieces of content on new server that don’t exist on other server.
one strange perhaps unrelated issue is that one of those pieces of content will no longer play as Original quality. limited to 312p (0.8 Mbps). It used to play at Original. I will ignore that for now, as it’s surely unrelated.
I’m not familir with using windows in a VM, but normally Plex Media Server doesn’t load until the startup sequence which doesn’t happen until you sign in. AFAIK, WM’s don’t actually exit Windows if you turn it off. Did you actually sign out of Windows? If not, I believe PMS would still be running and Windows is just locked.
I shut down the VM completely and re-booted, it asked me to login and I did not.
OK, thanks for your help, I will update this thread if I figure out what’s happening.
As I said above, AFAIK, shutting down a VM does not log you out of Windows so restarting it will load Windows in a locked state, similar to coming out of the screen saver and showing you the sign in page. Try actually logging out of Windows before shutting down the VM and see if you can still access it after reloading the VM.
Just as another data point, I restarted my physical Windows-based Plex Media Server and did not log in. I’m still able to browse my libraries and play content. This is a single-user system, which does not use a Microsoft account (just a local one).
Since the last two or three Windows 10 builds, they silently log in the last Windows user account after system start.
All in an attempt, to make the system immediately available to the user if he eventually types in his password.
There is a registry setting to prevent this behavior (it might be an available “policy” as well) DisableAutomaticRestartSignOn.zip (401 Bytes)
