Plex Pass/Remote Access/Indirect Access only (if at all)? Why, how and where to fix - PERMANENTLY??

General Discussions
1

I’ll make this post while making an attempt to control my temper because at the moment I am seriously, and I mean SERIOUSLY, unimpressed.

When I started using Plex recently I vexed long and hard over the question of buying a Pass given the VERY limited number of times I use what it offers, which for me basically is remote access (used about twice a year) and sync (even less). Still, I coughed up and bought a Lifetime Pass which to be honest isn’t cheap. So I got everything set up. PMS installed on a Mac Mini server at home and which I went out and bought JUST for Plex. Mac Mini set to reboot after power failure, automatic log in enabled, power saving off and PMS set to run at log in.

Came away for a few days and first day I checked it. Working fine. Great! Today, cannot connect!!!. Few times I tried I got the “Direct connection not available” so I tried indirect. Couple of times worked. Mostly, not. So. $150 for what so far!!! Boy, am I not happy. Seemingly wasted money AND I can’t watch my stuff.

So what gives? As far as I can see the weather back home may have caused a power cut. But it should power up and then be available right? I tested this dozens of times before I came away and it all worked ok. I made sure to access the server over the phone’s own internet too, not wifi, thus ensuring it was remote access that was working, figuring it’d be easier to sort out remote problems while I’m sat next to the damn thing than a thousand miles away. Also, the times that the awful indirect access HAS worked seems to indicate that the problem is not with my server not being up and running right? Because if it wasn’t running correctly why would indirect work at all? What does indirect access do to access my server that I can’t?. Be interested in the answer as I have to figure out which path to take in the ‘Get Plex to work’ maze in order to ensure I DON’T get a repeat of this s##t!

I’m hoping it’s not a problem with the damn firewall certificate access problem discussed a lot, which seems to STILL be unfixed, and which I’ve also been plagued with. Need to allow the connection EVERY time!!! I mean WTF? That needs sorting ASAP as that will screw up remote access no matter what you do if PMS is stuck in hold mode waiting for me to fly home and grant the firewall access!!! I thought I’d got this fixed with the terminal script but who knows? I won’t be impressed when I get home if I see a message on the screen saying “Would you like to allow Plex to accept incoming connections” THAT’S for sure!!!

I suppose I could have disabled the Firewall. Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. Or installed a remote desktop app at yet MORE cost over the $150. But, in all honesty, at $150 I didn’t anticipate these problems and perhaps not unreasonably expected this to just work! Especially given the numbers of times I tested it.

At one point I thought it might be because I had a double NAT issue here at the receiving end for a while. But that’s now fixed and I also tried to connect via the phone’s own internet. No joy. So doesn’t look like that was the issue. Plus, any double NAT problems should be at the server end right? Not the receiving end.

I’m stuck now trying to figure what is. As it is, it looks like Plex was a bad decision for me and a seriously bad investment given the FIRST time I come away it packs up. Double whammy for us as my wife is also away and she ALSO cannot watch anything. Great. Just f great!!! Doubt there’s much I can do now until I get home. Fat lot of use that is!!! Should have just stuck with Netflix which DOES work and also stuck with the laptop and a portable HDD which also always worked and saved myself the $150 because at the moment it seems like it’s $150 down the drain simply to do it differently and avoid having to take the laptop and HDD away with me. Different yes. Better, or even as good as, not by a long long long way. Had I not opted for Plex, not bought a $150 support the developer Pass, I’d have the laptop and HDD and now be able to watch my stuff. If I have to take the laptop away as a back up. What’s the point? Why pay for Plex in the first place?

I’ll try and sort it after I get back. Back into the Plex maze. Set it all up AGAIN. Test it all again and again and again and again. But if I have a problem next time I come away Plex is gone and I’ll write the $150 off as a serious screw up. Because for me, one thing is sure with Plex. Reliable it ain’t!!!

2

Sorry to hear you are having problems with Plex. Let me see if I can provide some help. I don’t use a Mac so my answers will be generic but hopefully you can apply them in your situation to get things going.

“Direct connection not available” is the generic message that your server did not publish itself properly to plex.tv. There are a lot of things that could cause this. Have you read the support article on troubleshooting this issue? https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200931138-Troubleshooting-Remote-Access I would look to make sure your Mac is using a static local IP and that your port forwarding is configured correctly. If you are using UPnP, I recommend switching to a manual port forward.

An indirect connection means that a plex server is acting as a middle man between your server and client. This gets around remote access issues. If this isn’t working, there is something definitely not configured correctly on your server, such as a firewall issue.

I am not personally aware of a firewall issue with Macs, but if it is waiting for you to accept incoming connections, that would prevent remote access from working. However, that should also prevent an indirect connection or even connections on a local network to not work. If you can point me to a thread discussing this, I can check if it is a known issue.

BTW, you do not need a Plex Pass to use remote access.

3

Hi. Thanks for trying to help out.

I thought that remotevwas about the ONLY thing that made Plex Pass worth buying?

Anyways. I just changed isp at home and the crap fiber router they provide cannot reserve ip addresses. So I allocated a fixed UP on Mac Mini itself. Always seemed to work as after a reboot it’s always come back up ok with the same UP address. This should resolve when I get back ad I’ll have the routing done by a new Apple Airport Extreme. They can definitely reserve IP addresses.

Yes I’m using upnp. Not there at time moment so nothing I can do about that :(. I’ll look into port forwarding when I get back.

I looked at the support article but it’s all geared to things to look at on the server. I was looking more fit anything on the client / remote. Maybe there is morning and it’ll have to wait until I get back.

More than anything this year I really REALLY regret going down this route with Plex, the server, the whole shebang. So far it’s cost a lot of money and left me without access to media. I had a lot of friends keen to see how it worked out. I’ll be sure to give then my views when I get back. Largely, not stable, not consistent, not reliable. Don’t do it. Stick to laptop and portable HDD and be able to watch what you have. Or do what I did, spend a fortune and be stuck away from home without access to ANYTHING despite following all the guides and testing it to death. Absolutely useless.

4

PS: this is one of the many threads about the allow incoming connections issue. There’s others but I’m in too much of a fuming bad mood to copy links to the the others. You can find them easily with a Google search Plex and incoming connections Mac

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/94183/accept-incoming-network-connections-every-time

5

It could also be something not configured on the router correctly. You don’t say in your whole diatribe whether you have enabled Mapped ports in the Plex settings. And you said you didn’t set up Port Forwarding, which is pretty much a requirement for consistent remote connections. uPnP is buggy at best and works like crap at worst. As you see now.

It also sounds like you set this up, but didn’t do any in depth testing to ensure that this would work when you were away from the device. Nor did you install the free TeamViewer application (or similar app) on your Mac Mini to enable you to access the desktop remotely to resolve any issues you may have while away from the device…

So simply put, there were lot of things you could have done, that you didn’t do prior to leaving the server to it’s own operations. And as a result, you are having the problems you are having. You made some assumptions that this would just run, but there are a lot of things within the OS itself that could cause issue. If you are relying on uPnP for remote access, well, that’s just asking for problems. There are tons of posts on these forums about uPnP being buggy, and the fix is Port Forwarding to a static IP. (I know there are, because I’ve written a few of them!)

The not testing is really what I seem to want to come back to. Any time you run a piece of software as complex as Plex is, you can’t just assume everything is going to work without testing it, and making sure everything works correctly for your anticipated needs. In this case you could have been sitting at your keyboard in front of the Mac Mini and turned the WiFi off on your cell and tried accessing Plex from your wireless carrier. Several times throughout the day, a few days in a row, to ensure it worked as expected. Test it from work, from the car waiting for a light, etc. But really TEST it… Then fly off to where ever and enjoy Plex because you made sure it would work.

Even if you have that same error on the screen, it’s possible that issue isn’t the only one that has caused you problems. Look at Port Forwarding. Look at getting a remote desktop app like TeamViewer. (I know there are Mac options available.) If you have a DDNS option available in your router, use that to make sure you can always get to the router itself. Sometimes you can fix issues on the router. (OK, not often, but sometimes…)

For now there isn’t likely anything that can be done until someone returns to the device. So you are basically SoL until you can sit there and figure out what happened, and how to resolve it. But as soon as you get back, that’s the time to figure out ho to fix what ever the problem is, and the TEST it! I can’t stress this enough. Don’t assume it works. Test the hell out of it. Sitting a café eating lunch. Riding the bus over your cell phone’s data, At the gym before you get into the shower after a work out… Test, test and then test some more. Until you know, without a doubt it’s up 100% of the time.

Remember in the feedback you give your friends, that the fault here is as much your own as anything. You didn’t take the steps you needed to in order to assure success with this.

6

ERRR. Excuse me. If you took the time to READ my post I have already said that I tested it time and time again using non Wi-Fi sources. So kindly get down off your high horse and stop slagging the user!!! Maybe if you’d taken the time to READ there wouldn’t have been the need for your assumptions or the diatribe, much of which seems to be a rant, taking it as an opportunity to jump on your soap box with the patronising testing lecture which had you READ wouldn’t have been needed. Rather than jumping for the soap box, try some English Comprehension lessons. Save us both a load of time!!! Spouting off on the basis of assumptions merely makes people look like idiots - at best!

Para 4, sentence 4, just in case you STILL can’t see it!!! “I tested this dozens of times before I came away and it all worked ok. I made sure to access the server over the phone’s own internet too, not wifi, thus ensuring it was remote access that was working, figuring it’d be easier to sort out remote problems while I’m sat next to the damn thing than a thousand miles away”. Attention to detail before soap-box. Less inclined to make you look like a ___. Feel free to fill in the gap yourself. Testing it dozens of times should have been the clue. It’s about the problems. Not a catalog of my test sites to avert comments from self opinionated users on smug attempted point scoring trips.

If there are indeed countless problems using UpNp or whatever then why is it still listed under the set up as the primary option? If it’s the crap shoot you suggest the developer should address it in the set up documentation, not explain how to do it then expect users to trawl hundreds of threads to find out that their instructions are crap. What I did was follow the developer instructions and even then tested and retested over days to make sure it powered up without problems from numerous devices and numerous networks. Ok smarta55!!!

So yes. I’ll remember exactly what happened and will choose to ignore the suggestions of people for whom basic attention to detail and comprehension are major challenges.

7

UPnP is the default because in theory it is the easiest way for users to set up PMS. Many are not comfortable setting up port forwarding. The problem is that some routers don’t handle it well.

If you are not satisfied with your Plex pass purchase, you can request a refund by writing to plexpass-billing@plex.tv.

8

I’ll try and sort all this out when I get home. I’ll try setting up a manual port forward to see
If that works because something is clearly wrong somewhere. I’ll also be testing Plex Sync to death to ensure that works properly because there seems to be a lot of posts about THAT not working too.

The ONLY reason I paid for the pass is so that both me and my wife can watch out media away from home and thus far it’s been a total failure. Thank God for Netflix!!! Ain’t no way I’ll be canceling that with my current experience of Plex. If I can’t get sync or remote actress working 100% every time, without glitch I’ll be writing in to request that refund. At this point in time I seriously regret paying it.

9

Out of curiosity how long did you test first? Plex is really quite stable. It’s definitely very frustrating when it’s not working but the two gentlemen here are definitely trying to help. I’d like to take a second and chime in on the TeamViewer option. It works very well for remote access. It’ll allow some troubleshooting remotely should the need arise. Get port forwarding working and see how it goes. We’re here to help if you give us a chance!

10

And remember that Plexpass isn’t needed to view it remotely. If you aren’t sure Plex fits your need for whatever reason, you’re welcome to refund as mentioned above and use it without Plexpass instead.

11

i have been using plex for years now.
Was working fine for the last week on the new build.
I am not even at home and last night it did the same thing the OP is stating.
i know its not port forwarding, because my pfsense config is the same as all the other web apps i am hosting on the same box and they are all working fine, plus i am not home, how does it change on its own?

12

Thanks folks. Not a lot I can do right now as I’m not at home until after the 11th.

I’ll try the port forwarding and flog that to death for a few days when I get back. I’ll also be hammering the sync to iOS devices to make sure that works without fail, esp as it seems that that is the only reason we should need the Pass. But, for my wife too access my media she’d need me to add her on Home Share (or whatever the Plex term is). I’m away from home trying to enjoy a break at the moment, thankful that we still have IFlix if we fancy a couple of hours watching TV. First time we’ve come away without the lap top and hard drive, just using Apple devices to Airplay to Apple TV for now, so no real time to look at Team Viewer.

If I do stick with this I’ll be making damn sure I have far more by way of critical failure options in the bag for when it goes wrong next time.

13

Finally back home now and over the last few days I’ve been back to my favourite time-sucking past time. Getting Plex to work.

All seemed to go OK with the setting up of manual port forward which looks to have helped. Been crazy busy though because sadly there are more things to do in life than sit all day and night with this. So just finally got round to testing it after server re-starts. Knocked one of the phones of wifi to test remote access from right next to it, rather than going further afield for now. No point in a gazillion outside tests if it won’t even fire up while I’m sat next to it.

Two problems, one of which still persists.

  1. I think this is resolved now but for some reason, with no actions being taken on my part, I got an unclaimed server message on the Mac I’d just re-started. Took a few attempts to resolve it. Maybe running the Cocktail app as routine maintenance cleared out the Safari cache? Not even sure if that would be an issue. Seems OK now.

  2. I still get the “Do you want to allow Plex to accept incoming communications” problem though EVERY SINGLE TIME it reboots. I’ve tried a re-install, tried the seudo command dozens of times. Also tried god know how many combinations of removing the permission in firewall, rebooting, re-running the seudo but EVERY time it’s asked for me to allow. So of course it cannot re-start to allow remote or indeed any access.

Not as mad as I was with it before, but not far off, and I’m sad to say, very, VERY unimpressed with it. Far too flaky for me. So, even if I can get it working I’ll still be hooking up iTunes prior to travelling to get physical content on the devices. Or making sure I auto-schedule a lot of syncs before I go away. I get the idea most people use sync for offline access. I figure I’ll be using it all the time unless I fancy logging in with Team Viewer to tell the damn thing to accept incoming communications each time there’s a power out.

14

I’m not sure how this got marked with an accepted answer seeing as I wasn’t even home to try what was suggested. And what was suggested on it’s own HASN’T allowed me failsafe remote access.