@Gdr56
There is a support page available regarding internet requirements - See Internet and Network Requirements
@Gdr56
There is a support page available regarding internet requirements - See Internet and Network Requirements
Thanks, just noticed a hour or so ago, a discussion from a plex employee mentioned the link. Read and it looks like what i have set up with alternative DLNA server might be the simplest work around for ISP outages. I’m still on DSL till late next year, then FTTP will be far more stable and a lot quicker. My LG TV is a no go and I tried my ipads without success connecting to server with not Internet sync
Unless you see a better option than Universal MS, it’s very quick and auto detects all Video files and Itunes. Will need to add my flac files folder. On the iPads i use VLC as a client for UMS.
In the past tried Emby but a lot of set up and may have the same issues.
UMS is not pretty with DLNA folder UI but better than watching free broadcast and all the reality shows. That truly drives me nuts.
Thanks again
@Gdr56 said:
and I tried my ipads without success connecting to server with not Internet sync
Plex for iOS should be able to see the local Plex Media Server through GDM without internet being available
Of course if you are trying to sync then Mobile Sync does need internet access as mentioned on the support page
@tbear2520 said:
Hi everyone,So today my home experienced an Internet outage when a construction crew hit a line. Wouldn’t of cared so much, except I learned that PLEX is dependent on Internet access to run.
I have a Synology that run PLEX and all my content is local.
Is there a way to operate PLEX when the Internet fails? Or should I begin looking at other alternatives?
So I recently had this happen to me and I did this.
paste the following:
sudo service plexmediaserver stop
wait for stop
cd /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/
or where ever you find Preferences.xml in a plex folder.
mv Preferences.xml Preferences.xml.internet
restart plex and it will drop a new file in place and treat your server as though it was not registered. For me all my movies
downloaded content and everything were unaffected. You can then get past the online credentials and just use it locally.
sudo service plexmediaserver start
When you get internet back move the file back after stopping and starting the server as you did above and everything works like it did before. I would assume it would work in a similar fashion on other operating systems just find the Preferences.xml file and move it to a new name or out of the folder.
Hi,
So I am having this same problem, but with my Raspberry Pi 3 Plex Media Server. As long as the RPi is connected to the internet I have no access issues from the Plex App for Android. My purpose for having the media server on a RPi is to be able to take a small collection of media with me when I travel and internet access is not available or limited. Here is how my system is setup:
Raspberry Pi 3 running hostapd (creates its own WLAN).
Plex Media Server version 1.3.4.3285
Plex for Android version 5.4.3.131
I have tried the following ideas listed in this thread
Disconnect PMS from plex.tv
Disabled Secure connections on PMS
Insecure connections allowed on same network in Plex for Android
Signing out of Plex for Android and signing back in again.
Starting and stopping the plexmediaserver service
At this point, I am stumped as to why the app won’t see the server. The network is running and the phone is connected. I can VNC into the RPi and see PMS running.
Anyone have any other ideas?
VPN is not running in the background is it? Try disabling it.
@crscoles I am experiencing the same issue. I was able to resolve it by turning off mobile data on the Android phone and use WiFi only.
Having this issued nie by myself. My clients Work Fine cause i inserted the Server IP in the settings AS Fallback. But i also can Not Access the Server Wirth localhost:32400 in the Server itsself! Ist this normal? Can i Change this while my Internet ist down?
@doncuco said:
Having this issued nie by myself. My clients Work Fine cause i inserted the Server IP in the settings AS Fallback. But i also can Not Access the Server Wirth localhost:32400 in the Server itsself! Ist this normal? Can i Change this while my Internet ist down?
All access to the server needs to be authenticated with a plex.tv account credentials whilst the server is signed in. This includes access through localhost as well.
Plex Client apps including Plex Web do cache credentials but these may expire and in the case of Plex Web, the credentials apply to the specific browser used and to the specific url used to access the server
Furthermore if you add a pin to your plex.tv account then Plex Home security checks would be in place and authentication and may require access to plex.tv
Other dependency on internet is dependency on DNS for the secure https route to the server for Secure Connections
However, access through localhost is deemed a secure connection and so would not need DNS
See https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200484903-Internet-and-Network-Requirements
Where can I find that setting? I looked but could not find it.
That setting got superseded. Authentication is default. There is this setting to whitelist local subnet and local IPs not requiring authentication
List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth
I added some IP address to my Plex server but how can I add a range of addresses? For example 192.168.150.1 to 192.168.150.10?
it would be individual ip addresses coma separated (and no spaces) or defining a range with use of netmask
so 192.168.150.1/255.255.255.0 or 192.168.150.1/24 would include the whole class c subnet
There are many web sites that explain netmask values - there is a table here which shows number hosts for different netmask values
http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/netmask-ref.html
Remember that on its own will not be sufficient, If you have not disabled secure connections there will be requirement for DNS access which needs internet
When disabling secure connections on the server,. see if the client app has a setting to allow fallback to insecure connections and adjust that
Configurations changed.
Secure connections
IP range allowed without authorization. (my entire home network)
Settings for Plex server without internet should be easy to find or perhaps a selection in the settings just for Plex server with intermittent internet connections.
Consider 2 real world scenarios I experienced recently:
(1) My internet & cable TV line was cut by the electricity provider by mistake, because of this my house was without internet \ cable TV for 3 days so I relied on Plex for 7 computers, 4 TVs for entertainment but Plex stopped working without the internet by day 2. (prompts to login)
(2) I have another Plex server on a yacht & the internet is not stable there, now knowing the setting “List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth” I will have to make the changes there also, which is a very long drive away.
Plex should strongly promote it’s resilience of not needing the internet 100% to function because that’s the advantage it has when compared to Netflix, Hulu & Amazon Prime Videos.
Upon further research I realized that any computer on my network could access Plex with full privileges including the settings on my server so I removed my IP range & only allowed my 2 TVs & an Amazon Fire stick IP addresses to access my Plex without authorization. Example: 192.168.150.9,192.168.150.19,192.168.150.23 It is much safer this way.
Is there any way to edit these settings when internet is down?
I did set IPs and turned secure connections off and it still shows “Plex is not reachable”. Even if I try it from the server, as in “localhost:32400/web/index.html”.
I tried renaming Preferences.xml and that did not work for me. It was not reachable from LAN, only from localhost. And even there it tried something but then showed me a very funny (as in - infuriating) message, something like “Plex is down for meintenance, it will be back soon!”. LIKE HELL IT WILL, plex iw fine, its my internet connection thats out, you dum***s!
Im sorry to say, but for a Locally Hosted service this kind of thing is bulls***. And I payed for a lifetime Pro version.
I also often notice that plex is treating LAN connections as coming from outside the network.
Please, fix this. I find this approach, and specifically being unable to even access settings without internet - unacceptable for a locally hosted media server.
Server settings can be edited manually - see https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/
For ubuntu, the file is Preferences.xml and located here
"/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server"
Dependencies on the internet
See support article
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200484903-internet-and-network-requirements/
Secure Connections
This is dependent on plex.tv for finding the secure url to use and also dependent on DNS to be available to convert the url to an IP Address.
So first is to disable secure connections in server network settings.
If you are unable to connect to the server setting to make the change because of need to authenticate, you can edit the server settings manually
Edit or Add setting secureConnections and set the value to be 2
Plex client apps by default are set to use secure connections and not to fallback to insecure connections. So check the application settings and look for a setting for Fallback to insecure connections - change it to Always
Authentication - Managed Users / Plex Home or Pin on account
Plex Home authentication uses plex.tv for authentication and so it would be incompatible with no internet environment. So you would need to dismantle Plex Home
You can remove any pin on your account and remove users from Plex Home if you have any and leave Plex Home
If there is no access to the internet to make these changes you can remove the Plex Home flag from the server setting.
Delete setting key PlexOnlineHome
Authentication - plex.tv account
If the server is signed in to plex.tv (i.e.claimed), then all client apps would need to authenticate including localhost. Authentication is through plex.tv. So you could sign the server out in the General Server Settings.
If you no longer have internet and cannot sign out, you can edit the settings.
Delete these settings and their values
PlexOnlineMail
PlexOnlineToken
PlexOnlineUsername
Network
Make sure that your IP Network subnet range is within the strict definition of a Private Network - see Private network - Wikipedia
WAN IP must always authenticate and the server must be on a private IP Address / network to avoid authentication
And avoid complications by having one network subnet
1 Like
Thanks a lot for thorough reply!
My server is in a private network, default 192.168.1.x. I believe that’s considered to be private network? It’s all connected to the same router, and I could not access it even from localhost. You can’t get more private than localhost 
I’ll make sure to keep this documentation at hand for whenever I lose internet connection again.
WAN IP must always authenticate
I’m not sure what you mean by this, as if you don’t have internet access, there’s no WAN. Consider use case of a remote country house with no internet connection whatsoever, or maybe a maximum of an 2G\EDGE grade and very unstable connection, which can go out for days or weeks.
But it would be extremely nice if with some future updates was possible to switch it to “local mode” temporarily by changing just one setting in UI or in config (ideally in UI). It basically is, but the fact that home users are incompatible with no-internet workflow is frustrating. I do use local users with no PINs to allow Plex to keep track of episodes watches per user. I don’t care about security of these users, as it’s just about supporting the ‘continue watching from where you left’ feature for multiple users.
I’m not sure if “Friends” will work without internet either.
I’m not sure why local home users need any kind of connection to plex servers. I don’t see any logic in it. Connections to any external servers should be minimal for an application like this, to allow as much of it’s functionality to work locally, only connecting to outside world when it’s absolutely necessary.
Either I still don’t understand something in Plex’s design, or it’s a flaw in it. I believe it is possible to improve it with future updates to make it less dependent on active connection. Especially Plex Home, when I first saw it I did think that’s it’s designed specifically for HOME use, as in - local users.
