Hi everyone!
I need some help sorting out why I can’t get logged into Plexamp on my Windows 10 PC.
I have the latest version, 3.5.0, and I’m a lifetime PlexPass holder.
When I use my Plex-registered email address and password it just sits for a second or two and then says, “Unknown error” at the top. I get the exact same thing when I click on the “Sign in with browser” as well. I have also tried my Plex username both ways without success.
This is a brand new Windows 10 PC, and I was happily using the Plexamp player on my previous computer so not sure what the problem is.
I have scoured the forums here and various search engines but haven’t been able to find any solutions or a way to get a log with more information.
Appreciate some guidance on how to troubleshoot this.
Thanks - Rob
Hey Rob -
Seems like an odd problem. Does the new computer have any firewall software that could be blocking the connection (might be worth disabling the firewall for a min as a test)? Is there any chance you can post logs from Plexamp (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plexamp\Plexamp\Logs)?
So I looked at the logs in the location you mentioned and it appears to be a certificate problem.
That makes sense as we do deep packet inspection (DPI) on our firewall here which removes the original certificate and inserts our internally signed certificate. The internal CA is already in the certificate store of our PC’s and trusted… That said, some applications have their own internal certificate store, for example Firefox browser, which require the certificate be loaded there… Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: SSL Certificate error | Firefox Support Forum | Mozilla Support
So my next question is where does Plexamp look to validate certificates?
I’m using the full Plex application right now and it works fine, so it apparently uses the Windows certificate store, but it seems Plexamp is looking somewhere else for this…
Thanks - Rob
He isn’t the only one having this issue. I too am behind a DPI firewall, and also get “unknown error”! I only just learned about plexamp…I bought a hardware equalizer because plex seemed to opposed to adding an equalizer. I’d like to get plexamp working for this feature alone!
Actually, I think I will have his problem if my first problem is fixed - I have to connect to a proxy. Its giving me an error …snipped (because you store my password in the logs - BAD FORM!!!) with code -6 (have 0 bytes) in 516 ms
clazarowitz,
Hey, thanks for the backup on this issue!! Sorry you’re having it too though…
You definitely want to get PlexAmp going, it’s a really great app and I miss being able to use it right now!! I’m using the full Plex client, but PlexAmp has a lot of nice features that are specific to music listening…
Anyway, yes, hoping maybe Plex folks have some suggestions. I recall on my other PC that I did something to make it work, but has been a year or so ago and I just don’t remember what it was… I still have the old one in my office and can remote on and fire up PlexAmp on it…I’ve tried copying the application folders, that I’ve been able to find, over thinking there might be something magic in there but 'alas no luck.
Thanks - Rob
Same issue here on multiple Windows 10 PC’s (one personal, one work). I turned off the firewall on my personal one but no change. The app works on my iPhone.
Same issue here on a Windows 10 PC. Work machine, so I don’t have the option of turning off the firewall.
Update - here is the log error I see:
Sep 17, 2021 09:06:29.055 [0x00004cf0] DEBUG - Networking: Completed request 3: (POST https://plex.tv/api/v2/pins?strong=true) with code -6 (have 0 bytes) in 6 ms.
Sep 17, 2021 09:06:29.056 [Javascript] ERROR - Auth: Could not get PIN HTTP status -6
Sep 17, 2021 09:06:33.508 [Javascript] INFO - App: Application state changed to background.
Also, as mentioned above, recording the login and password in a plaintext log is not a great look!
I ran into a similar issue with a fresh install of the Plexamp app, getting the same error message. I actually had this PC connected through a VPN and when I disabled the VPN software I was able to login without incident. Would certainly be nice for Plexamp to allow me to login while connected to the VPN, but this is a workaround for me in the mean time. I thought I’d mention it here in case this was related to your issue too.
Edit- As a follow up, once I have the app open, I can restart my VPN and the app continues to work without issue. Seems like its something in the initial login process that was having trouble with my VPN.
So this topic has been open for some time…does Plex have people that monitor this forum? I’ve seen no response from them…
I believe the issue has to do with certificates, basically how to tell PlexAmp to accept our internal self-signed CA, so I don’t believe that any amount of community help is going to resolve this.
Obviously other people have run into the same issue, so it seems this warrants a response from Plex, but right now I feel like we’re all just left swinging in the wind.
PlexAmp is a great app and I want to continue to use it. I’d really like to have a solution to the problem so I can get it working on my PC, but unfortunately, turning off DPI in my case is not an option. It seems there should be a way to point the app to the Windows certificate store so that it can see that my PC trusts our internal CA, or at least insert the trusted CA into wherever PlexAmp wants to look.
I don’t believe this is a very esoteric problem as DPI is commonplace these days.
I’m just really disappointed that it feels like Plex is just ignoring this forum, or at least this post, as I had expected more from them.
I suppose I will just continue to use the full Plex client as it works fine, but it just doesn’t have the music-related features that PlexAmp does and that I like.
-Rob
Rob,
Do you have the ability to bypass the SSL Intercept / DPI for the Plexamp Auth URLs? I assume that since the proxy/firewall is inserting the local cert in the chain, the app is not going to trust it. This is common of banking websites and other sites as well. Bypassing the attempted decryption, this should be the solution.
I seriously doubt there is going to be any changes made to the app, as allowing other CAs to be trusted, is effectively lowering security, and introducing risk. In the end, it’s the proxy/firewall trying to decrypt that traffic, that is breaking the connection. Take that away and the app is working as intended.
I’ve been having this same issue…was also pretty shocked to see passwords stored in plain text. My company also self-signs their certs.
bbro_spo:
Well, I have now bypassed DPI for plex.tv…I haven’t looked, but if there’s a list of potential FQDN’s or IP’s that would be helpful…and now getting a different error about not finding a library. I have not dug into that yet.
So I get what you’re saying about the app not changing, I assume that at this point. That said however, the application should not be hard-coded with a list of acceptable CA’s. In fact that is the about the most insecure thing to do other than not using SSL at all. Think about what happens if any of the hard-coded CA’s become compromised…an update to the app would have to be pushed out to correct it. No, utilizing the built-in certificate store for whatever OS you’re running is a security best-practice, and in our organization the PC’s are configured to ONLY trust our internal CA…I follow you on the banking applications as an exception…but, although relative to my problem, this is a whole separate topic outside of the issue I raised here.
So at this point with no response directly from Plex, and this forum seemingly the only “support” option for PlexAmp, I suppose I am abandoning the post and the issue is unresolved. I see that I’m not the only one out there with this issue so it is definitely something that I feel deserves attention. I am aware that DPI complicates things, but we have very few exceptions in our firewall to bypass it. I am not at liberty to discuss the details of my workplace here, but I can assure you that we interface with numerous other entities and exchange confidential information through our firewalls with DPI enabled.
There very well may be more going on than just DPI, including total user error on my part, but again, since I’ve only received silence from Plex I have no way of knowing what the next steps may be to troubleshoot this. Disappointing.
Thank you to those that have offered their thoughts and suggestions, I do appreciate it. Hopefully the Plex folks will eventually run into this post and perhaps consider addressing the problem, as I perceive it right now, in a future update to the application.
Thanks - Rob
FWIW, I’ve been doing some additional testing with some of my colleagues and at this point all signs are pointing to a blocked port on our firewall opposed to a certificate issue.
Okay so just as an update, I got it to work. I did further troubleshooting with someone from my enterprise IT’s group who also happens to use Plex personally. He had no issue logging into Plexamp on his workstation, which is why I posted above about a port issue–in theory there could be different network rules applied to our different users on our company’s firewall. We did some traces with wireshark, and couldn’t figure it out still.
So on a whim, he logged onto my workstation using his global administrator login and he then installed Plexamp from that account. Then switching back to my user–my installation of Plexamp worked properly (I am a local admin, and that is how I installed it).
I don’t have a great understanding of the whole scenario but the best guess is that it has to do with a group policy? In any case, I can confirm it working (and this includes self-signed certs).
rgirv3,
Hey, thanks for the update!! Hmmm…I am a local admin on my PC and I installed it as you did. We don’t have any software restriction GPO’s other than our standard users are not local admins.
In respect to the port, are you suggesting outbound port blocking on the firewall? I wouldn’t think that the PlexAmp client would need to have any inbound ports other than reciprocal high ports established during the normal process of building the outbound session to Plex. We have fairly liberal filters for outbound traffic, but since you brought it up I will scrutinize that a little more.
I did a Wireshark as well and only saw the initial SSL handshake, perhaps a few data packets, and then the session was abruptly ended. Didn’t really get anything out of it either… 
I didn’t want to keep bringing it up, but I have my “old” PC right here in my office and PlexAmp works great on it…DPI and all. I just double-checked the firewall policies earlier today and there are no explicit exceptions for my “old” PC. Both of my workstations are on fixed IP’s, so they don’t move around.
When I have time I will have a closer look at the firewall, and it shouldn’t make any difference, but I will also try re-installing PlexAmp on my PC using a domain admin account.
Glad you got it working, and thanks again for the update!!
-Rob
Well back to square one, not sure why I had success over the past couple of days because I’m now experiencing the same original issue.
Having the same issue and question what kind of logs PLEX support needs to get this finally fixed. I’m reading so good about PLEXAMP so I really want to use it!
May PMS is running on a Synology NAS and I can connect alle my clients with the normal client related PLEX app but PLEXAMP does not login on any of those devices. Independend if in my local area network or via internet.
Sounds like in some cases, it may not be the Cert/DPI?
Sorry Rob, I’m a little behind, I didn’t mean to suggest that the app “is hard-coded with a list of acceptable CA’s”. I just mean when a client goes out to the plex site, or the plex server, it may be expecting the actual trusted public cert, not one that the proxy is inserting.
Either way, cert or port issue. What do the logs say for the clients that are failing?
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