I’m running the very latest version of Plex Server on Win 10 but I noticed in the last few days that it seems to be inaccessible until I actually logon to that system.
To be more specific, when I boot that system, I cannot connect to it from another computer running Plex Media Player or from my Android phone. Both devices tell me that they cannot connect to the server.
However, if I log into my Plex Server, either locally at the system or by Remote Desktop, a few seconds later I will be able to access the Server from both my other PC via Plex Media player or from my Android phone.
I’ve looked at services and the only Plex service that I see is the Plex Update service which is set to start automatically.
Plex doesn’t run as a Windows service by default.
Doing that requires additional effort (and you will lose the hardware transcoding ability if you do it): PMS as a service
That’s interesting, but there’s something not accurate about that information. I have always been able to access my Plex Server without logging on. In fact, I just tried it with another Plex Server and it works just fine. I also know for a fact that I have never ever done anything with Plex on that system beyond add a very few pieces of media for testing purposes.
EDIT:
LOL. I think I just solved the problem on my system that was not working mere seconds after posting my response above.
In trying to think about what changed recently, I realized that I had turned off Ransomware protection built into the latest version of Acronis True Image because it was flagging some ISO image processing utilities as possible ransomware. I turned it back on and now my Plex Server is available again without my having to logon to the Server, just as it always has been.
I’m not trying to be argumentative purely for the sake of it, but I just proved that this assertion is flat out wrong.
I just installed a brand new virgin copy of Windows 10 on VMware. It has the Windows updates and VMware tools, but beyond that absolutely not one other shred of software.
I installed Plex Server on this system and rebooted.
** Without logging on ** I can access that Plex Server fine on my network from other machines running Plex Media Player.
That proves with 100% certainty that access works without logging on.
In any case, I have also resolved the issue as I noted previously on my main Plex Server.
Otto, I do appreciate the help, but you might want to just try this out yourself just to prove to yourself that I’m not just making this up. It only took me a few minutes to stand up a clean copy of Windows and Plex
EDIT: Forgot to note that I copied a movie over also so that I could test it. That’s the only other thing I installed on the system.
