Remote Access refuse to stream some movies but will stream others since the last few updates. Prior to this, there has been zero issues with remote access.
Last night my sister (who lives out of state) was trying to stream one of my movies. She couldn’t, however she could stream another movie no problem. Because of this, I know it is not an ISP or setting problem.
Everything streams just fine locally and via any device. Plex on my phone streams that same movie just fine locally but couldn’t do it when switch to cell data (remote).
I have lifetime pass so the paywall issue should not be affecting me at all.
Since Plex doesn’t offer any actual support, how can we actually get inform how they’re going to fix what their programmers screwed up? Since this isn’t an issue we can fix on our own.
Do you have any details about how the playback isn’t working, e.g. an error message?
One option coming to mind is if you’ve disabled transcoding on your server (e.g. Settings > [Server Name] > Disable video stream transcoding) and their remote stream is set to require transcoding, the playback will fail. Transcoding might be required if their client doesn’t support a file as-is or if they’ve set certain remote video streaming quality restrictions.
If it was a player or encoding issue, then the player would also have problems playing the movie locally. Also, there never is an error given, it’ll ether kick out to the info page or display the retry button.
It’s not that the movie couldn’t be played remotely before. The last time it happened, turning off “live tv” setting and saving. Got it to work again. That didn’t work this time.
And yes, the first solution is rebooting (the plex server, router and the computer) which I did and it didn’t fix it.
Something on Plex end is bugging out remote access. It can’t be an ISP or setting issue because it works fine for some movies.
I tried again a few minutes ago (remember I changed nothing on my server) and now it’s playing the movie remotely. This is a problem that needs to be address. There are plenty of other people complaining about remote access not working or being flaky when it worked fine for years.
after many tests Plex works on TV and PC but if I try to start playback on Android or iOS the new player blocks my remote access and I have to restart it
Yes, it’s the same player. The plex app on my phone. Plays the movie just fine via wifi aka local. Disconnect wifi and switch to cell-data aka remote, can’t play the movie. It’s the same app, which means it’s not a player issue. It doesn’t even show up in the “playing now”, however the movies that do play show up just fine in the “playing now”.
Still struggling to follow… sorry.
While you’re outside your home network, you’re able to browse the library – that’s good, it means you have a remote connection.
When the video isn’t playing… do you get some error message? Does it open the player or will it simply get stuck on the video’s page?
I got no error. It’ll try to play the video, then it’ll just return to the info page. Rarely, it’ll give a generic “something went wrong” message.
Yesterday, I tried disconnecting my wifi and playing (the same movie) and it did the “kick back to info page”. Then a few hours later, it played the movie no problem. I didn’t do anything to my network or reboot anything. Nothing on my plex server computer or network was touched.
It’s a weird random thing that started happening since Plex added the “pay us monthly for every little thing”.
I have zero issues streaming anything via my local network. The only time issues occur is when using Plex remote access to connect to my Plex server.
Always been able to view my library remotely aka connect. And can play some movies but not others. Which is why it’s weird issue. I’m clearly connecting to my plex server. So, something is preventing the plex server from streaming some media files vs others and it shouldn’t because I have lifetime plex pass.
Can you try streaming from outside your home network again – and when it fails, download your server logs. Can you post that with the info which movie you were trying to play?
in my case any device (Android/iOs) that plays outside the home network gives an error.
I play it locally, no problem.
on TV or PC it works correctly both locally and remotely Plex Media Server Logs_2025-05-11_10-16-13.zip (2.4 MB)
My remote access is not working, either. After uninstalling and reinstalling the app on both my phone and tablet I at least got the videos to play while I’m at home.
Every time I try to get remote access, it shows that I don’t have any libraries even though the libraries show on the main page.
In other words, it shows that I don’t have any libraries when I try to go into the libraries and when I go to the full list of libraries, it says that my connection is offline.
