Remote access: incorrect status check

Plex Media Server Remote Access
1

Server Version#: 1.18.5.2260
Player Version#: Not relevant

On the web interface, “Remote Access” should check for connectivity with adresses provided in
“Network > Custom server access URLs” on top of the external IP.

Currently it is only testing access through the external IP address, and it incorrectly fails if a reverse proxy is in place (as the host header is not properly defined, the test is not routed properly).

This is cosmetic - Remote access work fine despite being reported as not working; but it can confuse new users.

3 Likes
2

Very good point indeed. I get the error message “Not available outside your network” on the PLEX web interface, but remote access works just fine. I have tried to play several movies from outside my home (NAS connected to PLEX server on NVIDIA Shield TV) and they play flawlessly at very high resolution (direct playback) - so yes, it’s a bit confusing with the error message.

3

Did my post caught someone’s attention at plex? Just want to make sure it is somewhere in some backlog before the topic get lost in oblivion.

4

This is very well known.

5

I also had a remote access problem recently. Shows green for about 5 seconds and then red. No access. Literally tried for two weeks to fix it. No luck. Uninstalled Plex and reinstalled. I asked my sister about half hour away from me to try it and she was able to access my server. Yet I have a red " Not available outside your network." It has been like that for a few months. Anyone know how to get it back to green all of the time? Yes…firewall rules are okay. Ported 32400 okay. Uninstalled my virus software. Still red. Would like the assurance it works outside my network. The only way I know it is working is when Sis is using it… under Dashboard and Activity. Thanks for any advice.

1 Like
6

The status check shows also red if the server is only accessible per Relay.

1 Like
7

I tried the “custom certificate” road, but I cannot get remote access to work either.

I can see that the name is properly advertised:

Apr 05, 2020 12:26:25.101 [xxx] DEBUG - HTTP 200 response from PUT https://plex.tv/devices/xxx?Connection[][uri]=https://mycustomcertdomain:443&Connection[]…

It feels like remote access need to happen over the plex.direct URL, no matter what. I did inspect the queries from app.plex.tv, and they were all pointing to plex.direct

Can someone confirm this? How is that supposed to work through a reverse proxy then?

8

You could try extracting the plex.direct key for your Plex server as discussed in the thread Decrypting the plex.direct certificate? and then install that key for use on your reverse proxy.

There have also been issues recently reported by many users with the remote access indicator being red, or only being momentarily green, despite no changes to configuration. Refer to:

9

Please read carefully how to supply your custom certificate:

Don’t forget to put something into the ’ Custom certificate domain’ input field.

See also: An error occurred while attempting to play this video. Please try restarting both the Plex Media Server and this app

10

Thank you for the suggestion. I did double check that and it was correctly set.

It seems that plex present a different certificate based on the SNI header. If I query the plex.direct URL it will return the default one from digicert - even if I have a custom certificate in place.

I am assuming that all remote access occur through the plex.direct URI, regardless of custom certificate, custom URL, … As soon as there is a reverse proxy in front of it that terminate SSL (and hide the default digicert) the remote access test fail

11

This topic was automatically closed after 90 days. New replies are no longer allowed.