Plex Remote Access Suddenly Not Working — Green in Plex, But No Remote Connection
Hi everyone,
I’m hoping someone can help me figure out what’s going on with my Plex server. I’ve been fighting with this for a while now and I feel like I’ve gone through most of the obvious troubleshooting steps.
My setup
- Plex Media Server is running on a Windows 11 PC
- Server is connected to my network over Wi-Fi
- Router/gateway: AT&T BGW320-500
- Plex PC has a static/reserved local IP address from the router
- Plex Pass subscription
- I’m trying to access my server remotely from my iPhone over cellular
- I also use Plex on an NVIDIA Shield TV and Windows
- My local Plex library works normally when I can connect to the server locally
The problem
Plex Remote Access shows green / fully accessible in the Plex settings, but I cannot actually connect to my server remotely.
When I try from my phone with Wi-Fi turned off and cellular data enabled, Plex either:
- hangs indefinitely while trying to connect,
- gives me a “secure connection” error,
- or sometimes loads a Plex page but does not show my server/library.
At one point I also got a blank Plex page that basically just asked me to sign in.
The strange part is that Plex itself reports Remote Access as working.
Things I’ve already checked/tried
I have:
- Reserved/static IP’d the Plex PC in my router
- Verified the Plex server’s local IP
- Checked the public IPv4 address
- Checked Plex Remote Access repeatedly
- Tried manually specifying the external port
- Checked port forwarding
- Looked at UPnP settings
- Checked router packet filtering settings
- Checked Windows Firewall
- Made sure Plex is allowed through Windows Firewall
- Restarted the Plex PC
- Restarted the router
- Restarted Plex
- Tested from cellular instead of Wi-Fi
- Tested from another device
- Checked that Plex is up to date
- Tried Plex Relay
- Checked the preferred network interface in Plex (currently set to Any)
- Confirmed the server is staying available locally
- Confirmed Remote Access continues to show green
I also checked the router’s WAN/public IPv4 information.
One thing that seems especially strange
If I test the connection externally, I can get behavior that makes it look like the port isn’t actually reachable even though Plex says Remote Access is green.
I’ve also seen situations where HTTPS produces a “connection is not private” warning, which makes me wonder if this could somehow be related to how the secure connection is being established.
Another strange thing, when I’m not in my house, I can connect my laptop to my phone hotspot for internet, and open plex windows app, and my server appears and I can watch.
What I’m trying to figure out
At this point I’m wondering if this is:
- A Plex configuration problem
- A Windows Firewall/network profile problem
- Something with the BGW320-500
- UPnP/port forwarding behaving incorrectly
- A double-NAT/CGNAT-type issue
- A Plex secure connection/certificate issue
- Something else entirely
I don’t mind doing a more complicated setup if necessary. I’m willing to spend a few hours getting this configured correctly, but I’d really like to get to a point where it just works reliably instead of constantly having to troubleshoot Remote Access.
If anyone has ideas for what I should check next, especially anything specific to the BGW320-500 + Windows Plex Media Server combination, I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks!
