Remote access not working all of a sudden

Plex Media Server Remote Access
,
1

Server Version#: 4.12.3 (Running as an app on a Synology ds1520+)

Hello,

I’ve had no problem at all with remote access in the past but all of a sudden, 3 days ago, the remote access stopped working. According to plex my public IP is not reachable at the given port my router listens and then forwards to plex.

I checked and

  • I can access everything from my LAN
  • I can’t access from the WAN regardless of client/player type
  • the IP is correct
  • the port forwarding is set up in my router and my port is accessible from WAN (confirmed by CanYouSeeMe.org)

What is going on? How can I debug this? This truly happened all of a sudden…

2

Debug logs will help for sure.

What happens if you try to access your server in the web browser “externally”?
https://(public IP Address):32400/web

3

Disable secure connections in the network tab. See if that works. If so, it’s not your issue, it’s a credentialing issue on Plex’s side.

4

Ive had the same issue. Suddenly remote access doesnt work. The settings in the server say its connected, and get the green tick, but nothing can connect. If i disable it and then enable remote it fails. Restart the server and it goes back to saying it working but its not. Nothing has changed network wise, been working fine for years.

If i use the public ip, i get asked to select user… and then it fails to connect to the server.

5

@iforgot add yourself to the list of bazillions of users who now can only chose between completely unencrypted access or none at all. Welcome to paying for a plex pass.

6

After hours ive sorted it.

Ready for it… The cmos battery in the unraid server is dead. We had a power cut. The dam time and date was wrong! All back working perfectly again. (across double nat and secure).

Wasted about 6 hours on that one!

7

I have a similar issue and get a ‘connection not secure’ error message when trying to access the link via a web browser as you describe. Could it be something to do with certificates?

Thanks.

8

It’s possible, you’d have to check your logs. Search for mentions of TLS or CERT in the logs for any certificate related errors.

Are you trying to access it from the same network the server is on?

9

Thanks for getting back the issue was not related to certificates it turns out but rather the installation of the Plex Media Server in the first instance. I had to ‘reclaim the server’ and initially I just did the standard install, which caused remote connection issues. My problem has since been resolved.

Thanks.

10

My issue IS related to the certificate.

I went to: https://(public IP Address):32400/web
when outside of my network

manually added the certificate and it worked.

How to fix the certificate that is expired???

thank you!

11

Plex if you could please fix my certificate i’d really appreciate it!!!

12

@ChuckPa let me know if you need anything from me to get this going! :slight_smile:

13

@Ikhan123

Which expired certificate? Yours ?

Your Plex certificate was created about an hour ago.

Did you restart the server ?

If you’re using your own certificate, I’ll need your logs to help direct you further to resolve it.

14

Yessir my server zero.

I will remove my generated certs (as i was trying to solve problem myself)

And restart plex server

15

@ChuckPa I have removed my “messing around certs” and restarted my entire NAS.

Thank you for looking into this!!!

16

@Ikhan123

Is it now behaving again?

As FYI when you do use certs.

PMS wants:

  1. The intermediate CA (Certificate Authority) info from the cert provider (Let’s Encrypt if that’s your source)
  2. The Cert
  3. Key
  4. passwd to the P12 file.

I can share how to do that if you wish (I have a script)

The idea here is that PMS must be able to go to the internet and walk the certificate chain from the FQDN the certificate points to back to this server it’s attached to.

17

@ChuckPa still no, im concerned that i overwrote the original cert at this point…

FYI i used this site as means to generate everything:

if that is correct i’ll add back my certs wait a bit and give you the latest log…

Please advise if this is how we should proceed. (Also please send script anyways)

18

Using this site (the forum) has nothing to do with your certs.

The site’s certificates are in control when you connect here.

The certificate (yours or plex’s) matters for remote access because of the INCOMING connection request from the remote.

The inbound request is what uses the certificate.

When you enable Remote Access, Plex.tv tests the connection.

Remember, certificates validate “Who am I connecting to?”. It’s the proof you’re not being redirected to some evil location somewhere.

It is expecting to see its own certificate -OR- a validated known certificate (which you added to Settings - Server - Network)

19

@ChuckPa

What your saying makes perfect sense to me. Understood. However, i think i had a fail in generating my cert as it is not verified when i look at it closely after manually accepting to continue off of public ip address. If possible could you guide me how to properly setup own VERIFIED cert?

20

It’s easy :slight_smile:

  1. Get your cert in a text file and its key in another
  2. Get the CA (Certificate) from the provider (I use Let’s encrypt)
  3. bring it all together.

openssl pkcs12 -export -out mycert.p12 -inkey mydomain-production.key -in mydomain-production.crt -certfile “Acmecert_+O=Let’s+Encrypt,+CN=R3,+C=US.crt”

I have a “staging” and a “production” cert (as recommended by pfSense)

To get the certificate itself is going to take the steps Let’s Encrypt requires to authenticate the device it’s creating the certificate for.

My pfSense is a Server certificate (*.mydomain.tld) because it’s in control of all devices on the LAN.

For your server, you want a host cert. You’ll still need a FQDN and port forwarding that always brings you in to the same point. (you can certify on your PC on behalf of the server then move the port forwarding to it with the cert)