Server Version#: 1.41.8.9834
Player Version#: 4.148.0
Title says it all.
I’ve looked and looked for hours trying to find an answer to this–something tells me it’s much simpler than I’m making it.
I built my own Unraid server (first time for me) and also upgraded my router to a Ubiquiti Dream Router 7 so I could have more fine tuned control over things exactly like port forwarding. I also set up a static IP for my Plex Server so that the IP address is always the same.
Whenever I try to manually port forward on my Plex server, I set up the port on my router, confirm it’s saved and loaded, and then enter the port into the settings in my Plex server.
It works! I can test it with my phone on mobile data and stream flawlessly.
Is it actually not working or just reporting as failed on that screen?
Mine flips to “not available” with red warning all the time but it’s actually working just fine, just the reporting\check seems to not be reporting correctly. If I hit “retry” on that screen it usually goes back to green for a bit but eventually goes back to having a warning. I’ve never had issues with remote streaming (me or a couple of friends\family).
It says that but it’s working just fine right now.
I dunno why mine regularly reports “not available” but I guess it’s probably related to my DNS filtering or security\adblock\routing\caching on my gateway interfering with whatever service Plex uses to see if it’s open.
You might try a port checker to verify if it’s actually getting blocked: https://portchecker.co (use your public IP or dynamic dns).
It might help to post your port forwarding rule just to be sure? I mean it’s pretty straight forward but still…
I am having a similar issue. Everything worked perfect up until three days ago, I could connect from any device on my local network and connect remotely no problem, successfully using port forwarding to reach my server. Zero changes I’m aware of since then, and suddenly this problem started happening.
Plex Server reports Remote Access is not working (“Not available outside your network”). When I click the Retry button next to the manually specified port (yes it’s the correct port I’m forwarding, yes the public IP is correct, yes the server IP is correct, yes port checker reports the port is open), it succeeds and stays that way momentarily. Moments later, it switches back to Red with the same “Not available” message. Super irritating.
Clients (Plex app on Shield TV, Android phone, app.plex.tv) report libraries are offline. Server reports everything is fine, except for the Remote Access issue. No firewall changes, everything looks correct, no network, server, or app changes. Server is claimed by the correct account. Tried basic troubleshooting (restarting server, logging out/in of server and apps, clearing app data), no dice.
Server is running on Windows 11 Pro, no server side VPN, etc. Again it has worked flawlessly for months/years up until today. Server version 1.41.8.9834.
It was. I just disabled it on my router and now it flashes success very briefly when I retry then immediately switches to “Not available” again, rather than it switching after several seconds like it did before, so I’m not sure if it was an improvement.
If UPnP was at least part of the problem, I’m still very confused why it has worked flawlessly all this time then suddenly stopped working on its own..?
I can also note that as some others have mentioned, I just tried PlexAMP from my phone and that seems to be working fine, I can see my music library on the same server. The other libraries that aren’t showing up now are all correctly set to either Movies or TV Shows.
Because your port forwarding was set up incorrectly all this time, and you’ve been relying on Plex Relay and UPnP for remote connection without being aware of it.
When I set this up initially, I could not reach my Plex server until I set up port forwarding on my router with the specified port. If UPnP was being used and this was enabling my server to be reachable, wouldn’t this not have been the case, and my server would have been reachable without the port forwarding rule setup on my router?
Regardless, as I mentioned, portchecker reports the port is open. Canyouseeme.org also reports the port is open. I have several port forwarding rules set up on my router, and they all work except for Plex suddenly. This could be the root cause I suppose, however it seems unlikely. I’ve also recreated the port forwarding rule to test (and re-validated both portchecker and canyouseeme report success), and I still have the same issue.
This also would not explain why it suddenly stopped working when there have been no changes made, UPnP enabled or not. My first hunch was either an issue happening server-side with Plex (not as likely or it would be much more widespread), or perhaps a Windows update may have broken something or created a conflict. Or, perhaps an issue with secure connections? Expired certificate?
All testing should be done with Relay disabled and local to server.
Validate the IP and Port with canyouseeme.org.
Working move on, not working look at your firewall rules.
Restart Plex and wait 3 minutes, download logs and open the zip then the Plex Media Server.log file.
Search for identity, what is the message?
(35, SSL connect error) = bad cert.
Anything other than success will be DNS or DNS rebinding related but no remote access.
Search for CERT
“API rate limit exceeded” = turn your server off for 3 to 4 hours or come to the forum and ask for a reset. Probably should fix your DNS first.
This is what happens when you don’t run your docker in HOST mode, Cert is registered to the 192 address but not the docker network so no SSL and all clients are remote to the server as well and can’t connect.
WARN - [CERT] TLS connection from 192.168.1.44:32776 came in with unrecognized plex.direct SNI name ‘172-18-0-1.c08a969cce5b4a3f88eff6a67e5e1b44.plex.direct’; using installed plex.direct cert
WARN - [CERT] TLS connection from 192.168.1.44:41740 came in with unrecognized plex.direct SNI name ‘172-19-0-1.c08a969cce5b4a3f88eff6a67e5e1b44.plex.direct’; using installed plex.direct cert
WARN - [HttpClient/HCl#2e] HTTP error requesting GET https://172-18-0-1.c08a969cce5b4a3f88eff6a67e5e1b44.plex.direct:32400 (60, SSL peer certificate or SSH remote key was not OK) (SSL: no alternative certificate subject name matches target host name ‘172-18-0-1.c08a969cce5b4a3f88eff6a67e5e1b44.plex.direct’)
WARN - [HttpClient/HCl#2f] HTTP error requesting GET https://172-19-0-1.c08a969cce5b4a3f88eff6a67e5e1b44.plex.direct:32400 (60, SSL peer certificate or SSH remote key was not OK) (SSL: no alternative certificate subject name matches target host name ‘172-19-0-1.c08a969cce5b4a3f88eff6a67e5e1b44.plex.direct’)
The new network checks being done are sensitive to DNS responses so older clients that could work without SSL/TLS now fail with the new experience.
Mine has been doing this for years (see my previous post) but remote access is still working fine.
So remote access is working? It’s just the settings page reporting incorrectly?
Which makes me think everything is working fine and it’s just the Remote Access page being weird about its port check - which as I mentioned mine has been unreliable for years now. Shows green at first and flips back to red or if I hit retry when it’s red it flips back to green for a bit and then goes back to red.
I think it’d be helpful to make sure when talking about remote access “not working” we specify if someone can’t reach the server remotely or if the Remote Access settings page simply reporting it can’t be reached but is functioning remotely. I think it’s two different things.
One is that remote access settings page reports “not available” when the server actually is.
Two is remote access to content actually not working.
For those with Remote Access simply reporting not available when it is, anybody using a specific DNS filtering list? I use Hagezi-Pro via ControlD (previously NextDNS) and my Firewalla has its own Adblock setup and sometimes those could get false positives perhaps? I’m not having problems other than what I mentioned earlier which is that my Remote Access settings page regularly tells me “not available” even when it’s fine.
For those here who are having problems with actually getting to content remotely, I have had issues in the past when ISPs have decided to block ports because they figure out it’s Plex or torrent port and decide to block it. I change the port and it’s back to working again (hasn’t happened in a while but it’s happened). I hadn’t seen it mentioned, but maybe try changing the port to something way into a different range and see if that helps?
If there are folks with one type of issue vs another here, it’ll probably best if this topic sticks to whatever @KyleOfTheBeard is experiencing and start a new topic for the other one.
So Kyle - are you having problems actually accessing remotely or just with the remote access page reporting incorrectly?
Ooo… forgot about DSN Rebinding. I had to add a special command into Firewalla and whitelist on NextDNS\ControlD to help with Rebinding. More complex routers - like Unify and Firewalla - usually have rebinding controls to manage (particularly if using Unbound). Here’s Firewalla’s instructions for adding it:
For users who are using Plex, you can configure your box to allow plex.direct to be resolved to private IP addresses. For example, add the following to a file ~/.firewalla/config/unbound_local/plex.direct:
Hahah thanks for this! Had a busy day and didn’t get a chance to respond to any of the comments.
I believe I MIGHT have gotten it working? @ChristianKent’s suggestion to forward the 36569 port to 32400 seems to have been the solution to getting the Remote Access working consistently. The settings for Port Forwarding in Ubiquiti are a bit lacking in clarity, and I believe I was forwarding the ports in the reverse order they were meant to be.
Had a friend in a different country test it just now and he said it’s working flawlessly. So that’s cool.
As to some of the other points people have commented on:
UPnP was never turned on on my router
The remote access genuinely wasn’t working. I kept getting ‘Server Unavailable’ whenever I tried to test it on my end. So it definitely wasn’t just the Remote Access page being glitchy. As of right now, the Remote Access page is staying firmly in the green when I refresh it.
So to recap: this seems to have been due to Ubiquiti making their Port Forwarding a little confusing. But I got it in the end.
No, as I mentioned remote access is not working. I can login, but all Plex clients (mobile, Shield TV, app.plex.tv) report all libraries are offline. Local network and remote. This just started happening out of the blue. Worked fine Saturday, no changes, no longer working Tuesday. Again portchecker and canyouseeme report the port is open, which makes this all the more perplexing.
To ensure I have my port forwarding rules are set up correctly, I tested a different rule by closing the receiving app on the destination system first then checking portchecker and canyouseeme, both reported the port was closed, as expected. Reopened the receiving app and checked again, both reported the port was now open, as expected.
I started a separate thread, but interestingly, PlexAMP connects and can see my music library just fine (locally at least, remote still seems to not be working with PlexAMP either). Again, though, Plex clients for video show all my movie and TV libraries as offline.
No DNS filtering on the server or router. I’ll try a different port to see if that makes a difference. Will also review the logs for what was suggested, but I don’t have a fancy firewall or complex network configurations in my case, and am not using my own DNS, am not running in Docker, etc.
I’d definitely grab some client\server logs to throw in there. I’m crap at reading the Plex logs but some folks are really good at seeing network hiccups in them.
I haven’t found a ton of info on this online so far. Some say that Plex employees have had to create/renew certs for them. Some say that reclaiming the server sometimes creates a new certificate (trying to figure out how to do that). Any insights there?
I’ve never had to go that far to resolve issues like that… so don’t know personally. It’s super odd for sure.
The remote access page reporting acting up may be a false positive - my remote access page often says “not available” but it is available - and might not be but your internal clients not connecting is unrelated to remote access (unless there’s trouble reaching Plex to authenticate) so really it sounds like there’s a mismatch somewhere for sure. You’ve done quite a bit and since it’s multiple clients having the issue I do feel like it’s on the server side.
This won’t likely help, but I like to run DBRepair (unofficial tool but built and maintained by one of the server devs) when things act up and make sure things are “clean” there before I upload logs about my server. Mostly it likely just gives me some busywork to feel like I’m doing something.
You could try loading the beta too: 1.41.9.9961
You can download it from the site (sign in with your plex pass account to reveal the beta options). The betas are usually okay - and this one has been out for a bit - and you can always revert back pretty easily.
Since this topic is marked “solved”, you should probably setup a new topic specifically for your troubleshooting. Grab the server logs shortly after trying to connect and your client says libraries are unavailable and post them in your topic. Grabbing the client logs from your shield might help too. It’s definitely an odd issue so getting an employee\rep to check those logs with their familiarity of them is probably going to be best.
Don’t do that. Screw consistency if this leads to more networks successfully filtering Plex traffic because port 32400 is nowadays well known as being used by Plex.
I’m explicitly recommending to use a random port number for the WAN side. Maybe even a well-known number that is frequently used for other services, like 8080 etc. (unless it’s already blocked by you running a different service on that port, of course)
I had a similar issue, I swapped broadband supplier form Virgin Medai to LitFibre and the remote connection wouldn’t stay up. I had to get a dedicated IP from Lit at an additional cost of £5 a month.
