I’ve had Plex Pass for over a year with no issues now all of a sudden I have major issues with remote access. I have browsed this forum for answers and have found nothing to explain why I have these issues besides all of the recent updates from Plex which seem to break things rather than fix them. I just opened Plex and yet again, another update, and yet again still no remote access. While I do have a nice pretty screen now, ( which I could give a ■■■■ about) I’d rather have my remote access working again. Sooooooo, WTF did this last update address…
Here’s what we know and are trying to figure out WHY.
Depending on operating system, if you use a manual port setting and/or your modem/router doesn’t respond to UPnP / NAT-PMP, You’re hosed. Nothing can be done at this time.
Almost regardless of operating system, when you come through the first time setup, you’re golden. don’t muck with it and remote will work.
As an engineer, that’s a race condition. The $50,000,000,000,000,000,000 question is… “Where?” Why do those two conditions work and others fail. We can walk through the damn code by hand account for the timing. But the weird part? It’s not timing. It’s very specific sequence of events. The code is designed to take this into account.
If you’re familiar with a Finite State Machine and State Transition Diagrams. The whole remote access access mechanism has one. It always follows it. Programmers call it a flow chart. So why doesn’t it always work for everyone? Everyone has a different router and ISP but the one thing they ALL have in common… a different path to the Plex.tv servers which handle it. So why would a state machine fail? That’s the mystery. It’s a Send “Can you see me?” request - Get Reply - Send current status to confirm - Get reply - Post my current IP - Get confirmation. Now what can go wrong with that?
Possible answers? If you have IPv6 enabled on the computer and your ISP doesn’t play well? (like AT&T is known NOT to play well), that causes problems with metadata alone.
So here’s what I’ve been doing and has had the best results.
Stop PMS, Disable it from auto-starting, and reboot the machine (closes all open connections)
On Linux (only OS I have here). Delete the Preferences.xml file. (windows and OSX have their equivalents to cause it to THINK a fresh, first-run case)
Look for the “What’s This?” in the lower right corner. TAKE IT
accept limited (non-plex pass) features for the moment
Continue through AS IF first setup but DO NOT create any library sections… They will be there waiting for you.
When you get to the Dashboard, your sections are there.
Settings - Server - General . If it’s already signed in (it might)… Touch nothing else sign it into your account.
Settings - Server - Remote Access. If green and connected, Touch nothing (it’s using UPnP / NAT-PMP). This may take a moment after signing in to go green so be patient. (up to a minute).
Enable Remote access if it’s sitting there disabled. BUT, it may not work… If it’s going to work, it should already be green
This is the annoying part of the workaround… Stop PMS, delete Preferences.xml, restart PMS and do it again. It WILL make it.
When you get it… leave it.
I hope this has helped explain the situation as it is known.
I truly appreciate your response Chuck but let me be crystal clear here. I have had the same OS, the same NAS, the same router, the same switch and the same every damn everything since I installed and purchased Plex Pass. So I didn’t MUCK with anything. Hmmmm, maybe, just maybe… the plex updates MUCKED it all…
I actually did find that thread and after getting today’s update it is quite evident that NOTHING was addressed as far as REMOTE ACCESS. Thank you for READING my post…
Did you get any OS updates? Did your ISP provide firmware updates to the router / modem? Did they change anything in the network?
Are you really in control of all the variables? I did not invite debate or challenge. I’m taking the time to tell you what I know. This is NOT an easy problem to figure out. Hell, if it was easy, anyone could do it.
I actually did find that thread and after getting today’s update it is quite evident that NOTHING was addressed as far as REMOTE ACCESS. Thank you for READING my post…
I KNOW thing was in the update to address the problem. I was on the testing team.
Hello,
Just signed up for Plex Pass today and took the opportunity to update my plex media server to the latest (ubuntu is the os).
Was fiddling with remote access and having issues as well. Do you think my issue might be related to the topic of this thread?
I’ve confirmed (as far as I can tell) external access using nmap -Pn -p 32400 which returns “32400/tcp open plex”
I’m happy to wait until any service issues are sorted out if that is what is going on in my case. Just curious if that is likely to be it or if I need to continue troubleshooting elsewhere.
To share with you what I’ve been experimenting with on Linux.
I moved my library (Library) to the side and created a fresh installation, letting PMS do full automagic port selection.
Now I disturb it with a manual port selection.
The only difference is the port number 16000-18000 vs my selection.
If anyone wants to play with these ranges and manual port selection on platforms with issues, please do.
It is advisable to either edit (or just create a new) Preferences.xml so you are not carrying to old “LastConnectedPort” information with you. Best is to save it so we can compare after
@ChuckPA said:
Here’s what we know and are trying to figure out WHY.
Depending on operating system, if you use a manual port setting and/or your modem/router doesn’t respond to UPnP / NAT-PMP, You’re hosed. Nothing can be done at this time.
Almost regardless of operating system, when you come through the first time setup, you’re golden. don’t muck with it and remote will work.
Was that a typo in #1 above. You are saying if you use a manual port you are hosed? Or if you use AUTO but don’t get proper UPnP you are hosed?
I get the 2nd UPnP and how that would cause a problem but the manual port configuration should be the easiest code.
Of course I’ve not seen the code or the logs involved but this would not seem like a race condition to me but a code logic issue. Almost as if the code was changed from a previous version and it introduced some wrong logic that is causing this.
But the point of my post was to clarify what you were saying in #1 because later in the thread you mention trying manual port numbers which makes this a bit confusing.
Carlo
PS glad you’re on it and I’d just like to say you have been extremely helpful in the forums lately!!!
It’s a bag of mixed nuts. For every example I might give, there will be a counter example. I personally can’t make it work with fixed port. I can make it work with UPnP but my router goes stupid after a day (the UPnP definitions overlow its capacity and everything else stops working)
I said all this because this is 100% a “YMMV” (Your miileage may vary) scenario. ISP’s, modems, routers, the hops in between, and which host at Plex.tv is responding to you and which are communicating after the initial ‘hello’ from the server. A lot of variables.
You’re right, The manual port should be the most predictable but it’s not. I’ve never had success with UPnP, now, I have it for a few hours then it’s gone… but (get this) only if i build a new server and don’t reboot it. Crazy enough ?
As I stated, and think you’re agreeing with me, it’s a sequence of events and timing should, by definition, be immaterial, IF the code is solid. Logic says there’s a regression. The question is WHERE? and why i tried to be funny about the value of the answer to that question.
As an FYI. I’ve not rebooted the machine or restarted PMS since that screenshot last and it’s solid.
Forgot to add… Previously I could not make UPnP work… Hmmm…Now it’s the only thing that does. Kinda logical to me but that’s way above my ‘paygrade’ so to speak.
I think we agree. Just wanted some clarification of what you were saying.
Now for me and the many servers I’ve set up and helped people with probably close to 100, I’ve went with manual router setup and manual port in Plex and haven’t had a problem. From my experience this has always been the most reliable. I also haven’t gotten any calls with the newer releases (assuming those I’ve helped have upgraded). So maybe if it has been working and no setting are changed it continues to work!?!?!?
I’ve just recently setup 2 additional servers on my side and I’m using manual ports with zero problem and these are all Windows Server installs.
Are you seeing the problems across the board or only on certain hosts environments?
Don’t know if any of this info helps but thought I’d throw it out there in case…
If you see “Relay=1”, I don’t need to see this. If you have connectivity andRelay="0", this is what we’re seeing.
In your browser: https://plex.tv/pms/resources.xml?includeHttps=1&includeRelay=1&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
where xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is the Plex-Online-Token from your Preferences.xml file (or Windows registry)
It will return a fill list of XML.
Next, even while indicating “Red”,
Open your mobile App (not using wifi) and go to your server.
Determine if it reports “Indirect” or not. (music is fine for this)
I have done this with this even while ‘not accessible’ and been able to establish the limited (as I should) connection. This is why I say to use music.
Please send the returned to me via PM (Use CODE paragraph formatting around everything please) -OR- put it in a file and attach the file in the PM. Since these are your access credentials, I want very much to protect them. I would rather they not be on some other site.
If you also wish to send a screencap of what your mobile app shows, please feel free to do so.
If you have any questions, Please don’t hesitate to ask here.
EDIT: 28 - Mar - 2017
I have enough data now. Thank you all for your submissions.
I had remote access problems for months while i was connecting properly and for some reason after some time connection was lost and with enabling was on again. After experimenting finally it works with no problem. It has something to do with windows firewall and maybe my ZTE H168N router.I added the 32400 port to inbound and outbound rules of windows firewall and voila. No problems anymore.
@petorf said:
I had remote access problems for months while i was connecting properly and for some reason after some time connection was lost and with enabling was on again. After experimenting finally it works with no problem. It has something to do with windows firewall and maybe my ZTE H168N router.I added the 32400 port to inbound and outbound rules of windows firewall and voila. No problems anymore.
Firewall rules will directly impact the Indirect indicator. Plex/Web (left panel) will show you this quote clearly. “Nearby”, “Remote”, or “Indirect”
It looks like external access works for a split second, then dies - trying both UPNP and manual port forwarding. All worked well maybe 4 weeks ago… still broken after latest update. Windows Firewall is allowing Plex through - some other firewall setting I need to tweak maybe?
