I made this post thinking I had solved all my problems. Now it appears there is still an issue.
I’m getting “Server Settings are Unavailable.” I checked my registry on the advice of this post and the LocalAppDataPath registry was empty. I added it and mapped it to C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server, with and without slashes, with and without the “Plex Media Server” folder at the end, and I’m not seeing any changes.
I did notice, that before I “whitelisted” Plex Media Server.exe in my SurfShark, the settings did show up. Is there another plex executable that needs to be whitelisted which is responsible for the plex settings? I whitelisted each .exe in C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server and that didn’t work.
There must be some generic service or process that I need to whitelist? Anyone have ideas?
Everything else appears to be working, though other topics with a similar issue say their libraries aren’t updating. That seems to also be the case for me. I’ve tried uninstalls and reinstalls a few times.
I recently whitelisted the Plex Media Server.exe as I was having issues accessing it remotely with it routed through Surfshark.
Now the odd thing is, I disabled my kill switch so I could test out Plex with just a raw internet connection. Restarted my server, launched plex via app.plex.tv/desktop and through 127.0.0.1…
Server settings were still unavailable.
Tried Firefox in Safe Mode. Still unavailable.
So I launch Surfshark up again. I add the following to the whitelist:
Plex Media Fingerprinter
Plex Media Scanner
Plex Media Server DLNA Service
Plex Relay
Plex Update Service
PlexScriptHost
I also whitelisted app.plex.tv/desktop under the Websites and IP address section.
Guess what, Still Unavailable.
What struck me as odd, is if i remove everything Plex related from the whitelist, the settings work again. The fact that disconnecting my VPN altogether didn’t fix it, but removing it from the whitelist of a disabled VPN did.
Yeah. SurfShark support didn’t have any ideas either. I ended up spinning up an Ubuntu VM (first time doing that!) and putting all the stuff I wanted on VPN in there, and left Plex on the host OS with no VPN. Works wonderfully, but took a lot of time to set up for a newbie like me. Glad I did it though. I learned a lot.
One thought I did try but couldn’t get right, maybe you’ll have more luck with: switch the toggle on the whitelist part of SurfShark and identify only the specific stuff you DO want to go through VPN. All traffic will go around it except for what you specify should go through it. I forget exactly where that broke down for me now it has been awhile. I think I just couldn’t figure out all the website IP addresses and programs I needed to funnel into it and it seemed easier to give up and do the Ubuntu VM.
Running into the same problem with Surfshark. I whitelist every .exe in the Plex Media Server and everything seems to work except accessing Server Settings.
Edit: As soon as I turn on the whitelist or blacklist, even with the VPN unconnected, Plex Server Settings are unavailable. Switch off the white/blacklist and it works again immediately.
Plex does not work with split tunnel. To access your Plex server remotely, TURN OFF split tunnel and forward a port manually through your router. On your router, choose the port you specify in the Plex UI for the remote side and 32400 for the local side. The Plex UI will report that your server is not accessible remotely, but you will still be able to reach it from a remote device. To access from a remote web browser, enter http://<ISP IP>:<Remote Port> .
