Server Version#: 4.142.2
Player Version#: N/A - Multiple clients running latest version
I’m looking for help trying to troubleshoot some strange connectivity issues that a few of my users are experiencing. I don’t think I have enough info yet for you all to help me identify the specific issue at play, but I’m hoping to get some advice on where I might find some clues because I feel as if I’ve hit a wall.
I have dozens of users on my Plex server and up until ~6 months ago, no one experienced any connectivity issues. That’s when my parents started complaining that they were no longer able to stream anything from Plex. I was initially skeptical since they are far from tech savvy, but the next time I was home I checked it out and found that they were right. Despite them having more than sufficient internet speed to stream video, the Plex would sit at the spinning wheel endlessly for every TV show and movie, on every device. To make things more strange, this also started happening ~2 months ago to my partner at their home.
These are the facts I’ve gathered (and cannot make sense of)
The server streams ~1,200h of content per month to ~20 users without issue
Both affected networks have sufficient speed to stream video. This was tested with Netflix, Youtube, etc. Any streaming service besides Plex worked flawlessly with high quality video
Both affected users share the same ISP (Xfinity) but are in geographically different regions. Other users in the same area, with the same ISP, do not have this issue.
The Plex UI loads fine (posters, ratings, etc.) but video will endlessly buffer
Occasionally, I have been able to get the stream to play by dropping quality to the lowest possible setting. When that does work it still only plays ~10 sec of the video for ~5 min of buffering
This behavior is identical across any device connected to the affected networks. Web browsers, smart TV’s, smartphones, etc.
The content being transcoded, or direct play has no effect
When content is attempted to be streamed from the affected networks, the Plex dashboard shows that a significant amount of data is being sent to the devices.
The server’s bandwidth and CPU are not being maxed out. I can try to stream an episode on their network and watch it buffer forever, while simultaneously streaming the same episode from my phone over cellular data without issue.
My initial reaction was to blame their internet connection, since every other factor (device, media format, server resources) can be ruled out. That seems to be the only possible explanation, but I just can’t make sense of what would cause network issues for Plex and not any other streaming service.
I’m hoping to get some advice on what to look for in the logs that might give me some insight. Trying to get them to start a stream so I can capture some verbose logs, but they are unfortunately busy at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated because this is starting to drive me nuts! I will be at my parents’ house soon for Christmas and would love to get this fixed for them as a present.
I take it that it’s just your parents that are having issues and none of your other remote users are having the same problem and can access your server okay?
Have you tried checking from their connection whether your Plex server’s port appears open using a tool such as nmap?
Parents have been experiencing the issue for ~6 months and my partner has had the exact same issue for ~2 months. Unfortunately it seems to only be affecting the two users I care about the most lol!
Port is open and the 20+ other users have no issues at all. It’s seeming like the issue would have to be on the ISP level, but I have other users in the same area (with the same ISP) that don’t have this issue. If there’s anything I could do to test for an ISP peering issue that would be great.
Have you tested that they can see the port is open specifically from their houses via their connections, or have you only just used an online port checking tool?
Have you tried manually setting the server ip address and port from their connection?
I’ve been assuming the port is open since the posters and other metadata loads fine. I haven’t tried manually setting the server’s IP/port on their devices so I can give that a try when I visit in a few days. Still though, it seems like that would cause a total lack of connection instead of only causing the content stream to slow down to a crawl.
If they’re seeing content then that does tend to indicate they are able to connect to the server. Do you know if they’re being relayed or directly connecting? If they’re being relayed then that would explain the slower bitrate for the streams.
I’ll try to capture some logs today, but I was able to watch one of the affected users attempt to stream last night from the Plex Dash app and noticed some behavior that might indicate an issue with the stability of their internet connection.
When they started playback, the bandwidth graph showed my server filling up their buffer near instantly (~50mpbs for ~15 sec) before dropping off completely. Their stream would play for a bit (~1 min) before buffering again. Then I see my server bandwidth spike up, drop off, rinse and repeat, over and over. The content should be using ~10mbps on average and showed exactly that when I streamed it from my phone over cellular data. Once the buffer filled up it was just plodding along at 10mbps while their stream was more “all or nothing”.
All that seems to point to an unstable connection on their end. My best guess is that other streaming services have a more robust buffering system than Plex and that’s why the issue isn’t as noticeable (or not present at all). It’s been difficult to get precise information from my parents on this because they are chronically un-technical. Hoping I can get this cleared up once I can get my hands on their network in a few days.
Oh and I almost forgot to answer your question in my ramblings. The server is located in my apartment. Hooked up to my router via ethernet on my Google Fiber connection. I’m very confident that the issue is not on my side of the network because the server also hosts a variety of other local and remote services that have 100% uptime
