Where do I start? I’m a Plex newbie in many ways, but have been successfully running the Plex app for a few years on my phone accessing the Plex media server on my PC and using Chromecast to send stuff to the TV.
But all of a sudden the app just won’t connect to the Media Server. I just can’t find anything wrong or think of anything that has changed in the last few days, and so I don’t know where to go from here.
Can anyone advise where I should look? I went through most of the troubleshooting steps on this page - https://support.plex.tv/articles/204604227-why-can-t-the-plex-app-find-or-connect-to-my-plex-media-server/ but some of it towards the end didn’t make a lot of sense to me…
Did you recently update your Windows to a newer build?
After such an action, Windows likes to reset the network adapters/connections to ‘public’ (instead of treating them as ‘private’)
That closes all ports and therefore no client is able to find the server anymore.
Or did you switch routers perhaps or did your router update its firmware?
(sometimes ISPs push firmware updates without you even noticing)
OK, thanks. No nothing major like windows updates or new routers. I’m just not sure the questions I should be asking. Server connections seem tricky. What should I look for and where? Ant tips?
Yes, my server is accessible from the browser using https://app.plex.tv
The app I’m referring to is the Plex app for iPhone. That won’t connect to my server.
It’s the official Plex app, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get it to reconnect
Yes, the phone is connected to the home network via Wi-fi
Did you verify the status of the network connection in your server machine? How do I do that?? I can’t see any options for that. Where would I find that?
Did you verify the status of the network connection in your server machine?
How do I do that?? I can’t see any options for that. Where would I find that?
Settings - Server - Remote
should give an indication about the availability of the remote connection.
Do you only have remote clients?
How is your server setup?
Does it run on a machine in your own local network?
Did you install a VPN on your phone perhaps
or did you change something in the settings of your router?
Some routers can segregate the WiFi from the wired network (this feature is often called ‘guest mode’ or ‘AP isolation’ or ‘client isolation’)
Hi Otto,
Thanks for helping. Sorry, I’ve been trying different things but nothing is working.
I did install a VPN on my desktop computer (where the server is installed) but it doesn’t help if I turn that off.
It’s just a vanilla network. My PC is the sever with all the content on it. I can access the content from Plex Web plex.tv/web/app# but not from my phone. But something is stopping it being cast to the tv via Chromecast as well. The whole thing just seems to have ■■■■ itself.
I think I will try totally uninstalling Plex from the computer and starting again.
I don’t think it’s the router. Nothing changed with that. The wifi works fine, just not the plex app connecting to the server.
So frustrating. I had gotten used to watching stuff on the tv now I have to sit in front of the pc again…
Thanks for the help.
I have the exact same problem though with completely different OS’es (Server: Ubuntu 16.04, Client: Android 6.0.1). I can connect to my server within the PC’s browser at “app.plex.tv” as well as “localhost:32400”. Both plays media fine within the browser. When I try to stream media, no matter what video I try to stream, to Chromecast, it always fails. It either keeps trying to load or it quits the attempt to stream with the error message, that the media is currently unavailable.
Also I can’t connect to my server using the Anroid app. The server is listed in the app, but when I tap on it it says it can’t connect, because the server is unavailable.
It all used to work for about a year no problems, but then suddenly both issues, not being able to stream to Chromecast and not being able to connect to my Server using the Andorid app, emerged. I’m not sure if I installed a PMS update beforehand or if the issues arose out of thin air. I can’t remember.
I reinstalled the Server, though I did not discard all Settings beforehand, because I’d rather not lose all my settings and library data.
I have 3 plex servers, 2 work and the one on my iMac no longer is available from my iPad. The iPad works with my NAS based plex server and my Mac mini one. The iMac plex server is available and works from the browser. I’ve had them all working well for years.
