Unable to use Plex offline [Solved ]

[tranquiloteov_gmail.com]

Hi there. I am using plex for years now and still have the same problems.
I dont have internet at home because i live in the mountains. I have a strong PC acting like a server (windows 10 + Nvidia graphic + all movies inside a Synology NAS connected by Lan ) and i have other PCs (windows 10 ) acting like clients .All my clients connect to the server by Wifi.
I know that when i install plex, i need for the first configuration internet to configure everything and download the codecs. But i cant let my phone all day and night connected. So what i would like to do is configure everything for an offline use.

1ºproblem: Plex ask me on every client to go into internet to login for access my plex sever. I dont understand why i need to login into my accaunt in internet to use my server offline. But ok, lets do it.

2º problem: its totally impossible to use official plex client in offline mode. i had to use KODI with plex addon. I dont understand what i am doing wrong, but its very weird that official plex client doesnt let me use it, but kodi+plex addon works perfectly.

3ºproblem: This is the biggest problem i have. Even when i make it to configure server and my kodi clients, it only works for few weeks. If i connect my server computer to internet ( just to do other stuffs on it) then plex server detect internet and change all the configuration wich break the comunication between server and all my clients. Then i have AGAIN to reconfigure each clients and server using the internet from my phone and again login with my plex pass accaunt in every client.

I have the same issue as this guy: https://forums.plex.tv/t/im-a-plex-pass-user-how-do-i-use-plex-offline-without-logging-in-to-an-external-service/143354
but it seems nobody answered/helped him.
The only thing i want is to use plex offline to watch my movies. Just that. I dont mind to use my phone to configure it one time. But i would like some help to know what can i do to not having to reconfigure all the time everything. I dont mind changing to linux or other sistem but prefer to stay in windows since i have more knowledge in this S.O. But at this point, i will do whatever is necesary to make this system works. Any help would be very apreciated.

[anon5074910]

Have you see this document ?

[HowTo] Use Plex with No Internet

I’ve seen far too many posts regarding “can’t connect to Plex with no internet”, and an uprising/outcry always ensues. It eventually settles down, but the lack of single point resources can be frustrating. I’ve been there, no internet - can’t google anything from a computer so a phone will have to do, but navigating through results and trying “solutions” can be daunting. I’m creating this How-To to help alleviate those posts and help everyone access their servers when the net is down. Couple of …

On the rare occasions I’ve had issues with my ISP this has worked perfectly with my plexserver and roku client.

[tranquiloteov_gmail.com]

thanks!!
I never saw this post. But after checking it quickly i can tell you that i have tried at las 50% of it. As soon as i have more time, i will watch it totally. I apreciate your help a lot.
Anyway, i think that having to do ALL this stuffs to make plex works offline tells me that there is something wrong about Plex philosophy . Should not be that hard to stream localy all my media. I think that Plex is too much focused on the “online side” wich is not bad, but when it´s at the cost of the “offline side” then there is a problem.
Hopefully your link will help , but would be nice if they improve all this on future versions. I will check all your info and will tell if it works.

[tranquiloteov_gmail.com]

ok, so today i stayed at home ALL day working on this. Nothing worked.

+My router is a Netgear NightHawk R7000. All ports are open. Upnp is on.
+My server is on Windows 10. sharing services are on, wifi adapter is set to “private”, and inside plex server i already turned on “allow insecure conection” also i used the “prefered” option. And in “allowed ip” i added all the ip of my home. They are manual ip, not dhcp. I also turned off the windows 10 firewall.
+i tried to connecto to server with my android phone, with another windows 10 intel nuc and with another intel nuc that have OpenElec with kodi and plex plugin. Absolutly none of them could connect to the server.

I just tried to connect from my laptop to the ip:32400 and i can connect perfectly to the server, but even there, its say that he is unreachable-

so many years with the same issue, is sooooo frustrating. Please, someone help me.

*i just turned “on” the debuging from my android phone and retried to connect to the server. i attached the log to this post. plex-log-myAndroidPhone.zip (813.9 KB)
*Now i just turned “on” the log option on my server and tried again to connect from my android phone. there you have the log.Plex Media Server Logs_2020-02-01_20-00-57.zip (2.7 MB)

[JuiceWSA]

In the player/device app(s), change the setting to:
Fallback to insecure on local network only.
The server setting should remain at ‘Preferred’.

That should look for an internet connection briefly, then fallback to local. ‘Should’ being the operative word.

[tranquiloteov_gmail.com]

First of all, thanks for trying to help. I just tried that on my phone and it didn’t worked.

[JuiceWSA]

Try rebooting everything.
Security settings have a habit of setting themselves at startup - not sure if they’ll activate/change on a running server.

If that doesn’t work - you need advanced help.

[tranquiloteov_gmail.com]

I have been all day working on that. I rebooted everything including my router like 15 times

[JuiceWSA]

Here’s some ‘elevated support’ - @OttoKerner
he can elevate it further if necessary.

[tranquiloteov_gmail.com]

Sorry i don’t understand. Where is the help? Am i suppose to contact in private the contract you sent me?

[JuiceWSA]

No, you wait until Otto Shows up. I sent an air-burst over his AO - that should wake him up.

He’s German, living in Germany (or thereabouts).
I assume Germans sleep/eat/bathe once in a while, but there’s a better than average chance he’ll show up - soon(ish).

[tranquiloteov_gmail.com]

Ah. Ok. Thank you very much

[anon5074910]

I could be sending you down a rabbit hole here but while you wait for others with more experienced than I jump in I do wonder the following which may or may not help with your troubleshooting …

I’ve also assumed that 192.168.2.53 is a static IP set on your router for device running the plexmediaserver.

1. Did you provide the List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth ? The steps are in the doc I linked above previously. Go to Settings > Network > enable Show Advance settings in the top right. Put your router ip in here – would be something like 192.168.2.1/255.255.255.0 (I’m assuming this based on your IP of 192.168.2.53). This is needed for local devices to access your server without authentication which I think you are trying to do.
2. does https://app.plex.tv/desktop work for you when signed in on your plexserver ? So browser on your plexserver itself.
3. does http://127.0.0.1:32400 work for you ? Again, browser on your plexserver.

if you could try them on your plexserver that would be good to ensure that is at least working. It will also confirm (at least locally to your machine) that plex is good.

I think you have DLNA enabled, could you disable that and restart again and see if it helps ?

[cecoates]

Just for a visual aid of what dokuro is talking about:

You specifically want the box that mentions “without auth”. The other very similar box is meant for deciding which IPs to apply bandwidth restrictions to.

So in the “without auth” box you’d enter something like 192.168.2.1/255.255.255.0 or 192.168.2.0/24

What that is telling Plex is that (assuming your local network uses 192.168.2.x addresses) devices connecting from an IP address of 192.168.2.1-192.168.2.254 are allowed to connect without authentication.

If your local network has more than one “subnet”, let’s say your main network is on 192.168.1.x and you’re connected to a “repeater” or something that uses 192.168.2.x, you’d need to add both separated by a comma.

I forget if you add a space, but something like: 192.168.1.0/24,192.168.2.0/24

I struggle a bit with subnets/notation, so if that’s not written correctly definitely invite someone to restate/rephrase it.

[tranquiloteov_gmail.com]

I did all that, but nothing worked

[tranquiloteov_gmail.com]

Yes i did it. But it didn’t work. That’s why i feel so frustrated

[anon5074910]

I wonder if multiple network adaptors which is confusing things … what does ipconfig /all return on your plexmediaserver and does it match all the IP information you believe the server to have ?

I also assume Windows is activated (sorry, trying to think outside of the box as to what could be causing this)!

[anon5074910]

Looked at your server logs and I see …

Feb 01, 2020 19:52:13.248 [9556] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.2.9:37362 (Subnet)] GET / (5 live) TLS GZIP Signed-in Token ()
Feb 01, 2020 19:52:13.248 [9600] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.2.9:37366 (Subnet)] GET / (5 live) GZIP Signed-in Token ()
Feb 01, 2020 19:52:13.249 [9556] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.2.9:37362] 401 GET / (5 live) TLS GZIP 0ms 435 bytes
Feb 01, 2020 19:52:13.249 [9600] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.2.9:37366] 401 GET / (5 live) GZIP 0ms 435 bytes

Your sure 192.168.2.53 is your right IP for your plexmediaserver ?

[tranquiloteov_gmail.com]

Yes windows is activated, and i have 1 lan and 1 wifi in my computer. In the Lan port of my server i have my Synology NAS with all the movies connected by RJ45. And in my room, i have my computer connected by wifi. I was using windows 10 since yesterday, but i tried diferent configuration and now , my client in my room is a nuc with libreElec. Still not working, so i am pretty sure is the Server that its not working. Or maybe some configuration on windows 10. In fact, i suspect is some configuration of windows 10, but i cant be sure 100% because i tried everything i found on internet, and still not working.
And yes. i did manually put the ip adresses in the ip4 config. My server is 192.168.2.53 and my room PC is 192.168.2.54 .I also tried with DHCP but none of them worked. ( even the libreElec was tested with DHCP and Fixed Ip).

[anon5074910]

@tranquiloteov_gmail.com

In the Lan port of my server i have my Synology NAS with all the movies connected by RJ45

You have your LAN cable coming from your NAS directly into your Windows 10 computer? Really? That seems very odd to me. Surely your NAS should be connected to your router via a RJ45 and then your computer also connected via another RJ45.

Your setup as I understand it based on what you have described above is actually simular to mine. I have a Nighthawk X6 R8000 as my main router, a WD My Cloud EX4100 NAS and then a computer running plexmediaserver, in my case this is a Linux Fedora 31 64bit OS.

From a setup perspective my NAS and Computer are hardwired into the router each using RJ45 cables. The router has static IPs for both my NAS and Computer so they never change and the NAS then is mounted via NFS on my Computer. My plex libraries are then pointed to my mount points for my media on the NAS.

I would recommend you adjust your setup to wire the NAS and Computer into your router. Mount/map your NAS on your windows PC to a static drive letter and then configure your libraries to it. I can clearly see from your logs plex is using 192.168.2.9 and not 192.168.2.53 and I suspect it could have something to do with your cable setup.

I also assume you have NOT installed plex on your NAS and are only running the plexmediaserver software on your PC? If you have then you could have two mediaserver running on your network.