I’m running the Nvidia Shield 2017 latest update with the latest Plex client and Plex server.
I have Plex server set up to have the local storage from a USB stick on the Shield.
I want to be able to play back content files from my USB stick without having any network connection whatsoever. But when I try this, it says my server is offline. Even though my server is the local Plex Server running on the Shield.
Is there a way that I can make the Plex from my local USB storage work when there’s no network at all?
So in other words, I want to just be able to take the Nvidia Shield and USB stick and playback my content while traveling, without any internet access. For some reason when I try it it just always complains that the server is not available and says “Retry connection”. Even though the server is local to the Shield!
Edit: Humm. This is interesting… I noticed that when I do not have an internet connection on the Shield, the Plex Media Server does not show up in the Plex Settings. There’s an “Plex Media Server” label, but the normal circle icon where you can choose Stop/Start on the server doesn’t even show up. Is there a way to get that to run when there’s no internet? I don’t see why it should be mandatory just to play back some local content…
Edit 2: Just to be clear - I do not mean that the Shield is on the LAN but no internet on the LAN… I mean that there is no network at all, and no ethernet cable or wifi configured. Because I want this to be fully portable.
Thanks for the suggestion! Yes the sever and app are signed into.
I changed the setting you suggested from Never to Always. However the same problem persists. As soon as I remove the network from the Shield, the Plex Media Server option in the Plex settings disappears, and the Plex app will not let me access any of the content. It says there is a network issue and asks me to Retry, which doesn’t help.
It’s like Plex thinks the content is stored on my network, but its on my USB stick that’s plugged into the Shield. And the option in PMS is already set so that the media file storage location is that local USB stick.
Anyone know why Plex Media Server seems to be insisting on a local network to operate (or even to run) when the content is being served directly from the Shield USB port?
Just guessing, but because Plex works on a client/server model, it probably just throws up its hands when there is no network because it doesn’t expect to find the server. Yes, the content is local, but the client doesn’t really know that - the server and client running on the same IP are just a happy coincidence, not something meaningfully different than being on different machines.
You might be able to trick it by manually setting a static IP address on the shield. This might still not work though, as plex might just refuse to look without a DNS server. (It needs to ask where the server is, and be told that the server is on the same IP as the client.)
It’s quite small so it won’t add much space/weight, and gets you back to a “Shield is on the LAN but no internet on the LAN” situation.
I used one when I travelled a lot for work to put my phone and a chromecast on the same wifi at a hotel. (Since hotel wifi usually does not allow device to device communication and therefore breaks casting)
Trying to set up a Plex server without internet connection is a frustrating experience.
And if you only have one client device, there is almost no point in having a media server at all.
IMHO your best strategy is to install Kodi onto the Shield and be done with it.
Thanks for your message. I have the PMS set up on the Shield and working fine. But I want to use the Shield as a portal player, where there is no network at all. Even tho all the storage/content is local on the USB stick, as soon as I disconnect the Shield from my network the Plex Server disappears from within the Plex settings and it says it can’t connect to the network and to retry. Is this indeed mandatory to have a network connection at all time? How can I get this to work? Thanks!
This is an interesting issue. I was thinking of using my shield as a server/client for when I travel. My main server is on a beefy computer, but when I travel I prepare to not have any internet access. If that happens, I also may include a portable drive with a selection of my media, and would like the server on the shield to serve up these files to itself. Useful if I want to stay within the same Plex ecosystem while away from home. I could also possibly have multiple devices (iphone, android, etc) that would also like to view these files as well.
I’m interested in this topic. Based on what I know of Plex, it ought to easily be possible to use the Plex server/client like this, but it might take some customizing. Try what @volts said first, and if that doesn’t work, I have some ideas.
In particular, I think you might need to add 127.0.0.1 to both of these fields:
Then you would need to have both server/client online at least once for this. Then, once offline, load the app. If it still fails to find the server, double check the client still has it set to look for 127.0.0.1 as the server source. (with port of 32400 maybe? so the entirety would be 127.0.0.1:32400).
