Wol - Wake On Lan

Feature Suggestions
61

Yeah please look into this.it is not environmentally friendly to have a server running all the time when not being used.

62

+1 for this

63

I would like to have a little button right next to the server name that can be configured to send a magic packetā€¦ Integrated into the apps and plex web. This way wake on wan AND wake on lan could work. PLEASE!

64

+1 for Wake on Lan
specifically from the Roku app

65

+1 also for me !

66

This is one of the many features that have been asked for that appear EXTREMELY easy to implement but Plex has apparently not implemented it and has not said why it appears so hard.

I have no dog in this fight as I do not allow my server to sleep but if this were implemented I might reconsider that and it might save me a few dollars a year.

If WOL cannot be done the Plex should say so and if it can but will not be then Plex should say that as well but Plex just does not communicate well, or sometimes at all, with their user base hence both insecurity and resentment builds in that user base. A little communication can go a LONG way but, as it is, it just seems that Plex does not want users to have full control over how and when their server can be accessed. If I cannot wake my server simply and I want to be able to access it when I want then I cannot allow it to sleep at all.

67

Plex team should consider this. Good one.

68

@Elijah_Baley said:
This is one of the many features that have been asked for that appear EXTREMELY easy to implement but Plex has apparently not implemented it and has not said why it appears so hard.

Easy for Plex to add a button to allow you to send Wake Packet to the machineā€¦
What is hard is setting up the computer and router to implement it properly to work.
Thatā€™s all outside Plex and if they add the button to wake on LAN I can see 1000ā€™s of posts asking why WOL doesnā€™t work for them because they donā€™t realize they have to forward ports on the router and possibly change BIOS settings etcā€¦

Just look at how many people canā€™t get remote access to work because they never bother to open and forward the ports on the router to the Plex Server or allow it past their AntiVirus/Firewall.

1 Like
69

Bump for updates from Plex on this please

70

Same here +1 for Wake on LAN.

I have my Windows 10 PC, thatā€™s running Plex Media Server, set to sleep after 20 mins. Plex itself is set to use Windows ā€œAwayā€ feature, so that the PC doesnā€™t go to sleep whilst Plex is playing media.

If Plex stops playing media for a length of time, my Windows 10 PC goes back to sleep.

However, if my kids then want to watch a movie 30 mins later they canā€™t, not unless the go to the PC and wake it up.

Surely itā€™s pretty easy to get the user to enter the MAC address of the Plex Media Server, and have Plex Clients send the required WOL Magic Packet to the media server it is trying to connect to. Of course whether a Plex Client sends a WOL Magic Packet can be an optional setting, but itā€™s something thatā€™s surely needed when weā€™re all trying to save energy and not leave our PCā€™s on all day long.

Hope Plex team can get this one in at some point :slight_smile:

71

This request was made five years agoā€¦ BUMPING!

72

For reference, here are all the threads I found floating around out there having anything to do with WoL functionality or putting the PMS to sleep:















2 Likes
73

@Randomacts said:
I currently just use my personal computer for plexā€¦ no server atmā€¦

I really doubt plex will do this ā€¦ and if they donā€™t soon Iā€™ll be setting up a WOL thingy with a raspberry pi

How would you accomplish this with a Pi? The server first needs to be able to sleep when not streaming content, and I am certain it does not do this as of the current version.

74

@WBoweIII said:
A really simple implementation of WOL that would only work on the local LAN (or require advanced router configuration) would be for each client to remember the MAC address of the Plex server it talked to last (or get it from plex.tv) and send a WOL packet anytime the server is unreachable. This isnā€™t really practical for most users. I am guessing something similar to this is how XBMCā€™s plugin works.

Because of the nature of WOL a reliable implementation that would work from anywhere would need to be structured similar to log me in and would require at least one active client on the local network.

I am not really sure what the nature of the current connection back to Plex.tv is but the way to make this work would be as follows

  • The server would need to register as online/offline with Plex.tv (which it does now)
  • Each client would need to either maintain a persistent connection or be scheduled to ā€œcheck inā€ every few seconds with Plex.tv
  • When a request to talk to an offline server is made the client would send that request to Plex.tv which would in turn hand a command to all other online clients asking them to send out a WOL packet to the MAC address of the plex server
  • Each client would then have to be modified to handle an appropriate amount of wait time to allow the plex server to start responding again
  • Additionally each client would need to be able to produce a suitable error message if no clients on the same LAN as the Plex server were currently on and able to send the WOL packet
  • and 2000 other things I cannot think of right at the moment

On top of all that I am reasonably sure a thin client device like a Roku would only be able to issue the WOL packet if Plex were left open and running. I suspect smart TV apps would have similar limitations. Chromecast is a different animal all together and I donā€™t know if that could really work at all.

When you tie together all the things that would need to happen to make WOL work smooth and for everyone it kinda turns into a rather large amount of work to implement. On top of that WOL is not the most reliable protocol in the world so I imagine the Plex guys would have a lot of associated support issues. WOL would be a cool feature but there are a lot of other things I would much rather see the plex team focus on.

TeamViewer has a remote WoL feature that works passably well, depending on which sleep mode your power settings are set to.
Link rel:

2 Likes
75

+1 for implementing wol in every client

I really dont understand why this is not implemented. The clients of Emby also do not send a magic packet to the server. I dont get what the problem is. For me this is an essential part for every media software.

I am not a programmer but for me its just that simple: Send a magic packet to the server whenever the plex client gets started. Thats it.
The plex server has nothing to do with wol. Only the Windows or Mac pc (where pms is installed on) has to be configured to wake up with magic packets. With the energy option of Windows or Mac you can decide when it goes to sleep. The pc recognizes if a media file is played or not.

76

+1 for Wake on Lan @ FireTVApp

The magic packet is for all operation systems the same, because the WOL packet would be proceed by the motherboard, when it is active in the Bios and the PC ist shut down.

1 Like
77

@Erwachsene said:
+1 for implementing wol in every client

I really dont understand why this is not implemented. The clients of Emby also do not send a magic packet to the server. I dont get what the problem is. For me this is an essential part for every media software.

I am not a programmer but for me its just that simple: Send a magic packet to the server whenever the plex client gets started. Thats it.
The plex server has nothing to do with wol. Only the Windows or Mac pc (where pms is installed on) has to be configured to wake up with magic packets. With the energy option of Windows or Mac you can decide when it goes to sleep. The pc recognizes if a media file is played or not.

@Laire said:
+1 for Wake on Lan @ FireTVApp

The magic packet is for all operation systems the same, because the WOL packet would be proceed by the motherboard, when it is active in the Bios and the PC ist shut down.

Thatā€™s what Iā€™M talkā€™n 'bout!
Bump

78

Hereā€™s another discussion about WOL that Iā€™ve gathered on my trip to WOL. I didnā€™t write the scripts and not sure who originally did but I hope it alleviates the pains of spending weeks on end trying to get it to work. Took me abut a week to get it to work and figured Iā€™d try and help out.

1 Like
79

Back in the day when I used RARFLIX (which has built in WOL). It worked great. I like to keep my server in Sleep mode to conserve power. It is only used a few times per week, so why not let it sleepā€¦
Has there been any reason stated as to why this is not implemented? Thoughts?
In the age of power conservation you would think this would be something they would want to implement. For the time being I will continue with my 3rd part apps.

80

+one for this