@@s.k.vigneshkarthikeyan2887 that has not worked for me and ive done it multiple times. ROKU devices refuse to let me into the plex library when the internet is down. Im starting to fucking hate plex. is there anything better ?
I had this once, so when my internet came back I figured out how to connect via the WAN without any problems. Assuming your LAN DHCP has IP range 10.10.0.1-255 and your plex server is on 10.10.0.11 1) in web interface, create a new bookmark (e.g. PLEX LAN) which points directly to your server (e.g. 10.10.0.11:32400/web) 2) In plex settings, do: Settings | Network | List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth In there, enter your LAN IP range in the following format: 10.10.0.0/24 That's it. Any time the internet goes out you use the PLEX LAN bookmark instead and it'll work
@Bytemybits Yes the nvidia shield does work offline it asks to access the server locally like the iOS devices do and then it will play anything in the library
100% agree. It's crazy you can't use Plex on your own network without internet. I've opened a ticket with them a few months ago and they didn't give anything helpful.
@@JakeSDN . Yep, that’s why I said streamline. The ability to access this locally during an internet outage shouldn’t have to be something you would need to configure after finding out after the incident. The current solution is poorly implemented and there is always room for improvement.
@@shadow.banned I believe these inconveniences are to dissuade piracy, allowing Plex greater distribution ease than the likes of Kodi/XMBC. Removing plug-ins was another bummer.
The main Plex servers do all of the administrative housekeeping stuff. They maintain the database of users. They authenticate the users when they log in. They point the users to the servers that they are authorized to use, and they tell the servers which libraries each user is authorized to access. Your Plex server only stores your media and then streams it to the clients. The reason that your phone worked is because it can still access the main Plex servers over the 4G or 5G network.
oh man I am glad I wasn't the only one who caught that... huge common misunderstanding of what the word "moot" is truly defined. It really means its debatable or arguable, not that its not an issue as some perceive it to mean.
You address the biggest pain point I have with Plex. Their monetization efforts, along with their multiuser authentication, created an architecturally complex system that they solved by creating a design that assumed most use cases would have a connection to the internet and that Plex.tv would be reachable at all times. My “edge” case use case of running Plex in my RV causes me no end of frustration to the point of my wanting to created my own iOS client to do the connection and playback. That or some fancy shortcuts, I’m still in the research phase. Anyway, I’ve gone from loving the opener source Plex to despising the closed sourced version. Sigh. And yes, I’ve tried Ebby, and deleted it almost immediately as not ready for prime time. Thanks for addressing this issue, Bill
Any device that can "see" DLNA servers can browse Plex's library folders and play the files. The DLNA option needs to be switched on in the Plex server's settings. I guess there might be an issue if the device can't Direct Play.
Our roku works when the internet drops and it does drop weekly. As long as the rokus stay connected to my wireless network, then Plex and DS Video continue to operate.
Hi Jason. Samsung smart tv also works perfectly off line. With our constantly disconnecting and slow internet coupled with our continuous electricity that switched over from area to area in South Africa, i have basically become the expert of running plex off line. Thanks for great content.
@Byte My Bits, You should go back and test with Managed Users and parental controls (with pins on adult accounts). Since PLEX puts all the auth in the cloud, then you are locked out except on the last account that was accessed (and that's only if you have it set to auto log into the last account accessed). In my experience is that PLEX sucks in this situation. When we were without power/internet in 2017 for 2 weeks we lost any recognizable usage of plex when we needed it most (we had a generator for power, but still no internet. This is a huge failing on PLEX and has left be on the verge of dropping the platform because of it.
Roku Works without internet. States very intently that it has no internet but allows you to use it, plus I have had no problems connecting multiple Roku devices without internet connection.
To fix this you need DLNA enabled, and the devices you want offline access to, their ips to be added manually under network settings of your plex server. A bit of a setup, but kinda suprised to see DLNA wasn’t enabled out of the boxg
I have a Roku and it works all the time... Wife will be watching a movie or TV show and everyone looses internet and complains and she smiles and says Im good cause its all local
Using a 2019 Shield Pro does work with no internet. I didn't even have to unhook the internet, I just have flakey internet and watch my content when it goes down.
It should! I had that issue with the Home page not loading without Internet and, although you can browse your local libraries directly, it's somewhat annoying not be able to see the "in progress" and "recently added" lists of the home page.
So one of the additional things that I lose when my internet goes out is all of my Managed Users. I've been able my content via the Roku (several ranging from Roku Stick, Ultra, and several TVs) and I believe my LG WebOS smart TV interface.
Nvidia shield works without internet just fine. We never meant to test it - we just lost internet for 45 mins and never skipped a paw patrol beat for the kiddos From a fellow Kansan- howdy!
Just switched to Emby partly because of the fact that Plex is very wonky without Internet. Profile switching and media syncing don’t work offline at all, which is ridiculous.. Emby is pretty much completely self contained and can function just fine with no Internet, except for obvious things that have to have Internet by design, like metadata retrieval when adding content. However, it’s not just that. Emby is more stable for me than Plex. The server almost never crashes, which Plex has always done for me random. Hardware transcoding is more reliable and seems to be less resource intensive. The apps all load much faster and provide better actor information. And you can completely control your server from within the Emby app if you want.
Only if your router is still powered on, providing your network a default gatway to communicate through, otherwise it will still fail. Turning your router off also turns the network off, so this isn't really a proper test of internet outage. He basically scuppered his whole network.
that's funny I just found that out. After a long day at work I went home to drink a beer and turn on Plex. My ISP was doing some repair and i lost internet. I said its cool I'm just watching something off Plex...I was wrong! lol The Plex server should run even if there isn't any internet.
Plex has been working offline with no plex pass on my dads old computer with 2000 movies. He lives in the middle of nowhere. Of course no transcoding, but when you live in the middle of nowhere having 2000 movies to pick from on movie night is nice.
The request to access devices on your local network is an iOS 14 feature - it asks on all apps (which request the access) on first use after the update
I have a relatively new Samsung Smart TV and it works perfectly offline. Though I should mention it only lets the admin account access in offline mode (that is if you have multiple users).
It works as long as the device is already logged into Plex. Figuring this out is the reason I still have 2 Roku Ultras despite having upgraded the TVs they were attached to. I leave them turned on and logged into my and my wife's account at all times (you can't switch users or launch Plex with no internet), even when the TVs are off. I suspect it would also have worked for your Xbox, though I doubt you'd want to leave that on all the time. But the Nvidia Shield I'm sure would work the same way.
Hey, great video. With managed users turned on, I couldn't even get past the user selection screen when the internet is down or their authentication server is down... Very silly Plex...
if you dont have internet connection, on fire tv you can go too setting tab and application, choosing your app to launch from there, for smart tv like samsung it has a field in settings that you can put local address of your server, and it would work fine without internet, but for other devices like xiaomi or nvidia shield, they dont have the field to fill in the address.
Yeah. The weird glitches in plex is what led me to switching to emby.... Emby can run in a 100% offline status, as long as you reconnect every month or so to sync the premium status. (I have a lifetime key) the only thing that gives attitude in a offline mode is live TV guide, since it can't connect and it's dumb...
My Roku works with Plex when my internet is out. But it takes like a full minute for the app to give up on trying to connect to the internet before it shows the local content.
give your plex server a static IP, then in the settings for each of your plex apps find the setting for manual server connections, add the IP of your plex server. Problem solved Plex works offline (including home screen) Tested on Windows APP Android APP Xbox 1 Fire Stick Fire Tablet Samsung tv app LG tv App Probably a couple that I am forgetting about, but the point is, should not have to do it the app should be smart enough to find a local server, but most don't. but it is an easy fix and Plex DOES work offline for all of the devices that you said did not work offline for
I moved and have been having internet issues. My HD Homerun app works great solo but Plex kicks us off all the time. The old home didn't have issues before and the wife is getting a little frustrated. This helps me see why, now we just have to get Plex to patch this issue.
I ran into this last month when my neighbor had work done on his yard and cut my coax line on a Friday afternoon. The Roku Plex App would not load. Let it sit for 20-30 minutes and it eventually did load and was able to access the local Plex server. Any time the kids hit the home button by accident it was another 20 minute wait. This was not an "enjoyable" weekend. Was able to access some of the media thru a Roku Media app that uses DLNA by enabling DLNA on Plex Server. It worked but navigation is stone age
I switched to Emby coz it allows you to setup a completely local server. Even the licensed version needs internet only to verify your key and then you can be completely independent of their servers
So I've done all the offline tests here are my results Plex offline (your own home Plex network only) O1-Android TV OS yes 02-Roku no / third party 03-UPNP yes 04-Chromecast unit & software no 05-Third party casting apps no 06-Western digital TV yes upnp 07-Kodi if setup via upnp ? or file sharing yes 08-General file sharing yes (this has nothing to do with Plex) 09-Any and all devices that use upnp yes 10-Chromecast audio no 11-Chromecast video no 12-Vpns must be off and you must require an IP signal This should help out anyone and everyone
I have found since introducing their api, so PLeX is always calling home. That’s when the issues started with all their apps. It now refuses to work when you lose internet. It’s a royal pain in the back side. Their ApI crashes once a month now, this month it’s been twice we have had outage. Apple TV PLeX app will not work when you lose net. You say third party when these where created by PLeX. It’s all down to their API.
The Web UI issues may be due to your router being the default gateway for your network. As you turned the router off your network will not work as expected and you might see these kinds of issues. The above is most likely why you got issues with the Live TV playback. When you copied the URL to VLC is was an IP address, which may have already been in the routing table of the machine you were running VLC on. Which is why that worked. but the Plex Server may not have had the IP of the HDHomeRun in its routing table which would prevent it from working. Playing back media from a NAS drive, for example, would suffer the same issue. Regards the Client devices. Turning them on after turning off your router, which is most likely your DHCP server for your network, would mean that it will not get an IP address and therefore will not work (assuming that all your devices do not have statically assinged IP addresses). Your iPhone worked ebcause it already had an IP address for your network because it was connected to Wifi befor you turned off your router and also the PLex client caches a number of things including authentication tokens. The access to local network prompt is an iOS14 requirment recently added to let iOS grant access to the local network, and is not related to if you have internet or not Instead of turning the router off disconnect the cable from your ISP, leaving your router on. Then retest. You might get some different results :)
Plex for roku works fine offline. you just have to enter the address for your server in settings/manual connections. server discovery is flaky at best.
If anyone has Roku and uses plex, make sure you go into the plex app network options and set it to local if you dont do this then you will be told there is not connection to your server.
It does works offline. On your plex settings allow direct access and assign your Plex IP address and port number. When you have internet it will work fine and when you lose internet it will still connect locally but it takes a little longer to load the content.
For your Amazon Fire TV, the home screen tells you you cant connect to any apps. You will have to go to settings, manage applications and then launch plex from there, you need to have direct connection setup as well. It will work just fine. This applies to all other devices like Xbox and Playstation. I have done it and worked offline for me.
I have a small NUC computer running Plex, a 5TB USB drive of content, and a router (for wifi) in my RV so everyone can watch their own content on Plex. The entire process is always a pain to get working. What should be as simple at home with an internet connection is 10X more difficult when I'm in my RV. I would welcome any suggestions for an alternative solution. BTY, Chromecast doesn't work from iPhones or iPads if you don't have an internet connection. A Shield will work offline. However, (from memory) it will only allow you to login to Plex using the last account that was connected to Plex when there was an active internet connection. The same is true for a Roku device.
We watch TV series from my server, on the Roku. When the internet drops out, the show will continue to play. Until it gets to the end of the episode and tries to continue. Then it bombs out.
Late to the party, but my Roku TV has zero issues functioning without an internet connection(as well as a secondary Roku TV). We go through regular outages where I live and being able to access my Plex server is the only thing that keeps me sane sometimes lol
Without internet, you loose Plex user auth. Then any user can go to settings menu. etc... I was among first users, but i gave up Plex and change to Jellyfin for privacy concerns.
This may just be for Roku but Roku is the only one I really watch it on aside from phone and tablet, there is a Local Connection setting on the client. And as another person commented, go into settings and network on the server and add your local IP address segment so it won’t force you to authenticate against Plex.tv while your offline. In my opinion you may consider to revisit this and explore these options on your platforms you’re doing your testing on.
Hi Sir, yes the Nvidia Shield will work when your internet is offline. My internet went down the other day and I had nothing to do and was wondering as well and Plex worked thru my Nvidia Shield (older model) and it was wireless as well! Hope this helps and keep up the great work sir!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
having lost my internet connection a lot over the last few years (stupid comcast). Some of the Plex apps (Roku and Xbox) sometimes need you to manually enter the IP of your local server. In the Plex app settings there is a Manual connection where you can enter your IP address
So here is my dilemma. Every one of you are talking about when you lose internet connectivity. I think there is some information that is retained that is allowing Rokus to still work with the local content as long as you simply lost connectivity. I am dealing with my girlfriend's house where they don't have internet at all. I have setup her server, wireless router, and Rokus at my house with internet access and they work fine. I take them to her house and I get the multiple playback error on about 60% of the content. I bring it back to my house, it works fine. Take it back, same issues. So, any suggestions???
I use the Nvidia Shield.. and It's disappointing that the HDHomeRun doesn't work without internet. This is why Plex doesn't work either. Older versions worked. My workaround is to go directly to VLC where I can play my channels directly and access my recorded content. THANK GOD FOR VLC !!!
@Byte My Bits You didn't mention this in your video, but under Settings -> Network .. do you have your preferred network interface setup? And does your LAN Networks have your home network IP/24? I don't have any issue accessing Plex on my FireTV Stick 4K or Cube 2019 when my internet has been wonky or not working. You should also update the 'List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth' if you do authentication with your plex pass account.
So I'm not going to unplug the internet. Sorry. But I hadn't suffered a week long internet outage during the Lockdown. All you have to do is SETTINGS>DLNA>ENABLE DLNA SERVER while you're connected to the internet. If you do it after internet is down (not sure if you can navigate to the settings), it won't work. I have the nvidia shield pro (2019) and nvidia shield 2019 (tube) work fine. Would also like to report the Sony Android TV from about 2 years back also works fine with the same settings. Of course a lot of things (web based) have the yellow caution sign and will display an error, but local media plays just fine. I had an internet outage a couple of months back and I'm a happy survivor of that event.
what i dont like is that i cant setup plex "offline", why i must have connection to plex.tv to get things working, emby and co can be used 100% offline, i never have to connect to them when i dont want to. yes its easier to setup remote clients but thats sucks in a view of control and privacy. and that hdr is a problem for plex in 2020 sucks .. really .. pushing new services and functions but not fixing old toppics and problems. beside that plex is my favorite ... testet emby and jelly from time to time and plex is still the that is most stable from day to day use
The problem I believe is DNS. Particularly if your internet is sort of down. Plexes massive tie into online will make it a pain, blaming clients is not the problem. Its plex. There should be an offline mode or lan server only mode.
I have done brought down my Plex server for various reasons, but I was able to play all my content just fine on my Vizio tv with the built-in app as long as my Unifi switch was working etc... On your phone, you have a cellular connection. I find that strange that you were able to get to your plex server because the server isn't connected to the gateway when you turn it off. Try going outside your home and with your internet turned off and see if it all still works.
I think that “powering down” gambit was for comedic effect. He just unplugged the coax cable or phone line that was going into his modem and left the router running.
Recently switched to Jellyfin because of Plex's server authentication downtime. With Jellyfin there is no server authentication like Plex has so no downtime EVER. Also all the features and apps are free with no pay wall.
Have they fixed the Apple TV yet? That will happily start without internet connectivity but the Plex app wouldn't work without phoning home first. It's almost 2 years since I ditched Plex for emby, and I have zero regrets. emby is just as good now, if not better for some things.
Roku works, I had to enable something on my server, I dont remember what it was though...also, its very very sluggish in loading local content on roku with no internet
I thought there were settings in plex to setup for this kind of issue like turning off Authentication for Local devices and making some network changes
On the shield and most tv clients there is an option (buried inconspicuously in the settings) to connect to manual servers...so if you know the IP address of your server you can use it to connect locally and work pretty much as intended. iPhones and indeed all phones can access the internet even when your local WiFi is down so that may be why it worked as ‘normal’?
Plex on Shield, our android tablets/phones and Roku works without an Internet connection. I use ChannelsDVR for the live TV system, it still works without Internet.
Ran into this issue recently while traveling with a Roku and Plex installed on a raspberry pi. Roku requires internet or a network of the same name. So in ur situation I think Roku would work.
I had an issue where even IOS wouldn't work. If you have plex home configured you MUST have internet. No matter what. I ended up having to disable plex home just to get local network playback to work in the browser.... unfortunately you can't disable it until internet is back. So for 2 days I had no internet, my media was locked away.
I lost internet for over 24hrs, on a roku tv you can go into the plex app and go into the settings for the app and tell it to look at a local server. Everything worked great.
In my experience, it works unless you have parental controls on. And then at that point it locks you to the last user accessed, which if it's a kids account really sucks. They should be able to store parental control auth locally instead of just on the net.
I can confirm the Shield works without internet, I tested this in the unfortunate circumstance our internet was out for a couple days a few months ago. The only issue I did have was "managed profiles" wouldn't load. Only my main Plex account that was already logged into the app would work, so my kids were sad about that. Also to note, prior to internet going down you must disable the authentication on local network in the Network settings of Plex server. This article explains how to do this: www.howtogeek.com/303282/how-to-use-plex-media-server-without-internet-access/amp/ You can also enable DLNA playback that will just serve up the content (explained in article above)
Yeah that's because users aren't really stored on your server. They're on plexs authentication server. Which is why we all experience plex issues when their servers go down :(
@@KittenDome And it's dumb that they can't store that info locally for me. They really only need an occasional license callback (like every month or so). They don't need to store my actual users on their side (except my main one, which is used to authenticate on their site)
@@TheThompsonBlend there is one benefit to this, something I've found useful, it saves your watch history on their servers. Not long ago my main HDD with plex and other older movie collections died, lost everything. Decided to do a full reinstall of windows and start fresh, and upon redownloading some of my tv shows, plex remembered what I watched, so that helped a lot, i dont remember episode numebrs :D I leave that to plex.
@@KittenDome I've unfortunately never experienced that. I just reinstalled this year and lost all my watch status. Maybe there is an option somewhere to do that.
I've tried this in the past and again today following the article link. My shield tv still will not work nor has it worked without internet since date of purchase. I enabled DLNA and added it's ip address into" ip address and networks allowed without authorization" . Not sure how others are viewing without internet
Plex works for me offline all the time. that is no internet and devices connected to same WI-FI. I can access all my titles, the home tab takes ages to load so just to go either movies or TV shows directly
So here's the science for Roku and Android from my testing. Roku: Took a while to get past the first loading screen when launching the app, but once it loads the menu live TV and local files work without issue. Oddly thumbnails are all blank but the videos play fine Android: Loads quickly, plays files without issue and thumbnails all load fine. Pretty much seems the same as when there's an internet connection.
Thanks, I think I'll be disabling Plex authentication for devices on my LAN! I actually had no idea Plex wouldn't work if my internet went down... I suppose I could use VLC in the event of internet outages but it's much easier to prepare now and be able to use devices as if nothing happened.
I DO blame Plex for this dependency of active net connection when I have outages and try to play my locally stored files on my Samsung via its Plex client. I hate this! WTH did they program a DEMAND to net access to run the UI????
As much as we all love Plex when you look closely they've been doing some pretty anti-consumer things
Exactly I mean why have they gone out of their way to make it nearly impossible to work offline....
@@tmtmolokwane6357 It is pretty suspect how aggressively they refuse to enable easy offline/local access.
Maybe this helps www.howtogeek.com/303282/how-to-use-plex-media-server-without-internet-access/
@@s.k.vigneshkarthikeyan2887 that has not worked for me and ive done it multiple times. ROKU devices refuse to let me into the plex library when the internet is down. Im starting to fucking hate plex. is there anything better ?
Plex does not work offline, They have gone to crap. @@tmtmolokwane6357
I had this once, so when my internet came back I figured out how to connect via the WAN without any problems.
Assuming your LAN DHCP has IP range 10.10.0.1-255 and your plex server is on 10.10.0.11
1) in web interface, create a new bookmark (e.g. PLEX LAN) which points directly to your server (e.g. 10.10.0.11:32400/web)
2) In plex settings, do:
Settings | Network | List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth
In there, enter your LAN IP range in the following format: 10.10.0.0/24
That's it.
Any time the internet goes out you use the PLEX LAN bookmark instead and it'll work
@Bytemybits Yes the nvidia shield does work offline it asks to access the server locally like the iOS devices do and then it will play anything in the library
Good to know. I have a shield tv. I use it even on a smart tv that has plex simply because the shield tv is more reliable, and quicker.
Remember you can enable dnla in settings. Maybe ‘I’m old’ but I still have devices that have dnla ability. Dnla loads poster art as well
Open VLC, go to UPnP in the left menu, access your Plex content... Profit. :)
DLNA is disabled with Plex home I think
@@Pro4TLZZ That might be a new thing then, but with atleast the PLEX i have DLNA works great with my circa 2013 smart TV.
You have to manually turn dnla on.
Whats going on here. I use the fire tv with plex & no internet connection all the time , you have to go into application an launch the plex app
100% agree. It's crazy you can't use Plex on your own network without internet. I've opened a ticket with them a few months ago and they didn't give anything helpful.
Plex really needs to streamline and fix some of these issues. When your internet goes down, is specifically when you want to access the libraries.
You need to enable offline use.
@@JakeSDN . Yep, that’s why I said streamline. The ability to access this locally during an internet outage shouldn’t have to be something you would need to configure after finding out after the incident. The current solution is poorly implemented and there is always room for improvement.
@@robertt9342 There should be one single checkbox for this. One. Bizarre how there isn't.
@@shadow.banned I believe these inconveniences are to dissuade piracy, allowing Plex greater distribution ease than the likes of Kodi/XMBC. Removing plug-ins was another bummer.
The main Plex servers do all of the administrative housekeeping stuff. They maintain the database of users. They authenticate the users when they log in. They point the users to the servers that they are authorized to use, and they tell the servers which libraries each user is authorized to access.
Your Plex server only stores your media and then streams it to the clients.
The reason that your phone worked is because it can still access the main Plex servers over the 4G or 5G network.
Grammar police here: It should be "moot point", not "mute" point. 7:05
oh man I am glad I wasn't the only one who caught that... huge common misunderstanding of what the word "moot" is truly defined. It really means its debatable or arguable, not that its not an issue as some perceive it to mean.
its a moo point. It's like a Cow's opinion. It's moo.
@@kenzieduckmoo Big "Friends" fan, myself. Classic Joey.
FYI, it's "moot point," not "mute point."
as Joey (friends) would say... it’s a Mooo point. :)
@@raiscl LMFAO!
also, an-TEN-uh. Rather than an-TAN-uh
You address the biggest pain point I have with Plex. Their monetization efforts, along with their multiuser authentication, created an architecturally complex system that they solved by creating a design that assumed most use cases would have a connection to the internet and that Plex.tv would be reachable at all times. My “edge” case use case of running Plex in my RV causes me no end of frustration to the point of my wanting to created my own iOS client to do the connection and playback. That or some fancy shortcuts, I’m still in the research phase. Anyway, I’ve gone from loving the opener source Plex to despising the closed sourced version. Sigh. And yes, I’ve tried Ebby, and deleted it almost immediately as not ready for prime time.
Thanks for addressing this issue,
Bill
Try jellyfin.org/
Jellyfin has been there for a while IMO.
Any device that can "see" DLNA servers can browse Plex's library folders and play the files. The DLNA option needs to be switched on in the Plex server's settings. I guess there might be an issue if the device can't Direct Play.
" I don't blame plex "
Well you should because it's 100% Plex's fault
WTF not blaming plex !!!!
Our roku works when the internet drops and it does drop weekly. As long as the rokus stay connected to my wireless network, then Plex and DS Video continue to operate.
Hi Jason. Samsung smart tv also works perfectly off line. With our constantly disconnecting and slow internet coupled with our continuous electricity that switched over from area to area in South Africa, i have basically become the expert of running plex off line. Thanks for great content.
Which Samsung TV do you have? Does not for offline on my Samsung Frame
So Jason caused the Plex Authentication issues the other day.
i see what you did there
I use EMBY for this. Ive got an EMBY pass and transcoding working just fine. No need to log into a remote authentication server. Life's awesome.
jellyfin.org/
@Byte My Bits, You should go back and test with Managed Users and parental controls (with pins on adult accounts). Since PLEX puts all the auth in the cloud, then you are locked out except on the last account that was accessed (and that's only if you have it set to auto log into the last account accessed). In my experience is that PLEX sucks in this situation. When we were without power/internet in 2017 for 2 weeks we lost any recognizable usage of plex when we needed it most (we had a generator for power, but still no internet.
This is a huge failing on PLEX and has left be on the verge of dropping the platform because of it.
Roku Works without internet. States very intently that it has no internet but allows you to use it, plus I have had no problems connecting multiple Roku devices without internet connection.
To fix this you need DLNA enabled, and the devices you want offline access to, their ips to be added manually under network settings of your plex server.
A bit of a setup, but kinda suprised to see DLNA wasn’t enabled out of the boxg
I have a Roku and it works all the time... Wife will be watching a movie or TV show and everyone looses internet and complains and she smiles and says Im good cause its all local
Using a 2019 Shield Pro does work with no internet. I didn't even have to unhook the internet, I just have flakey internet and watch my content when it goes down.
It should! I had that issue with the Home page not loading without Internet and, although you can browse your local libraries directly, it's somewhat annoying not be able to see the "in progress" and "recently added" lists of the home page.
So one of the additional things that I lose when my internet goes out is all of my Managed Users. I've been able my content via the Roku (several ranging from Roku Stick, Ultra, and several TVs) and I believe my LG WebOS smart TV interface.
Nvidia shield works without internet just fine. We never meant to test it - we just lost internet for 45 mins and never skipped a paw patrol beat for the kiddos
From a fellow Kansan- howdy!
Just switched to Emby partly because of the fact that Plex is very wonky without Internet. Profile switching and media syncing don’t work offline at all, which is ridiculous.. Emby is pretty much completely self contained and can function just fine with no Internet, except for obvious things that have to have Internet by design, like metadata retrieval when adding content. However, it’s not just that. Emby is more stable for me than Plex. The server almost never crashes, which Plex has always done for me random. Hardware transcoding is more reliable and seems to be less resource intensive. The apps all load much faster and provide better actor information. And you can completely control your server from within the Emby app if you want.
Jellyfin is much better than emby
@@nahsi_at_yt Well, we all have opinions.
Can confirm Roku and it's Plex app works without an Internet connection
My experience with Roku is it works but doesn't allow me to change profiles.
I had an apple IIc that would put "thinking..." on the screen... always gave me a laugh.
If you set up manual connections on the Xbox, it will work without the internet.
Only if your router is still powered on, providing your network a default gatway to communicate through, otherwise it will still fail. Turning your router off also turns the network off, so this isn't really a proper test of internet outage. He basically scuppered his whole network.
@@jennerate1206 any device on the network will not see the plex server with the router/switch disconnected.
that's funny I just found that out. After a long day at work I went home to drink a beer and turn on Plex. My ISP was doing some repair and i lost internet. I said its cool I'm just watching something off Plex...I was wrong! lol The Plex server should run even if there isn't any internet.
Roku works fine offline. I have 3 TCL Roku tvs... no problems.
Yup, roku works fine. I have a roku ultra, a tcl roku tv and a roku soundbar and they all work fine with plex with no internet.
Plex has been working offline with no plex pass on my dads old computer with 2000 movies. He lives in the middle of nowhere. Of course no transcoding, but when you live in the middle of nowhere having 2000 movies to pick from on movie night is nice.
The request to access devices on your local network is an iOS 14 feature - it asks on all apps (which request the access) on first use after the update
Usually if my internet goes out I just go to the plex settings and click allow insecure connections and everything works fine.
The Xbox plex app has an alternate server selection in the settings area to point to a local network address and it should work offline.
Can confirm Shield and Roku work without internet. I can even use live tv, but I am using an internal card rather than an HDHomeRun
I have a relatively new Samsung Smart TV and it works perfectly offline. Though I should mention it only lets the admin account access in offline mode (that is if you have multiple users).
I'll leave to test this out on my other smart devices. Good tip/insight. Thank you!
It works as long as the device is already logged into Plex. Figuring this out is the reason I still have 2 Roku Ultras despite having upgraded the TVs they were attached to. I leave them turned on and logged into my and my wife's account at all times (you can't switch users or launch Plex with no internet), even when the TVs are off. I suspect it would also have worked for your Xbox, though I doubt you'd want to leave that on all the time. But the Nvidia Shield I'm sure would work the same way.
Hey, great video. With managed users turned on, I couldn't even get past the user selection screen when the internet is down or their authentication server is down... Very silly Plex...
if you dont have internet connection, on fire tv you can go too setting tab and application, choosing your app to launch from there, for smart tv like samsung it has a field in settings that you can put local address of your server, and it would work fine without internet, but for other devices like xiaomi or nvidia shield, they dont have the field to fill in the address.
Yeah. The weird glitches in plex is what led me to switching to emby.... Emby can run in a 100% offline status, as long as you reconnect every month or so to sync the premium status. (I have a lifetime key) the only thing that gives attitude in a offline mode is live TV guide, since it can't connect and it's dumb...
My Roku works with Plex when my internet is out. But it takes like a full minute for the app to give up on trying to connect to the internet before it shows the local content.
I have the Roku premiere plus and a Roku tv and both work without the internet being available.
On the Xbox and other devices it will work if you configure manual servers in the apps settings.
Also to note, watch-together on local network does not work without internet.
Shield pro works offline.
give your plex server a static IP, then in the settings for each of your plex apps find the setting for manual server connections, add the IP of your plex server. Problem solved Plex works offline (including home screen)
Tested on
Windows APP
Android APP
Xbox 1
Fire Stick
Fire Tablet
Samsung tv app
LG tv App
Probably a couple that I am forgetting about, but the point is, should not have to do it the app should be smart enough to find a local server, but most don't. but it is an easy fix and Plex DOES work offline for all of the devices that you said did not work offline for
I can confirm that PLEX works offline on all 4 apple devices. The iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and the Mac native PLEX app.
Last time I checked, it does work on the Xbox if you manually enter your server's IP into the app settings. There's room for 2 servers I believe.
I moved and have been having internet issues. My HD Homerun app works great solo but Plex kicks us off all the time. The old home didn't have issues before and the wife is getting a little frustrated. This helps me see why, now we just have to get Plex to patch this issue.
The RokuTV from TCL I have does work offline great and the AppleTV 4 too.
I ran into this last month when my neighbor had work done on his yard and cut my coax line on a Friday afternoon. The Roku Plex App would not load. Let it sit for 20-30 minutes and it eventually did load and was able to access the local Plex server. Any time the kids hit the home button by accident it was another 20 minute wait. This was not an "enjoyable" weekend. Was able to access some of the media thru a Roku Media app that uses DLNA by enabling DLNA on Plex Server. It worked but navigation is stone age
I switched to Emby coz it allows you to setup a completely local server. Even the licensed version needs internet only to verify your key and then you can be completely independent of their servers
So I've done all the offline tests here are my results Plex offline (your own home Plex network only)
O1-Android TV OS yes
02-Roku no / third party 03-UPNP yes
04-Chromecast unit & software no
05-Third party casting apps no
06-Western digital TV yes upnp
07-Kodi if setup via upnp ? or file sharing yes
08-General file sharing yes (this has nothing to do with Plex)
09-Any and all devices that use upnp yes
10-Chromecast audio no
11-Chromecast video no
12-Vpns must be off and you must require an IP signal
This should help out anyone and everyone
I have found since introducing their api, so PLeX is always calling home. That’s when the issues started with all their apps.
It now refuses to work when you lose internet. It’s a royal pain in the back side.
Their ApI crashes once a month now, this month it’s been twice we have had outage.
Apple TV PLeX app will not work when you lose net. You say third party when these where created by PLeX. It’s all down to their API.
The Web UI issues may be due to your router being the default gateway for your network. As you turned the router off your network will not work as expected and you might see these kinds of issues.
The above is most likely why you got issues with the Live TV playback. When you copied the URL to VLC is was an IP address, which may have already been in the routing table of the machine you were running VLC on. Which is why that worked. but the Plex Server may not have had the IP of the HDHomeRun in its routing table which would prevent it from working.
Playing back media from a NAS drive, for example, would suffer the same issue.
Regards the Client devices. Turning them on after turning off your router, which is most likely your DHCP server for your network, would mean that it will not get an IP address and therefore will not work (assuming that all your devices do not have statically assinged IP addresses).
Your iPhone worked ebcause it already had an IP address for your network because it was connected to Wifi befor you turned off your router and also the PLex client caches a number of things including authentication tokens. The access to local network prompt is an iOS14 requirment recently added to let iOS grant access to the local network, and is not related to if you have internet or not
Instead of turning the router off disconnect the cable from your ISP, leaving your router on. Then retest. You might get some different results :)
Plex for roku works fine offline. you just have to enter the address for your server in settings/manual connections. server discovery is flaky at best.
If anyone has Roku and uses plex, make sure you go into the plex app network options and set it to local if you dont do this then you will be told there is not connection to your server.
It does works offline. On your plex settings allow direct access and assign your Plex IP address and port number. When you have internet it will work fine and when you lose internet it will still connect locally but it takes a little longer to load the content.
For your Amazon Fire TV, the home screen tells you you cant connect to any apps. You will have to go to settings, manage applications and then launch plex from there, you need to have direct connection setup as well. It will work just fine. This applies to all other devices like Xbox and Playstation. I have done it and worked offline for me.
I have a small NUC computer running Plex, a 5TB USB drive of content, and a router (for wifi) in my RV so everyone can watch their own content on Plex. The entire process is always a pain to get working. What should be as simple at home with an internet connection is 10X more difficult when I'm in my RV. I would welcome any suggestions for an alternative solution.
BTY, Chromecast doesn't work from iPhones or iPads if you don't have an internet connection.
A Shield will work offline. However, (from memory) it will only allow you to login to Plex using the last account that was connected to Plex when there was an active internet connection. The same is true for a Roku device.
We watch TV series from my server, on the Roku. When the internet drops out, the show will continue to play. Until it gets to the end of the episode and tries to continue. Then it bombs out.
Late to the party, but my Roku TV has zero issues functioning without an internet connection(as well as a secondary Roku TV). We go through regular outages where I live and being able to access my Plex server is the only thing that keeps me sane sometimes lol
Without internet, you loose Plex user auth. Then any user can go to settings menu. etc... I was among first users, but i gave up Plex and change to Jellyfin for privacy concerns.
Plex is getting way too "phone-home" based anymore.
This may just be for Roku but Roku is the only one I really watch it on aside from phone and tablet, there is a Local Connection setting on the client.
And as another person commented, go into settings and network on the server and add your local IP address segment so it won’t force you to authenticate against Plex.tv while your offline.
In my opinion you may consider to revisit this and explore these options on your platforms you’re doing your testing on.
I have my local networks defined in Network settings, but I also run a Jellyfin server for when Plex inevitably craps itself.
I have a Shield and Roku and I lost internet a couple of weeks ago and yes, the Plex app worked just fine locally while the internet was down.
Nope, it doesn’t work on smart tvs without internet, the app needs to talk to the internet b4 it will load
Hi Sir, yes the Nvidia Shield will work when your internet is offline. My internet went down the other day and I had nothing to do and was wondering as well and Plex worked thru my Nvidia Shield (older model) and it was wireless as well! Hope this helps and keep up the great work sir!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
having lost my internet connection a lot over the last few years (stupid comcast). Some of the Plex apps (Roku and Xbox) sometimes need you to manually enter the IP of your local server. In the Plex app settings there is a Manual connection where you can enter your IP address
Plex used to work without an internet connection, full stop. I don't know why they changed the model over.
It probably looks to the internet to see if you have a premium/premiere subscription to load the proper items you pay for.
Apple TV works fine offline so you're right with that assumption
Apple TV does not work offline. However you can airplay from iPhone to the AppleTV just fine.
Did you turn off mobile data on the iPhone to check whether it was also using that to access Plex.Tv?
That was the first thing I thought as well.
So here is my dilemma. Every one of you are talking about when you lose internet connectivity. I think there is some information that is retained that is allowing Rokus to still work with the local content as long as you simply lost connectivity. I am dealing with my girlfriend's house where they don't have internet at all. I have setup her server, wireless router, and Rokus at my house with internet access and they work fine. I take them to her house and I get the multiple playback error on about 60% of the content. I bring it back to my house, it works fine. Take it back, same issues. So, any suggestions???
I use the Nvidia Shield.. and It's disappointing that the HDHomeRun doesn't work without internet. This is why Plex doesn't work either. Older versions worked. My workaround is to go directly to VLC where I can play my channels directly and access my recorded content. THANK GOD FOR VLC !!!
@Byte My Bits You didn't mention this in your video, but under Settings -> Network .. do you have your preferred network interface setup? And does your LAN Networks have your home network IP/24? I don't have any issue accessing Plex on my FireTV Stick 4K or Cube 2019 when my internet has been wonky or not working. You should also update the 'List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth' if you do authentication with your plex pass account.
So I'm not going to unplug the internet. Sorry. But I hadn't suffered a week long internet outage during the Lockdown.
All you have to do is SETTINGS>DLNA>ENABLE DLNA SERVER while you're connected to the internet. If you do it after internet is down (not sure if you can navigate to the settings), it won't work.
I have the nvidia shield pro (2019) and nvidia shield 2019 (tube) work fine. Would also like to report the Sony Android TV from about 2 years back also works fine with the same settings. Of course a lot of things (web based) have the yellow caution sign and will display an error, but local media plays just fine. I had an internet outage a couple of months back and I'm a happy survivor of that event.
what i dont like is that i cant setup plex "offline", why i must have connection to plex.tv to get things working, emby and co can be used 100% offline, i never have to connect to them when i dont want to. yes its easier to setup remote clients but thats sucks in a view of control and privacy. and that hdr is a problem for plex in 2020 sucks .. really .. pushing new services and functions but not fixing old toppics and problems. beside that plex is my favorite ... testet emby and jelly from time to time and plex is still the that is most stable from day to day use
The problem I believe is DNS. Particularly if your internet is sort of down. Plexes massive tie into online will make it a pain, blaming clients is not the problem. Its plex. There should be an offline mode or lan server only mode.
I have done brought down my Plex server for various reasons, but I was able to play all my content just fine on my Vizio tv with the built-in app as long as my Unifi switch was working etc... On your phone, you have a cellular connection. I find that strange that you were able to get to your plex server because the server isn't connected to the gateway when you turn it off. Try going outside your home and with your internet turned off and see if it all still works.
I think that “powering down” gambit was for comedic effect. He just unplugged the coax cable or phone line that was going into his modem and left the router running.
Recently switched to Jellyfin because of Plex's server authentication downtime. With Jellyfin there is no server authentication like Plex has so no downtime EVER. Also all the features and apps are free with no pay wall.
Have they fixed the Apple TV yet? That will happily start without internet connectivity but the Plex app wouldn't work without phoning home first. It's almost 2 years since I ditched Plex for emby, and I have zero regrets. emby is just as good now, if not better for some things.
Roku works, I had to enable something on my server, I dont remember what it was though...also, its very very sluggish in loading local content on roku with no internet
Roku does work offline.
I lost internet for 4 days and my Apple TV’s played Plex the entire time with no issues.
I thought there were settings in plex to setup for this kind of issue like turning off Authentication for Local devices and making some network changes
there are, by the looks of it he’s just testing it out the box
On the shield and most tv clients there is an option (buried inconspicuously in the settings) to connect to manual servers...so if you know the IP address of your server you can use it to connect locally and work pretty much as intended. iPhones and indeed all phones can access the internet even when your local WiFi is down so that may be why it worked as ‘normal’?
Plex on Shield, our android tablets/phones and Roku works without an Internet connection. I use ChannelsDVR for the live TV system, it still works without Internet.
Ran into this issue recently while traveling with a Roku and Plex installed on a raspberry pi.
Roku requires internet or a network of the same name. So in ur situation I think Roku would work.
I had an issue where even IOS wouldn't work. If you have plex home configured you MUST have internet. No matter what. I ended up having to disable plex home just to get local network playback to work in the browser.... unfortunately you can't disable it until internet is back. So for 2 days I had no internet, my media was locked away.
I lost internet for over 24hrs, on a roku tv you can go into the plex app and go into the settings for the app and tell it to look at a local server. Everything worked great.
In my experience, it works unless you have parental controls on. And then at that point it locks you to the last user accessed, which if it's a kids account really sucks. They should be able to store parental control auth locally instead of just on the net.
Basically the way it would work is using internet free WiFi. Just intranet
I can confirm the Shield works without internet, I tested this in the unfortunate circumstance our internet was out for a couple days a few months ago. The only issue I did have was "managed profiles" wouldn't load. Only my main Plex account that was already logged into the app would work, so my kids were sad about that.
Also to note, prior to internet going down you must disable the authentication on local network in the Network settings of Plex server. This article explains how to do this: www.howtogeek.com/303282/how-to-use-plex-media-server-without-internet-access/amp/
You can also enable DLNA playback that will just serve up the content (explained in article above)
Yeah that's because users aren't really stored on your server. They're on plexs authentication server. Which is why we all experience plex issues when their servers go down :(
@@KittenDome And it's dumb that they can't store that info locally for me. They really only need an occasional license callback (like every month or so). They don't need to store my actual users on their side (except my main one, which is used to authenticate on their site)
@@TheThompsonBlend there is one benefit to this, something I've found useful, it saves your watch history on their servers. Not long ago my main HDD with plex and other older movie collections died, lost everything. Decided to do a full reinstall of windows and start fresh, and upon redownloading some of my tv shows, plex remembered what I watched, so that helped a lot, i dont remember episode numebrs :D I leave that to plex.
@@KittenDome I've unfortunately never experienced that. I just reinstalled this year and lost all my watch status. Maybe there is an option somewhere to do that.
I've tried this in the past and again today following the article link. My shield tv still will not work nor has it worked without internet since date of purchase. I enabled DLNA and added it's ip address into" ip address and networks allowed without authorization" . Not sure how others are viewing without internet
Plex works for me offline all the time. that is no internet and devices connected to same WI-FI. I can access all my titles, the home tab takes ages to load so just to go either movies or TV shows directly
So here's the science for Roku and Android from my testing.
Roku: Took a while to get past the first loading screen when launching the app, but once it loads the menu live TV and local files work without issue. Oddly thumbnails are all blank but the videos play fine
Android: Loads quickly, plays files without issue and thumbnails all load fine. Pretty much seems the same as when there's an internet connection.
Why not also run kodi just point it at your nas. It also has options for live tv and isn't as internet reliant.
Thanks, I think I'll be disabling Plex authentication for devices on my LAN! I actually had no idea Plex wouldn't work if my internet went down... I suppose I could use VLC in the event of internet outages but it's much easier to prepare now and be able to use devices as if nothing happened.
I DO blame Plex for this dependency of active net connection when I have outages and try to play my locally stored files on my Samsung via its Plex client. I hate this! WTH did they program a DEMAND to net access to run the UI????
It's for authentication. Since Plex can be used for multiple accounts and logins are handled by Plex, it requires you use it.
it can work on the firetv perfect without internet you just have to launch it from the applications after going to settings
Ps4 is the same. It does have a DLNA option yet I dont know how to use it. It's something to consider.