I have the Plex server running and streaming content off it fine.
The issue is once the internet is turned off in My Passport Wireless Pro, I can no longer see the Plex server as one of the servers I can choose from in the iOS Plex App.
I have to manually add it via IP address and port every time Plex is closed or the device woken up after being idle.
When I turn the internet connection on in My Passport Wireless Pro, it appears again.
Needless to say this is pretty useless since the whole idea of getting this was to be able to stream off of the Plex server without an internet connection.
So I did more testing and it looks like this is a problem if there is no internet connection regardless of whether the setting is turned on or off in the Wireless Pro. I can reproduce this every single time. When the Wireless Pro has internet connection, the iOS Plex app is able to see the MyPassport Plex server. If there’s no internet connection, say if I’m away from my house or not near any hot spot, then the iOS Plex app won’t be able to see the Plex server. I would then have to manually add the IP and port. The problem is I have to do this every single time as the iOS Plex app seems to remember the manually entered server setting but it doesn’t appear in the list of available servers.
I read the KB article. I have never claimed the Plex server and I have not logged in when connecting to it so I don’t think this aplies to me.
I read this before turning the unit on for the first time:
Given the premise of the Passport Pro, I think it’s a bit silly to require an internet connection for those types of scenarios though. It seems like the WD+Plex team haven’t really thought it though. I already spent a lot of time trying to troubleshoot something that should just work. I’m an IT guy so I can only imagine how frustrating this would be for a regular user.
Hate to say this, but it looks like it might be easier to revert to my previous setup of HooToo hot spot + USB 3.0 thumb drive. The interface is horrendous but it just works. I was hoping the Passport Pro would be a nice replacement because I love the Plex user interface and even my kids can navigate it.
OK, so in fact I do have a server in my house running the Plex Server and I do have a Plex account. That server is claimed and is associated with my Plex Account. On my devices, I login to my account and connect to that server. Things work extremely well. Didn’t think that was worth mentioning because it’s operating completely separate from the my passport pro. I have kept the passport pro separate from this. So when I initially turned the device on when I got it, I installed the Plex server, and I never claimed it and I never logged in with any account. I bypassed those steps with the explicit intention of keeping it separate from the rest of the stuff. So as far as I can tell, it is not associated with anything that I do on the server at home.
That said, on my iOS Plex App, I am indeed logged in to my Plex Account. With an internet connection in the passport pro, it will recognize the Plex server running on the passport pro and everything is just fine. (As selections, I see my iPhone, the server at home, and “MyPassport”) So I just pick MyPassport from that list.
But as soon as I lose internet connection or if I turn the internet connection off on the passport pro, the “MyPassport” selection disappears in Plex iOS app.
I’m curious to see what would happen if I log out of my account on the iOS App. I’ll report back my findings.
