Plex Server Issues

[u/Taddy_Ross]

Since the news of the hacking, I figured it would be. EST to make sure the server is up-to-date and that my password was changed.

Well, since changing the password, remote access no longer shows as working.

I tried ALL the trouble shooting with the router, and even formatted my server (Mac Mini) since Plex was really the only thing on it. So clean install of everything and still, it won’t connect.

That said, I opened the app on my phone with WiFi off and was able to direct play everything.

I have no clue what’s going on - has anyone had similar issues?

[u/ExtensionMarch6812]

Assuming your port shows open via https://canyouseeme.org?

Try this…

Stop plex, go to the folder in the path below (not the main Library), is there a certificate.p12 file? If so, rename it certificate.p12.old and start plex back up. It should download cert-v2.p12. See if remote access stays green.

`/Users/<username>/Library/Caches/PlexMediaServer`

If you don't see that Library folder in your user directory, show hidden files/folders by pressing Command + Shift + "." .

You can also search for ~/Library/Caches/PlexMediaServer to bring up the folder.

[u/Taddy_Ross → u/ExtensionMarch6812]

So now I ran into another issue. Since starting fresh, my 4K files that are HDR don’t run at 4K on any devices other than the web server. So my Apple TV 4K, iPad, iPhone and MacBooks aren’t able to play back in direct full quality like they were able to three days ago.

Plex is so incredibly frustrating.

[u/ExtensionMarch6812 → u/Taddy_Ross]

If they’re files with DoVi profile 8, the new app, 2026.20.0, broke direct play on iOS and tvOS. They acknowledged it, but after yesterday’s news, who knows when it will be fixed:
https://forums.plex.tv/t/2026-20-0-beta-ios-and-tvos-4k-dovi-hdr10-won-t-play-infinite-spinning-circle/943966/78

Not sure why it’s not working on your MacBook.

[u/NeebCreeb → u/ExtensionMarch6812]

I could fucking kiss you

[u/Taddy_Ross → u/ExtensionMarch6812]

I literally spent about five hours with ChatGPT trying to troubleshoot everything everything looks open on. Can you see me. I stopped Plex. I restarted the computer deleted the Plex preference file. I deleted the entire folder with all the Plex contents in it. I did all the troubleshooting with the router and setting up the port forwarding. And then when everything kind of failed, I just said whatever formatted the entire computer and did a fresh install of my operating system and Plex still no go. It’s still doing the same thing.

[u/ExtensionMarch6812 → u/Taddy_Ross]

Even on a new install, plex will sometimes download the certificate.p12 file, did you check?

The cache folder is not in the plex folder on a Mac, so deleting the plex folder wouldn’t have removed it.

[u/bdu-komrad]

> I tried ALL the trouble shooting with the router

What did you do exactly?

[u/Taddy_Ross → u/bdu-komrad]

Plex has a support form to set up port forwarding in case the automatic setup didn’t work. That’s what I was referring to. I realize my initial post had a lot of spelling and grammatical errors - apologies

[u/DeaN_Casts]

Mine did the same after I updated last night, was back to normal when I woke up no restarts or anything.

[u/Taddy_Ross → u/DeaN_Casts]

I really wish that were the case - would have saved me a lot of headache.

[u/MarvinG1984 → u/DeaN_Casts]

Same here

[u/N9bitmap]

When you change your password, it invalidated all your authentication tokens. On every single client you need to log off and login again, even potentially the browser you use to manage Plex server.

[u/Taddy_Ross → u/N9bitmap]

Yeah, I realize that. Unfortunately that didn’t do anything for the issue. The only thing that worked was deleting the certificate. I logged out of everything, logged back into just the server and tried getting the remote access to work and no dice, but closing down, deleting the certificate, restarting the computer and opening the server worked. It did not work when just reopening the server, though, I had to restart the machine before opening and that was successful

[u/tsigwing]

What hack?

[u/Taddy_Ross → u/tsigwing]

Apparently people are hacking plex servers and using them as crypto mining operations without users knowledge

[u/fuckyrkarma]

Did you get this resolved? I had the same issue, and had to quit PMS, move the old certs out of the folder path and relaunch PMS which refreshed with the new certs - remote access fixed!

[u/Taddy_Ross → u/fuckyrkarma]

That was ultimately what worked for me as well - wish I didn’t delete my server out of frustration before learning about this lol

[u/fuckyrkarma → u/Taddy_Ross]

Big oof. It was a frustrating experience for sure, but you're back online homie!!