Emby Connect no showing servers (should show 4)

[ebr 14910]

Water under the bridge now but the entire reason you were confused about what you were seeing was due to a misunderstanding of the use of Connect.  You thought the fact that one app was showing your servers and another wasn't was some sort of failure on the part of Connect but it wasn't.  Again, I just wanted to clarify for the reader that the "whole point" of Emby Connect is not to save your servers.  The point is to enable a way to login to your server without knowing the address.

[dead horse officially beaten]  

[ebr 14910]

BTW - I concede that Emby Connect is confusing as Hell.  We've been trying to design a graceful way to replace it for quite a while but haven't quite gotten there yet.

[MBSki 1014]

9 minutes ago, ebr said:

Water under the bridge now...

[Dead horse officially beaten]  

Yes, definitely. I still don't agree, but the horse is certainly dead.

[FrostByte 5049]

[As777 22]

On 29/11/2021 at 16:12, ebr said:

Water under the bridge now but the entire reason you were confused about what you were seeing was due to a misunderstanding of the use of Connect.  You thought the fact that one app was showing your servers and another wasn't was some sort of failure on the part of Connect but it wasn't.  Again, I just wanted to clarify for the reader that the "whole point" of Emby Connect is not to save your servers.  The point is to enable a way to login to your server without knowing the address.

[dead horse officially beaten]  

Honestly, I had the same understanding as the poster you were discussing with that when you log in to EmbyConnect it presents your registered servers to the client. It doesn't always do this so I have to manually re-add them. It is confusing as hell and I don't understand the actual logic behind it or what it is supposed to do really.

Also whenever you log in to EmbyConnect and then the window with "Login to EmybConnect" is a real wtf moment to a new user. The whole thing needs a redesign.

Edited December 3, 2021 by askog666

[ebr 14910]

6 hours ago, askog666 said:

It doesn't always do this so I have to manually re-add them

Hi.  The most likely reason for this is that, at some point, someone "deleted" the server from that screen.  That will break the connection with Emby Connect.

[As777 22]

3 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  The most likely reason for this is that, at some point, someone "deleted" the server from that screen.  That will break the connection with Emby Connect.

Yes, I have found it's really very easy to accidentally click "Forgot" on the TV app using a remote control if a connection is not made. There should be an "are you sure?" prompt to avoid accidental deletion.

 

[Luke 37060]

We'll look at improving it. Thanks for the feedback.

[Carlo 4330]

I spend time far to often explaining what EC is and why they can't get past the first couple screens on the server install (we don't need this setup during install). Right off the bat some of these people who have purchased Emby Premiere think it's automatically their email since that's the email account they used for purchase.  That adds even more confusion on top of the normal confusion surrounding EC.

People that mostly know what it is often describe it differently based on what they use it for.  Some people use it as a glorified DDNS system so they can get to their server. Others use it because they think we forced them to by entering a 4 digit code on the TV (didn't notice the skip button) and don't know better.  Honestly for a TV on the same LAN this shouldn't be done.

I personally don't like it for either of those two reasons as DDNS services exist a dime a dozen and the server could include DDNS client functionality as well just like the person's router probably already does. This would be rather simple to do (updating a DDNS record) after the person entered their existing DDNS info.

We probably had the best intention using the PIN code for apps but it's just makes it more confusing.  That could stop being done even if the person had to enter the IP, DDNS, domain and port followed by their username and password.  It might be more to type but won't be confusing in the same manner EC is/was. But that could greatly be simplified using a PIN, just done a different way.

If we did those two things, we could then fix the rest of the problem and add a lot of additional security for Emby Premiere servers by allowing the use of Single Sign on or Trust Authorities.  The admin could allow a user to login with their Gmail account, LDAP or Synology, etc. Configured by the admin and linked instead of EC username.  That also allows the use of 2FA as well but handled by the trust authority vs Emby. 

But regardless of what we do long term if EC is going to stick around we at least need to make it much more clear what kind of server login is expected. Using two different colors, having a cloud over a server, having different graphics inside the server box are examples of this.  Anything to make it clear if the person should be using local credentials or EC to login.  It may not help a noob right away but it will surely help the people helping them. Right now we often spend 4 or 5 messages going back and forth trying to determine this and still get it wrong because it's not that easy to always tell from a picture.  But if you ask if the server box is blue or green and does either have a cloud over it? You just asked the same question two ways so it has a built in check even if the person was color blind. LOL