Emby Connect won't allow me to connect remotely

[phunzie 42]

up until a few weeks ago i had no problem connecting to Emby Server from outside my home/network....i had trouble using Emby Connect in the past, so for the past couple of years had been manually entering my wan access credentials to connect while traveling....but while on vacation a few weeks ago, i couldn't access my server at home no matter what i tried, manually or with EC

so since it's supposed to be somewhat simpler, what can i try to get Emby Connect working?....i have all the settings i'm aware of in Emby Server set to allow remote connections and i have confirmed my Emby Connect email and password credentials

what happens when i try to connect remotely using my iPad or Firestick using the Emby app,  is i'm taken to the Select Server screen, i then select "Sign in with Emby Connect", i enter my email and password and tap Sign In, but then i'm immediately taken back to the Select Server window

any advice would be appreciated

 

[Luke 39847]

Hi there, what happens when you do a manual connection?

[phunzie 42]

manual connection is no longer working...keep getting cannot connect to server message...something may have gotten screwed up with my router, since all the ways to test if my DDNS is working fail to connect to my PC...and the Open Port Check Tool at CanYouSeeMe.org shows access to port 8096 as "Connection Refused"....but i never had issues with port forwarding before....maybe my router (TP-Link Deco XE75) had a firmware update that screwed everything up?

[Luke 39847]

OK I would suggest checking out our connection troubleshooter:

Connectivity

Please try the steps listed there and let us know which ones succeed and which ones do not. Thanks !

[Happy2Play 9403]

Probably need to see a tracert also.

https://emby.media/support/articles/Remote-Setup.html#:~:text=You could also be blocked by your ISP in something known as a cgNAT

[pwhodges 1833]

Just to point out that Connect isn't an alternative route for the connection, just a lookup.  If a direct connection is failing, then Connect won't help.

Has your ISP put you on cgNAT?

Paul

[phunzie 42]

thanks all for your comments...i eventually realized i couldn't get any ports to open anymore...tried 2 different routers...so yesterday i called my ISP (Ezee Fiber) and was informed they recently started transitioning to CGNAT (had never even heard of that before)...unfortunate as i just switched to them just under a year ago and had been happy with their service and price

so i now started using Tailscale as a workaround

i' don't really know too much about this stuff...i understand CGNAT applies to IPv4, so what's the deal with IPv6?...can it be used with Emby?...the ISP tech did activate IPv6 on my router/account

Edited February 7 by phunzie

[Luke 39847]

IPV6 is supported by Emby but most users with a CGNat will use TailScale or a VPN to get around it.

[phunzie 42]

the only thing with TailScale is that it's advised that it be installed on each device that wants to access my network...i would prefer an option that would allow a device outside my network to connect without having to install anything on it (like how it worked before CGNAT)....i read about using the Subnet Router feature, but i'm not sure if it will do what i'm looking for 

[Luke 39847]

OK please let us know how things go. Thanks.

[phunzie 42]

wow, crazy easy...set up a Subnet Router in Tailscale and now remote devices can connect using my local IP address, without having to install Tailscale on those devices...will keep Tailscale installed on my personal devices, but nice to know friends/family don't need to install it just to access my Emby server  

[olympus1 44]

On 2/8/2025 at 6:29 AM, phunzie said:

wow, crazy easy...set up a Subnet Router in Tailscale and now remote devices can connect using my local IP address, without having to install Tailscale on those devices...will keep Tailscale installed on my personal devices, but nice to know friends/family don't need to install it just to access my Emby server  

How did you do that? I've searched everywhere for a guide for this but couldn't find any.

I managed to set up the subnet router in my synology.

But all remote devices keep needing to have the tailscale app opened on them in order to connect to my tailnet.

[phunzie 42]

although i was sure it was working several weeks ago, apparently it was not….when i played around with it today i couldn’t connect to Emby Server on my home pc with a remote device without Tailscale installed….i need Tailscale running on the remote devices as well as on the home pc

fwiw,  using Subnet Router does allow me to use the home pc’s internal IP address to access the server from outside the LAN…although that doesn’t seem useful for anything 

but at least for me, installing Tailscale on the devices i want to access Emby Server remotely is not a big deal

sorry for the false hope

Edited March 7 by phunzie