Android app won't play anything remotely

[flof 0]

Hello,

So I have a super annyoing problem. Here's my setup:

I have a server at home running emby in a docker container, in a docker-compose "services" stack. In another stack, I have an Nginx container, which has access to the "services" stack network, as well as the host's network through the docker "bridge" network. That way, all the services are reverse-proxied inside the docker network stack, and no other ports than 443 need to be open on the host.

I have a Let's Encrypt certificate on the machine, signed to the external domain name.

So far so good, I can access emby on my home network with no problem by going to https://emby.localhostname.lan with the only caveat that the browser says "Invalid certificate" since it is signed for externalhostname.com, but no biggie.

I also have a WireGuard tunnel on another machine, which allows me to access all the local resources securely when I'm away: with this too, emby works just fine in the browser (both desktop and Android).

However, things get messy with the Android app:

- If I set up the server with https://emby.externalhostname.com in the app, it sees it no problem, connects just fine, and I can browse all my libraries. BUT video files won't play (the thingy stays spinning forever), and music files are just skipped immediately (the whole album is "played" in a split second).

By looking at the "Activity" section on the desktop, emby does register the songs skipped as "played". In the browser, all works fine.

- If I set up the server with https://emby.localhostname.lan in the app, it works fine in the android app, but of course I can't access anything as soon as I leave my WiFi.

My workaround for now is to have my WireGuard tunnel enabled all the time, that way I can use the emby.localhostname.lan all the time, but that's not how it should be done...

 

I suspected the firewall on the server but even after flushing iptables, the problem is still there.

What could it be?

Thank you!!!

Edited July 6, 2020 by flof
a typo

[Luke 40075]

Hi there, what version of the android app are you running?

[flof 0]

Hi,

It's the latest available, version 3.1.23

[Carlo 4552]

Have you tried this setup without the Nginx involved?

You have a lot of "external" things going on which could make this a bit complex to diagnose.

[flof 0]

Hi, sorry for the late reply.

I can try later today without Nginx, and report back.

[Carlo 4552]

Sounds good, looking forward to your results.

[flof 0]

Okay so I tried opening the 8096 port on my router and connect with my external IP, thus bypassing the SSL part and Nginx, and indeed it worked.

So I suppose there's a problem either on my Nginx configuration (but then why would it work when accessing the very same server through https://emby.localhostname.lan ?), on in the Cloudflare proxy... I don't get it

Edited July 20, 2020 by flof

[Carlo 4552]

Depending on your needs you could generate your Cert and use that directly in Emby with port 8920 opened on your router.

At worst case this would be another valid test to try and make sure your Cert is valid.

[flof 0]

You mean a cert pointing to my home IP and not a hostname ? Yeah, I could try that. But that would not be optimal as a permanent solution, as it requires the 8920 port to be open in addition to the 443

[Carlo 4552]

You can just use 443 vs 8920.  That's what I use since it's the expected port in browsers for encryption.

[Luke 40075]

On 7/20/2020 at 10:07 AM, flof said:

Okay so I tried opening the 8096 port on my router and connect with my external IP, thus bypassing the SSL part and Nginx, and indeed it worked.

So I suppose there's a problem either on my Nginx configuration (but then why would it work when accessing the very same server through https://emby.localhostname.lan ?), on in the Cloudflare proxy... I don't get it

I would suggest comparing your nginx configuration to that of @pir8radio