Directormmn 1 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 I really hope someone can help me get this app set up to access my server because I just cannot get it to work. And please, for the love of god, is there an easy way to explain it? I'm pretty comfortable on a computer but I'm not an expert coder or anything, so some of these instructions are going way over my head. I'm running the Emby server off an old iMac with a VPN. I connected my Fire TV to the server without any issue, but the Android app on my phone keeps insisting that it cannot connect to the server and asks me to check if the server is still running. I tried following instructions on port forwarding, but that's not working either. I've also had to sign in a bunch of times and I even made a new user account just to use on my phone (because I couldn't sign in with my server account) and it STILL won't connect. Is there anyone out there who can walk me through how to do this, in simple terms? I really wish I could talk to a real person about this but unfortunately the forum is all we have. I jumped ship from Plex because it was too complicated, but I'm sorry to say that if Emby isn't as easy to use as they claim then I will probably stop using it. Thanks in advance for any help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwhodges 1523 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 (edited) There are lots of people here who can help you, but the first thing you'll be asked is whether you've gone through the connectivity checklist: https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001849007-connectivity Try that, and tells us where it goes wrong. The first thing that strikes me is that you've mentioned port forwarding, but not whether you have tested access to your external IP address, for instance. Note also that comparisons with Plex can be misleading, because some of the networking is done very differently. Forget Plex, and concentrate on getting to grips with Emby. Oh, and actually you can get to talk to a real person here (if he deems it necessary): @cayars Paul Edited December 20, 2020 by pwhodges Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 Hi, Let's start with a couple of basic questions. Have you setup a library or two on your server with some content? Besides your phone do you have any Emby Clients setup to use your server? If so are they working ok? When using your phone, is it connected to your WIFI network so it's not using your cell service or Internet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Directormmn 1 Posted December 22, 2020 Author Share Posted December 22, 2020 Hello, and thank you so much for responding! I'm sure you can tell this has been a frustrating endeavor, so I really appreciate the help. After messing around with this a bit more, the issue seems to be with my VPN. If I turn it off on any of either of my devices, my library pops up without issue. I would prefer to not have to disable my VPN every time I want to watch something, however, so that presents some new challenges. Both my personal computer and my server computer are both Apple, and there seems to be a lot less documentation on how to get a server to work with VPNs when it's set up on a Mac. If I need to make a new post about this, please let me know. In the meantime, here are the answers to your questions: - Yes, I have set up a server and I've linked a library with content. I'm able to view and use the library while on my server computer (iMac) and my Fire TV without issue. - After making this post I tried to access my library on my main computer (Mac mini M1), with just the Emby app, and it did not work there either. So currently: the server and Fire TV work, another computer (both tried app and browser) and phone do not. - I've tried everything on the connectivity page, which is what led me to make the post. I attempted port forwarding on my router but I most likely didn't do it right because it didn't seem to change anything. (Again, lots of information for PCs, but very little for Macs.) Hope that helps. Thanks again for any help you're able to give. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 If using VPN on the Emby Server computer it's best to use a VPN that allows you to use split tunneling so that you can have Emby itself NOT running through the VPN but other programs on the same machine using the VPN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Directormmn 1 Posted December 22, 2020 Author Share Posted December 22, 2020 That sounds pretty great! I know nothing about split tunneling, however, so I'll have to look into whether my VPN allows that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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