Very slow downloads over wireguard only

[Chimaera 1]

Any help on how to troubleshoot slow downloads in Emby?   I have my server on a 1Gb/1Gb fiber line, and I'm connecting remotely over Wireguard.   I can download files at > 500Mbps directly from the file shares over Wireguard, but when using Emby even when selecting "Original" (so no transcoding) the file won't download at more than 10-15Mb/s.   I've made sure there are no bandwidth limits at the server or user level.   I can download normally from Emby when on the same network and not using Wireguard, but there's nothing in Wireguard I can find that would cause only Emby to be slow and not file shares.    Open to any ideas!

edit : attached a portion of the log directly after starting a download, it seems to indicate that it's reading a Bitrate limit somewhere of 1000001 which I do not have set and even if I did that's for playback not downloads.   This was after a fresh server reboot and immediately starting a download with nothing else happening on the server.   

emby.log

Edited July 11, 2025 by Chimaera

[Luke 42077]

Hi @Chimaeradid you find anything related to this?

[Chimaera 1]

No, I didn't.   I can symlink the exact same files into my nginx directory path and download them using a browser at full speed over wireguard, but Emby is throttling them somewhere.   I don't understand why Emby even logs a playback bitrate as shown in the logs when no file is being played, it's simply being downloaded.   

[Luke 42077]

Hi, Emby isn't throttling. In fact, no such function even exists in the system.

What if you download the file directly in the web interface? How fast does that go?

[Chimaera 1]

Just tested, and it's the same - capping out at around 10-11Mb/s when I can get 500Mb/s from NginX

[Luke 42077]

On 7/29/2025 at 4:41 PM, Chimaera said:

Just tested, and it's the same - capping out at around 10-11Mb/s when I can get 500Mb/s from NginX

But that's a different port, therefore the comparison is apples to oranges. Perhaps you're being hit with ISP throttling?

[Chimaera 1]

How would the ISP throttle by port over WireGuard exactly?  

[Q-Droid 989]

Is Emby behind nginx and if so would you be able to access it directly through Wireguard, bypassing the reverse proxy?

 

[Chimaera 1]

No, Emby is not behind nginx it’s a direct connect over WireGuard.   I stood up nginx just as a web server to test downloading files outside of Emby

[Chimaera 1]

So I believe I have solved this issue - it appears the difference was the way the Docker was configured in Unraid - nginx was using a Bridge connection, while Emby was using a Host connection.   I changed Emby to Bridge (since it's on a unique port that was ok) and now the downloads in Emby can reach 300MB/s+.    No idea why this issue existed since a Host network in Docker is supposed to be better, but I'm just happy I figured it out.