Emby playback and access issues

[globaltarheel8 0]

 issues I am having:

 

1. Issues accessing my media server outside of my home network.
2. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The internet connection is strong so I know it's not that.
3. Confirming I can see my libraries including all movies and tv shows.
4. But when I play an episode or movie it spins and i get the error: "Playback Error
   1. There was an error processing the request. Please try again later."
5. app on windows and iphone rarely work
6. I have sometimes found success in manually changing url from HTTPS to HTTP but even then it takes ages to load

 

ive tried to use nordvpn meshnet - this occasionally works 

 

[Abobader 3464]

Hello globaltarheel8,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Luke 42077]

Quote

•  
• But when I play an episode or movie it spins and i get the error: "Playback Error
  There was an error processing the request. Please try again later."

@globaltarheel8

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[globaltarheel8 0]

Logs attached. Here I have NordVPN Meshnet enabled. I am outside of my home network. When I do not have NordVPN Meshnet enabled, I cannot even access the server and receiver error. screenshot attached.

ffmpeg-transcode-69f443e5-a205-47d0-ad91-34337a59d09d_1.txt embyserver.txt ffmpeg-transcode-87175201-cf1e-4d87-ae06-3968ba9ad1ac_1.txt

[Luke 42077]

Maybe you need a different server address when the VPN is not enabled?

[globaltarheel8 0]

Ok but what about when vpn is enabled and it still gives issues 99% of the time?

[Luke 42077]

On 7/28/2025 at 5:05 PM, globaltarheel8 said:

Ok but what about when vpn is enabled and it still gives issues 99% of the time?

As a test, if you disable hardware transcoding in server transcoding settings, how does that compare?

[globaltarheel8 0]

Thanks. Are you referring to this? I’ve set it to no. It doesn’t seem to have made a difference. 
 

Also, the only way I can get access outside of my home network is when using nordvpn mesh net. When mesh net is off, I get the attached error. 

[Luke 42077]

@globaltarheel8

OK we are looking into it. Thanks,.

Quote

When mesh net is off, I get the attached error. 

I would imagine that when the VPN is off you would connect using a different remote address than when it is on, right?

[globaltarheel8 0]

Is there a solution here? NordVPN is ending their mesh option.

[Nathanael 4]

The IP 100.92.x.x is your WAN IP?
Are you behind a CGNAT? If so, you need a third party to route the connection.

[pwhodges 2012]

100.92.x.x is specifically in the cgNAT range.

Tailscale is often suggested to get around this.

Paul

[Luke 42077]

@globaltarheel8please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[globaltarheel8 0]

How can I verify if I'm behind a cgNAT range?

[Tur0k 148]

Last i checked NordVPN is a privacy VPN.  The selling point here is to obfuscate internet browsing activity from your Internet provider or regional government monitoring (The requirement here is that you trust your privacy VPN provider to: not to maintain access logs, not divulge their access logs on your activity if they do keep logs,  and not to take advantage of your activity while connected to their VPN services).  To the best of my knowledge NordVPN does not have an offering for a more conventional VPN to secure connectivity to your server assets (Emby Server in this case) from clients on the public Internet. 

CGNAT description is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier-grade_NAT. one way to differentiate IP addresses in IPv4 is to break them up into public (these are completely unique IP addresses across the whole Internet) and Private IP addresses (these are IP address ranges you find in most home network for example and many home networks can use the same private IP range as others).  the component that allows these private networks to access resources on the public Internet is a NAT (network address translation) where in the outbound activity your devices does to access Internet resources is masked as soon as it leaves your home network to the public IP your home router is assigned by your Internet provider. 

The long story short of a CGNAT is the public IP address you detect when you check your public IP (using a services like whatsmyip.com) while connected to the device using the Privacy VPN is that your device is actually showing an IP address that the privacy VPN supplier shares between you and all of their other clients.  your endpoint in the privacy VPN is actually a private IP address.  This makes reserving the public IP address and port number to host services on difficult as one day you may get the IP address and port number the next you may get a different ip or port number.  or if you have inbound/outbound traffic that needs to happen on different ports impossible this makes hosting your emby server service reliably on the privacy VPN difficult, at best.  

I think the root question before we diagnose this request is what are you actually trying to get done by hosting your Emby Server service publicly across nordVPN instead of using a more conventional approach.

Edited November 29, 2025 by Tur0k

[globaltarheel8 0]

The only thing I'm trying to get done is access my emby server remotely. if you go back to my initial questions, it was not working and the only workaround I found was using NordVPN meshnet.

[Luke 42077]

4 hours ago, globaltarheel8 said:

The only thing I'm trying to get done is access my emby server remotely. if you go back to my initial questions, it was not working and the only workaround I found was using NordVPN meshnet.

It looks like your ISP uses a CGNat, right? This prevents you from being able to access remotely. A VPN helps get around that.

[globaltarheel8 0]

Is this the only workaround? How can I confirm if my ISP uses CGNat?

[Neminem 1516]

1 minute ago, globaltarheel8 said:

Is this the only workaround? How can I confirm if my ISP uses CGNat?

Well call them and ask

[Luke 42077]

6 hours ago, globaltarheel8 said:

Is this the only workaround? How can I confirm if my ISP uses CGNat?

You can check on your own: https://www.purevpn.com/blog/how-to-check-whether-or-not-your-isp-performs-cgnat/

Some ISP's will allow you to pay a little extra for a static IP. You'd have to call them and ask for this. If yours offers this, then this would be the easiest solution.