Local and remote clients unavailable when Kodi is open

[Weemisty 3]

Hi,

I'm a Windows 11 user with both Emby and Kodi applications installed on my machine. For the past few months I've been unable to open my Emby client if Kodi is open at the same time. My friends and family have also reported that they are also unable to access their remote Emby client, if I happen to be using Kodi on my machine. Once I exit Kodi, both local and remote clients can be accessed immediately. I find the behaviour very strange, which only started happening a few months ago when I needed to move my machine briefly and also un-plugged my external hard drives temporarily. Prior to this, the problem did not exist.

Whilst I can get around the problem by just exiting Kodi, this is not an ideal solution and is a little irritating now. And despite my best attempts to problem solve and figure out what is causing the issue, the problem still remains, which is why I'm now reaching out to the community here to see if anybody else might have ever experienced the same issue and what they did to solve the problem? 

Any feedback or tips would be most welcome and highly appreciated.

 

Edited February 3 by Weemisty

[Luke 42077]

Hi, what exactly happens when you try?

[Weemisty 3]

Ok, so If I have the Kodi application open on my machine, then click on the desktop icon to open my local Emby client, I get a spinning circle for quite a few seconds before saying it is unable to connect to my server. Friends and family have reported the same thing happening at their end, if I just happen to have Kodi open on my machine. If I then exit Kodi at my end, they are able to access Emby remotely again.

If I click on the local or remote URL's on the dashboard page on the Emby web server when Kodi is open, I just get a blank page. If the Emby client is already open when I start Kodi, playback will stop with an error stating that Emby is unable to connect to server. I also get the same message if Emby is not playing, but I then try to play something. The moment I exit Kodi, everything is restored on Emby clients, ie local and remote access is available.

Just to be clear, I'm talking about the regular Kodi for Windows application, not any Emby addon for Kodi such EmbyCon or Emby for Kodi.

I wanted to see in the 1st instance, if any other user had experienced the same issue in the past, but  I'm happy to provide logs to see what happens when my local client is open and I then open Kodi, if that would help? 

[yocker 1247]

27 minutes ago, Weemisty said:

Ok, so If I have the Kodi application open on my machine, then click on the desktop icon to open my local Emby client, I get a spinning circle for quite a few seconds before saying it is unable to connect to my server. Friends and family have reported the same thing happening at their end, if I just happen to have Kodi open on my machine. If I then exit Kodi at my end, they are able to access Emby remotely again.

If I click on the local or remote URL's on the dashboard page on the Emby web server when Kodi is open, I just get a blank page. If the Emby client is already open when I start Kodi, playback will stop with an error stating that Emby is unable to connect to server. I also get the same message if Emby is not playing, but I then try to play something. The moment I exit Kodi, everything is restored on Emby clients, ie local and remote access is available.

Just to be clear, I'm talking about the regular Kodi for Windows application, not any Emby addon for Kodi such EmbyCon or Emby for Kodi.

I wanted to see in the 1st instance, if any other user had experienced the same issue in the past, but  I'm happy to provide logs to see what happens when my local client is open and I then open Kodi, if that would help? 

If you have Emby server installed on the same machine it could sound like you have some kind of Kodi plugin using the same port as Emby.

[Weemisty 3]

Luke, I have a quick update on paragraph one above. I just opened Kodi, then clicked to open my local Emby client and instead of getting the spinning circle, I was directed to a 'Select Server' screen. This screen has 3 options:-

1. Desktop name / IP address
2. Add Server
3. Sign in with Emby Connect

When I select option one, then select the connect option I get an error stating unable to reach desktop name.

The moment I exit Kodi and try doing the above again, I'm instantly given access. Hope this additional info is of help.

[Weemisty 3]

7 minutes ago, yocker said:

If you have Emby server installed on the same machine it could sound like you have some kind of Kodi plugin using the same port as Emby.

Thx, I'll check out my Kodi addons to see if there are any conflicts. Pretty sure there isn't, but certainly worth checking  

[Luke 42077]

Please let us know if you find anything. Thanks.

[Weemisty 3]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

Please let us know if you find anything. Thanks.

No, this didn't show anything. The only video addons I have installed on Kodi are UKTV catch-up addons that were all installed prior to this issue manifesting itself. 

[ebr 16169]

I really lean towards Yoker being correct.  It definitely sounds like something in the Kodi environment is capturing the port.

Moved this to the  Kodi forum to put more appropriate eyes on it.

[Weemisty 3]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

I really lean towards Yoker being correct.  It definitely sounds like something in the Kodi environment is capturing the port.

Moved this to the  Kodi forum to put more appropriate eyes on it.

What evidence do you have to say this issue is definitely a Kodi related problem? 

[ebr 16169]

2 hours ago, Weemisty said:

What evidence do you have to say this issue is definitely a Kodi related problem? 

 

On 2/4/2026 at 4:35 AM, Weemisty said:

The moment I exit Kodi and try doing the above again, I'm instantly given access