Emby Connect upgrades on the horizon?

[simonmason 19]

Hi, I vaguely recall there being some reference to upgrades to Emby Connect on the horizon at the end of last year?  I typically haven't worried too much about this, as I was generally the only one using it while traveling in the past.  And I could usually navigate around the issues.  

But during COVID I had the time to digitize all of my photos, old videos, etc. So naturally family members wanted to access and see this.  What a nightmare.  "Enjoying Your Personal Media Has Never Been Easier" is probably the furthest thing from the truth.

It could be that remote access to Emby servers is not a priority on the production schedule?  Would be good to know as I have invested hours in this process with elderly parents and relatives who should never know what an IP address is.

[Sammy 790]

What issues are you having? I use Emby Connect as do many family and friends without issue. 

 

This link is at the top right of the page.

 

 

[Happy2Play 9783]

As long as your server is accessible Remotely, it is a matter of creating a Local user and a Connect user and linking them together on your server.  What upgrades are needed?

[AJV_20 57]

17 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

As long as your server is accessible Remotely, it is a matter of creating a Local user and a Connect user and linking them together on your server.  What upgrades are needed?

For someone not tech savvy is not that simple. I personally would prefer if that process would be merged. That way when we create an user it automatically creates a connect user.

[pwhodges 2012]

But some (many?) of us or our users have no use for Connect, so this could be a waste of resources.

Paul

[simonmason 19]

Again - this was the purpose of my post - to explore need vs. functionality.

In my mind there are two use cases:

1. The owner of the Emby server wanting to access their server from remote locations.  In this case it is assumed that the Emby server owner is somewhat technically proficient and therefore jumping through hoops to make it work is not a problem.  I fall into that category and indeed I do jump through hoops to make it work - for example watching content while on a treadmill at a hotel while traveling - or at least I used to do that and hopefully will again in the future.

2. The owner of the Emby server wanting to provide access to their server to friends and family to share content.  In this particular use case the process is not all user friendly.  The assumption is that these people are not tech savvy and the steps that one has to undertake are beyond most of them.  I usually have to get on a FaceTime call and walk them through each step and it fails about 50% of the time.  The error messages are impossible to decipher - there is a problem connecting with the server.  And when my remote users start poking around they start seeing options to add servers, they see a tile for the server that they were connected to but it of course doesn't work, and then when they dig further they start seeing IP address prompts etc.  Again if this is not a desired use case then I will stand down on this issue.

Regarding my specific problem that prompted this whole discussion.  It appears that my server is no longer visible outside of my home network. I thought initially this was due to configuration issues with the remote clients.  But inexplicably my server is no longer working remotely.  The port shows open in my router and when I probe the port externally.  Anything else I can do to test this? 

[Luke 42083]

Hi, yes certainly #2 can be improved. Thanks for the feedback.

[pwhodges 2012]

1 hour ago, simonmason said:

Anything else I can do to test this? 

The connectivity tests recommended start with going through this list.

As for Connect, if your users are using only your server, it might be as easy to get a domain name for your system and give them that so they can connect directly.  Surely they won't find typing a different domain name (or clicking it in an email you send them) harder than typing Emby's? 

Paul

[simonmason 19]

regarding my inability to connect;

It appears that my server is no longer visible outside of my home network. I thought initially this was due to configuration issues with the remote clients.  But inexplicably my server is no longer working remotely.  The port shows open in my router and when I probe the port externally.  Anything else I can do to test this? 

 

@cayars

[Carlo 4561]

Have a read through this knowledge base article and follow the check list of things to try.  Report back where it fails:

https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001849007-connectivity

If you are using a domain name and have DHCP (from your ISP) make sure your IP didn't change.

[Luke 42083]

@simonmason has this helped?

[simonmason 19]

All good.  Thanks for checking.  I messed around with everything and changed every setting and then put it back to the way it was and it worked.  I think it was an issue with my VPN but can't be positive.

[Luke 42083]

Thanks for the feedback.

[muzicman0 84]

It would be nice to be able to 'invite' someone to your server, which then would allow them to use an existing Emby account, or create a new one.  Having just set up a couple users for the first time, I ended up on the phone with them for the entire process.  Not a huge deal, but I agree that it could be smoother.