Bottom Line: If you are having trouble getting your Plex server’s remote access to work, try logging into Plex.tv.
It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure this out.
I recently upgraded my eero network to the newest hardware. It was super easy to swap out the hardware, set the new devices up with the same SSID and password, and just keep on truckin’.
Shortly after that, I upgraded my Mac mini to MacOS Mojave, which included up/down-grading Mac Server. I had been experimenting with the mini as a VPN server and made a few tweaks to my eero configuration to allow the VPN to work. (Sadly, the new Mac Server software has removed VPN and quite a few other features, but I digress…)
Some time after I made those upgrades, I noticed that I couldn’t connect to my Plex library, either internally or externally. Every time I went to Remote Access on the Plex server settings page, it would show “Not available outside your network.”
Hmm… Surely this was a problem with the eero, right? It must have screwed up my port settings somehow. I knew it was too good to be true! I tried everything I could think of, including completely re-configuring my port forwarding settings on the eero, but I just couldn’t get the Plex server to respond. This went on for weeks, with me trying different tactics in odd moments when I’d have a few minutes to spend with it.
Rather than continue to search DuckDuckGo for answers, I finally went directly to plex.tv to see if I could figure out. I logged in to the site, and … boom! Everything started working again.
Sure would’ve been nice to have some indication that I needed to log in to my account, but I’m just glad everything is finally up and running. If you find yourself in the same situation, try going to your Plex account on Plex.tv and logging in. It may just save your sanity.