Can't connect android devices on local network to server. Other devices can connect.

[aqwertyuiop]

Hello,

I've just finished setting up Jellyfin server on my desktop PC.
I can successfully connect to the server via localhost, and also from my laptop using the IP address of the host device.
However, I am unable to access the server from my android phone (via the play store app), or through my chromecast (via the android google TV app.) All devices are connected to the same WiFi network.

I am trying to figure out if there is an issue in the android network settings, some kind of firewall issue or something else (router settings?)
I unfortunately have no access or control over the router in my current living situation, so I am hoping it is not a router issue.
(Although to me it seems that if there were a router settings issue, then I would not even be able to connect from my laptop.)

Is there some weird setting on android devices that I don't know about that is blocking me?
Is there some windows firewall setting that would only apply to my android devices?

I've also tried setting up hotspot on the phone, and running the server through that, but I still can't connect.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

[Efficient_Good_5784]

Make sure you're using the most recent versions of the Android app and the server.

Also make sure you try using the ip address of your server instead of the hostname. For some reason, the hostname will not work, but specifying the actual ip will work.

[aqwertyuiop]

Make sure you're using the most recent versions of the Android app and the server.

Also make sure you try using the ip address of your server instead of the hostname. For some reason, the hostname will not work, but specifying the actual ip will work.

Thank you. Jellyfin Server is 10.9.6; android app version is 2.6.1.

I managed to get the Android TV to connect. Turns out I had a VPN turned on from something else that I forgot about  
Once I turned off the VPN, it immediately discovered the server.
Not sure if this matters but I think the TV uses IPv6 address, so I also had enable IPv6 in the server settings.

The phone however I still can't figure out. It isn't able to discover any servers, and when I enter the IP address, still nothing.
I also tried ping from phone to PC and no response. Ping from PC to phone IP also does not work.
(I have been able to ping other devices such as my laptop from the PC, and other websites such as google.com from the phone.)

If I run 'arp -a' on the server PC it shows the IP address of the phone. But I cannot ping it.

[TheDreadPirate]

Are you using a reverse proxy?

[pcm]

The phone however I still can't figure out. It isn't able to discover any servers, and when I enter the IP address, still nothing.
I also tried ping from phone to PC and no response. Ping from PC to phone IP also does not work.
(I have been able to ping other devices such as my laptop from the PC, and other websites such as google.com from the phone.)

If I run 'arp -a' on the server PC it shows the IP address of the phone. But I cannot ping it.

ARP tables can be cached. May not be the latest info your PC has about what's on the network anymore (i.e STALE).

Code:

ip -s neigh

is a better bet for a more accurate info on what's immediately reachable by your computer.


The fact you're not able to ping your phone could mean your phone's not on the same network at that moment. Check your phone's wifi. Does it have an IP address configuration as per your router's specs ?
Are you able to see your phone on your router's admin panel ?

Are you trying to connect to jellyfin server using the app on your phone ? Can you try to connect to jellyfin using your phone's browser by typing in the jellyfin server's http://LAN-IP:PORT ?

[aqwertyuiop]

ARP tables can be cached. May not be the latest info your PC has about what's on the network anymore (i.e STALE).

Code:

ip -s neigh

is a better bet for a more accurate info on what's immediately reachable by your computer.


The fact you're not able to ping your phone could mean your phone's not on the same network at that moment. Check your phone's wifi. Does it have an IP address configuration as per your router's specs ?
Are you able to see your phone on your router's admin panel ?

Are you trying to connect to jellyfin server using the app on your phone ? Can you try to connect to jellyfin using your phone's browser by typing in the jellyfin server's http://LAN-IP:PORT ?

I am on windows 10, so I don't think I have the "ip" command.
But I tried using netsh > interface ipv4 > show neighbors, as well as powershell Get-NetNeighbor commands.
They both show the phone's IP address. But the first time I ran the command it showed as "Unreachable" state. Tried a 2nd and 3rd time and it showed "Stale".

I have tried using the chrome browser instead of the app on my phone, didn't work either. Based on the messages in the app, I think it tries to connect to both http and https.

The router is 192.168.1.1. All the ips of my PC, laptop, phone etc are showing as 192.168.1.X.
As I mentioned in the post unfortunately I cannot physically access the router or router settings, it is controlled by the landlord.

I'm not sure what else it could be. Everything seems to show they are on the same network. I don't know why it is showing unreachable or stale.
I tried the same commands from my laptop and got it to say "reachable" one time, although ping never worked. But then it immediately went back to probe and then stale.

---

Are you using a reverse proxy?

I don't think so? This is all just on my home network, WiFi LAN.

[TheDreadPirate]

Can you share your jellyfin server logs via pastebin?

[aqwertyuiop]

Can you share your jellyfin server logs via pastebin?

Hi -- was about to, so I tried logging in on the phone again, and it suddenly started working:

Tried to discover server (didn't work.)
Tried logging into server manually (didn't work.)
Restarted phone.
Tried to discover server (didn't work.)
Tried logging into server manually (didn't work.)
Went fishing around and opened the log file on the server PC.
Went back to Jellyfin app on the phone and tried logging in again.
App discovered the server this time somehow (???)
Login to the server through QuickConnect worked.
Playback working for the first time on the phone.

Checked the logs again (replaced some stuff in <>):


[2024-07-02 14:03:40.057 -04:00] [INF] [58] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "::1" request
[2024-07-02 14:07:51.459 -04:00] [INF] [17] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionManager: Current/Max sessions for user "<user>": 2/0
[2024-07-02 14:07:51.464 -04:00] [INF] [17] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionManager: Creating new access token for user <user-id>
[2024-07-02 14:07:55.537 -04:00] [INF] [28] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "::ffff:<phone-ip>" request
[2024-07-02 14:08:56.171 -04:00] [INF] [64] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "<user>". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True


Dunno what happened, but it started working for the first time.
I've had some issues with the TV as well where it just decides not to connect. Usually if I restart the server and/or the TV, it will pick it back up again.
Maybe it's a similar thing with the phone. Hopefully now that it's worked once it will work more often.

[aqwertyuiop]

So I can get the Android app to connect occasionally now, but the connection is spotty and if I try to watch any media, it seems to lose connection after a couple of minutes.
Then the only way to re-establish connection is to try to restart the WiFi on my phone multiple times.
(Android TV / chromecast app is still working fine--although sometimes I do still need to restart the TV's WiFi to get it to reconnect, playback is typically flawless after that if I adjust the bitrate. This is only an issue on the Android phone.)

After some more digging, I believe this might be the issue I am having:

https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-solved-mobi...tion-issue
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-and...ssues/1382

Below are some snippets from the latest log file showing the same issue.
As well as the same error message on the app ("Connection cannot be established. Please check the hostname and your network connection.")

Code:

[2024-07-06 05:04:43.582 -04:00] [WRN] [25] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketConnection: WS "<phone-ip>" error receiving data: [b]"The remote party closed the WebSocket connection without completing the close handshake."[/b]
[2024-07-06 05:04:43.597 -04:00] [INF] [25] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "::ffff:<phone-ip>" closed
[2024-07-06 05:04:49.471 -04:00] [INF] [31] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:07:37.456 -04:00] [INF] [3] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:09:23.941 -04:00] [INF] [21] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "::ffff:<phone-ip>" request
[2024-07-06 05:09:36.454 -04:00] [INF] [24] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "apatt". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2024-07-06 05:09:36.651 -04:00] [INF] [21] MediaBrowser.MediaEncoding.Transcoding.TranscodeManager: "ffmpeg" "-analyzeduration 200M -probesize 1G -fflags +genpts -f mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2  -i file:\"<file>" ...
[2024-07-06 05:09:48.503 -04:00] [INF] [28] MediaBrowser.MediaEncoding.Transcoding.TranscodeManager: FFmpeg exited with code 0
[2024-07-06 05:10:25.463 -04:00] [INF] [25] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:12:13.470 -04:00] [INF] [30] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:12:25.461 -04:00] [INF] [30] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Lost 1 WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:12:35.322 -04:00] [WRN] [34] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketConnection: WS "<phone-ip>" error receiving data: [b]"The remote party closed the WebSocket connection without completing the close handshake."[/b]
[2024-07-06 05:12:35.326 -04:00] [INF] [34] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "::ffff:<phone-ip>" closed
[2024-07-06 05:14:01.468 -04:00] [INF] [40] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:16:49.468 -04:00] [INF] [37] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:19:37.468 -04:00] [INF] [34] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:22:25.469 -04:00] [INF] [40] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:26:01.470 -04:00] [INF] [23] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:26:46.964 -04:00] [INF] [38] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "::ffff:<phone-ip>" request
[2024-07-06 05:27:36.228 -04:00] [WRN] [38] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketConnection: WS "<phone-ip>" error receiving data: [b]"The remote party closed the WebSocket connection without completing the close handshake."[/b]
[2024-07-06 05:27:36.234 -04:00] [INF] [38] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "::ffff:<phone-ip>" closed
[2024-07-06 05:31:01.462 -04:00] [INF] [30] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2024-07-06 05:31:12.404 -04:00] [INF] [30] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "::1" closed