Cannot fetch metadata art when VPN is enabled

[problem_head]

Hello! 

I'm running the latest version of Jellyfin server on a Windows 10 PC with Mullvad VPN, and Jellyfin is excluded from my VPN tunnel.

Series cover art is not being fetched when my server's VPN is enabled. But when I disable the VPN and refresh the libraries, everything is fetched instantly. Beautiful!


I dislike turning off my VPN for this purpose, though. Am I missing something obvious?

My metadata downloaders are enabled and ordered as follows:

The TVDB
The MovieDb
The Open Movie Database

...and the metadata descriptions ARE being fetched through the VPN, just not the cover/banner/series art.

Thanks, many hugs and kisses to each and every one of you

[TheDreadPirate]

I'm assuming that Mullvad VPN is creating a virtual NIC with a different IP. And I'm wondering if Jellyfin is binding to it.

In Jellyfin, can you configure it to bind only to your LAN address? Your server's LAN IP would need to be static since you have to provide a specific address and not a CIDR.

Dashboard > Networking > Bind to local network address. Set an address, save, restart jellyfin.

[problem_head]

Thanks for the interesting idea... unfortunately it didn't solve the prob. Any other thoughts? It's dawning on me that this is probably a network config/mullvad problem. Jellyfin works remarkably quickly to retrieve the metadata with vpn disabled

[TheDreadPirate]

I'd need to see your Jellyfin logs to verify that Jellyfin isn't the problem. Can you share that via pastebin?

But the problem is most likely Mullvad doing or not doing something correctly with the split tunneling.

How did you configure Mullvad to exclude Jellyfin? Does it exclude it by port? Or by specifying the process name?

[problem_head]

I added jellyfin to Mullvad's exclusion list by selecting the exe in the c:\program files\server\ directory. I have also tried adjusting the IPv6 settings within both Mullvad and Jelly to no affect. My log file shows error after error like this:

[ERR] [32] MediaBrowser.Providers.TV.EpisodeMetadataService: Error in "TheMovieDb"
System.Net.Http.HttpRequestException: An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions. (api.themoviedb.org:443)

Some Googling has turned up other similar cases:

https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-solved-cons...data%20for

https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin/commen...empt%20was

I also rebooted the server computer, modem and router. Disabling Mullvad is the only thing that allows me to download the meta. Puzzled!

[TheDreadPirate]

FWIW, going through a VPN shouldn't prevent Jellyfin from reaching TMDB. Unless your exit node is in a country that blocks it. Do you know where your exit node is?

[problem_head]

I just tried switching to the UK, Belgium, Australia, and Dallas, TX... no dice, senor!

[TheDreadPirate]

Turn off IPv6 in Jellyfin? Something about DOTNET not rebinding or something?

https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin/commen...nd_plugin/

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/8054

---

It also sounds like TMDB, and a lot of other sites, straight up block Mullvad exit nodes.

[problem_head]

First of all, thank you for bearing with me. I have solved the problem after more digging. I removed Jellyfin from Mullvad's split tunnel exclusion list. I already had Local File Sharing enabled, but apparently that is the second component to this fix per the link below. For whatever reason and contrary to what other threads on other sites have recommended, when you add Jelly to the split tunnel in Mullvad, it will NOT fetch the metadata. I hope this helps somebody who is Googling this issue. Thanks!

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/...vpn-is-on/