Wake server when client starts

[CypherMK]

Hi, new user of jellyfin here.

I'm trying and using jellyfin on multiple devices, like my laptop, android phone and LG TV. They all need to connect to the jellyfin server to be able to play something. The server is a regular PC with multiple drives and it's in sleep mode during the day. Wake on lan is working to wake up the PC.

Now I've read that WOL won't be implemented on the client side, which seems odd to me. But anyway, how can I automatically wake up my server when I want to use jellyfin on any of my devices? I can do it manually, but for the rest of the people in my house it's not very user friendly. Any other ways I did not see to make this work?

Thanks.

[Efficient_Good_5784]

You'll have to find a 3rd party program to do this for you, or code it yourself. How would the Jellyfin server send the PC it's running on a wake signal if it's in a sleep state? The one in charge of knowing when a client starts would be the Jellyfin server, which is asleep. Each client would need code to figure out how to send the wake signal to your PC by itself.

Are you putting the PC to sleep to save power? You would have an easier time with this issue if you build a new power-efficient server to run 24/7.

Jellyfin is server media software. It's meant to run constantly to "serve" clients at all times. It needs to be awake to understand when a client needs it.

[CypherMK]

I'm coming from Kodi where kodi wakes up the server with the files by sending a wake on lan packet.

So in case of Jellyfin I was assuming that the clients could wake up the Jellyfin server when they needed access to the files. Would be such a basic feature and big improvement. And it saves power on any server people may use.

And unfortunately I can't code.

[swampweedsmoker]

I'm confused that everybody in this forum says that this thing is not working.
For me it works out of the box. My setup is similar to yours, I guess.

My Jellyfin server is a clean Win10 installation. (WOL is active in the BIOS)
The PC is connected via LAN to a fritzbox.
All I did is changing the PCs ethernet ipv4 settings to use a static ip.
Set a subnetmask like 255.255.255.0 and set your standard gateway.

When starting a jellyfin client it wakes the PC automatically. (its idling while the PC is booting up)
This works with all clients. I'm using the smartphone app; the android tv app (on my nvidia shield); the jellyfin media player on some other pcs in my house and also with the jellyfin for kodi plugin on my nvidia shield.
To prevent entering sleep mode while streaming I use an app called coffee which runs in the background (I set a download threshold of 10 kb/s).

[Efficient_Good_5784]

I'm confused that everybody in this forum says that this thing is not working.
For me it works out of the box. My setup is similar to yours, I guess.

Waking up the Jellyfin server from a sleep state is possible, just not directly by the Jellyfin server itself when it's asleep.
OP states that he read WOL will not be implemented on the client side, so a 3rd party program will need to be used to send the wake packet to the server/computer.

In your case, it looks like your devices already handle this and wake your Windows PC just fine. Jellyfin isn't doing any of the waking up part, that would be your individual devices. All the clients do is search for a server to communicate with.

[CypherMK]

I'm confused that everybody in this forum says that this thing is not working.
For me it works out of the box. My setup is similar to yours, I guess.

My Jellyfin server is a clean Win10 installation. (WOL is active in the BIOS)
The PC is connected via LAN to a fritzbox.
All I did is changing the PCs ethernet ipv4 settings to use a static ip.
Set a subnetmask like 255.255.255.0 and set your standard gateway.

When starting a jellyfin client it wakes the PC automatically. (its idling while the PC is booting up)
This works with all clients. I'm using the smartphone app; the android tv app (on my nvidia shield); the jellyfin media player on some other pcs in my house and also with the jellyfin for kodi plugin on my nvidia shield.
To prevent entering sleep mode while streaming I use an app called coffee which runs in the background (I set a download threshold of 10 kb/s).

That's how I set it up exactly. Also using coffee for a long time.

But starting the smartphone app or the LG tv app does not wake the server.

[Kwakers]

To Prevent Stop Inhibit Sleep Suspension:

For windows try https://github.com/jonschz/jellyfin-plugin-preventsleep by @jonschz (Windows ONLY)

I have created a Linux application to prevent the Jellyfin server from suspending whilst a user is streaming a video.
Suspend the server after streaming depending on the inactivity timeout value and user inputs.

https://github.com/Kwakers01/Jellyfin-Inhibit-Sleep (For Linux)

Please feel free to test, add code (e.g. ssh/vnc detection), I have puts lots of comments in the code, configured logging and testing (on/off). I will try to look at ssh and vnc when I get my server built (tested on laptop).

Feel free to raise issues if needed, I may not be able to fix them but I will have a go and try to help, other users may try to help too.

I hope people find this useful.


To wake up the PC/Server you have to configure "wake-up on lan" or "wake-up on wireless lan" if your hardware supports it (which in 2024/2025 most do) on your PC/Server.  You can then use a WOL client on your phone or laptop (or possibly streaming stick) to wake up the PC/Server.

WOL Clients I use:
Linux : gWakeOnLAN from the Linux Mint software manager.
Android : "Wake On Lan"
Apple : "RemoteBoot WOL".

All of these will wake up my Desktop PC (currently running Windows 10) in an upstairs room. 
I use https://github.com/jonschz/jellyfin-plugin-preventsleep by @jonschz (Windows ONLY) to stop the windows desktop from sleeping whilst streaming.
I need to move it to Linux which is why I have created this application.  There was a quick hack by @txhammer68, but it did not include preventing sleep if the OS was on the logon screen.

From what I read a while back, Jellyfin developers will not add a wol client to the jellyfin app. I believe the plex client has it, but not sure why Jellyfin clients don't.  With the price of electric going up and modern pc's/laptops able to support running Jellyfin Server (e.g. memory size, processor and disk size), more people are just using an old laptop/pc to run JS.  For the 2-4hrs a day/couple of days or so they use it, they want to be able to suspend it and wake it up after the 20-22hrs/days it is suspend. They don't want to have to have it running 24x7 when it is technically possible to suspend and wake it and has been for years.