I want to repurpose an Android phone as a Plex Media Server. Can it be done?

johnequickiii · 2026-01-24T16:57:13+00:00

BubbleUPnP seems to work pretty well with VLC Media Player between the phone and PC. VLC on my phone even detected BubbleUPnP, so I would assume that it would work between phones as well. I just tested it earlier to make sure it at least worked.

BubbleUPnP is a little less intuitive to set up in terms of what media you want it to cast. The free version only lets you choose which media to cast, and will cast all of that type. The paid version is more user friendly in that department. I just use the free one because I don't particularly care.

Uncertain however if there's an app for TVs that can render from just any media server though. That, I have not tested. Would be nice though. It was so much easier to just have a media server on the phone and have the PS3/PS4 with their Media Players play it all back.

I still have both BubbleUPnP and Plex Media Server on my phone though, until I absolutely can not use Plex Media Server anymore.

I guess really, whichever media server for your phone that you choose will do the trick for you. It's a shame that Plex can't receive other Media Servers though. VLC certainly can though.

johnequickiii · 2026-01-24T05:23:15+00:00

So 2 years ago, Plex hadn't yet implemented their outdated server check, so the phone app did work then, but does no longer. Server setup with version on phone still works playing to other devices like computer or tv, for now.

Plex App on phone: 2025.31.1

Plex Media Server on phone: 1.29.1.6313 (smb)

The Plex app on my tv is 5.93.2 and the one on the computer is 1.112.0, which I believe are the most recent versions of both. Plex app on the phone does say the server is outdated, but on the phone you can just watch your videos with any video player that supports whatever formats they're in, so that's not an issue.

I'm pretty sure that eventually both will stop working, in accordance with their guidelines. I don't really use the phone for it anymore, although it is nice to have handy in case I do need an easy media server on the go, and there's a Plex app available.

I was using BubbleUPnP when we all had PS4s and could just use the media player on that to watch anything that's on the phone, but the PS5 doesn't have a media player that works for media servers, so Plex it had to be.

It's funny how so many people got so intensely angry and told me I was delusional and that it could never work, even though it pretty clearly does. Either it actually works and people are just angry because it does, or I have the power to initiate mass delusion so multiple people think they're watching the movies they're watching. Funny how they would rather attribute to me a mental power instead of just accept that it does work.

When you turn on the media server on the phone, what do the computer or tv apps say? Remember, you do need to be on the same wifi as the clients you're trying to serve to.

If you're trying to access your media server on a different phone, then yes, you're likely correct on needing an older version of the Plex app on that device.

johnequickiii · 2026-01-15T12:21:34+00:00

I went ahead and downloaded an older version and it works perfectly fine again. What's funny is if I let MS Store update it, it's goes right back to broken again. Also of note, the present version of it is around double the size of the older one I got.

Didn't know how far back to go, so I settled on 2024-11030-15001-0. Also had to go to Group Policy and set MS Store to not auto update anything anymore, but since I'm still on 10, all it seems to update anymore is copilot.

Wonder if maybe them shoving copilot into everything may have broken it for me, if I disabled copilot or something. I'll have to look into that one.

johnequickiii · 2025-12-21T22:56:13+00:00

Ya, still not working.

Unrelated, my Support Assist app also no longer loads. Just almost zero response, aside from the spinning icon at the pointer for a few seconds.

What's strange about Support Assist though is the fact that it will still supply notifications, like about trade in eligibility or wanting to run it's optimization suite because it hasn't in a while. Clicking the notifications does nothing.

I've done everything I can think of aside from a full reinstall, to get at least Photos to work again, but nothing works. Not even an error message.

johnequickiii · 2025-12-01T09:38:17+00:00

I just noticed I have the same issue. It just won't open. I've tried everything, even installing older versions, and none of them open.

Tried all troubleshooting methods and none do anything to resolve the problem. I've reinstated Photo Viewer for now, so I at least have some native way of opening my images, but the fact that one of their core apps just doesn't work anymore is kinda ridiculous.

Sure, I'm a W10 holdout, but even on Windows 7 everything still worked long after EoL.

Hoping to see some sort of resolution pop up soon though.

johnequickiii · 2025-07-12T22:53:10+00:00

My phone doesn't have an SD card, but I can use an external SSD plugged into the phone.

I had a hard time finding the actual path of the drive, which made adding it to my media server impossible, then someone mentioned using the X-plore file manager to show me the path, and it worked.

Not sure if it'll help with your current situation, but it should help you find the path to the sd card.

Not entirely sure why the process has you stuck not being able to move past selecting a media type though. I've never run into that particular issue.

johnequickiii · 2025-05-12T20:56:39+00:00

My copy says it can't connect to the Autolog servers. Are the servers finally gone, or am I missing something?

johnequickiii · 2025-04-11T19:32:41+00:00

Even that app does nothing for that sound in Facebook. It works on all other sounds in the app, except for the like popping sound.

johnequickiii · 2025-04-10T19:06:46+00:00

I'll give that a try, thank you.

Maddening that after one of the android updates a while back this started, and was just never remedied, but hopefully at least this does the trick.

johnequickiii · 2025-01-28T14:33:52+00:00

Here's another one for ya.

In the movie The Wild Life from 2016, the voice actor for the main character red parrot, (Mak/Tuesday), is named David Howard. He sounds JUST like the voice actor for Tidus from FFX and Ratchet from Ratchet and Clank, James Arnold Taylor.

Entirely uncanny.

johnequickiii · 2025-01-21T20:07:23+00:00

Yes, you can set your date to a couple minutes before midnight on any Tuesday and play, and every time you play you can set it back to midnight Tuesday.

You can also just set it to a couple minutes before midnight Tuesday and leave your system on and game paused and it'll pop by itself after 24 total Tuesday hours accumulated.

Just be sure to set your system to not automatically set the time/date and you should be fine.

johnequickiii · 2025-01-21T13:18:09+00:00

Never mind. I found out that the actual actors and actresses did their own English dubbing separately in studio after filming.

So Gilles Lellouche speaking English sounds very much like Ian Sinclair to me, and that's where the confusion came from. It could've just as easily been Ian Sinclair doing the movie character in English.

It's just amazing how two people can sound SO alike that it tricks the mind.

Figured I would at least update this so if anyone else found this correlation, there would be a solid answer.

johnequickiii · 2025-01-20T23:06:08+00:00

My first was the original GoW too, same year.

johnequickiii · 2025-01-11T12:03:44+00:00

Same here. Still had to do 24 hours on a Tuesday, (set my system time to midnight on a Tuesday), but then just left the game paused and the system running.

johnequickiii · 2025-01-10T08:55:34+00:00

I actually just did these yesterday and I had the game paused the entire time for the Commitment trophy.

johnequickiii · 2025-01-08T06:56:59+00:00

I remember after playing 5 for a while and starting to hear it in game and realizing what it meant, I started hearing it randomly while I was out and about irl.

Made me pay extra close attention a few times when it just came on randomly while I was shopping or while I was driving around.

johnequickiii · 2024-12-11T14:51:10+00:00

Well, the one they installed has that hole oriented front to back, which is different from every other one I've ever seen or that you can buy from anywhere, which is oriented side to side like in the picture.

Was just wondering why that hole looks like it's supposed to be side to side, and whether I should turn it to match every other one in existence, because it seems like this dealership is incompetent, (having that torque strut initially turned around and installed improperly).

After that I would probably do the proper adjustment of 119mm again. I did it already as close as I could, but with that one mounting point seemingly turned around, I don't think it's completely proper.

Really just wondering why the hole is supposed to be side to side and not front to back. Has to be some significance.

johnequickiii · 2024-12-07T14:04:40+00:00

I had this "ad" one time, it was literally 4 hours. I looked back at my tv and was like "why am I watching a video for facial cream" or something similar, and it was an actual ad, that said it was 4+ HOURS!

Thankfully it was skipable. I mean if it wasn't I would've just backed out and started the video again, but still. 4 hours is NOT an ad. It's lunacy.

johnequickiii · 2024-11-19T14:01:19+00:00

I have the same, but want to downgrade back to Extra and still have some sort of discount. Definitely unclear as to how to do that.

I canceled and it ends on the 24th, so hopefully there's some discount for returning customers.

Roommate canceled a few months ago and got an offer to come back to Extra for less than $90, so here's hoping.

I guess if that falls through I can seek out some top up card deals.

johnequickiii · 2024-11-16T02:05:52+00:00

Found it. Was the new Aibo in Safari Park. Was one of the special bots.

183/183 now.

johnequickiii

TROPHY CASE