Plex Media Server not binding to ipv6 address

Troubleshooting
1

Creating a bug report/issue

I have searched the existing open and closed issues

Required Information

  • DietPi version | 10.8.2

  • Distro version | bookworm 0

  • Kernel version | Linux DietPi 6.12.115+rpt-rpi-v8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.12.115-1+rpt1 (2026-11-03) aarch64 GNU/Linux

  • Architecture | arm64

  • SBC model | RPi 4 Model B (aarch64)

  • Software title | Plex Media Server

Steps to reproduce

  1. Enable IPv6 in dietpi-config, Network Options: Adapters
  2. Restart Plex Media server (sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver)

Expected behaviour

  • running ‘netat -t6anp’ shows Plex Media Server listening on ipv6 local address (i.e. :::32401)

Actual behaviour

  • Plex Media Server is only bound to ipv4 address.

Extra details

  • Other services (e.g. Dropbear) are successfully bound to ipv6 address and I can access over the internet.
  • Searching in Plex documentation and forums suggest I enable ipv6 in Plex in Advanced Network settings ‘Enable IPv6 Support’. However this option does not appear in the gui.
  • I’ve also added EnableIPv6=“1” to /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml, but this has had no effect. Also tried IPNetworkType=“v6only” but Plex still only binds to the ipv4 address on the pi.
paste lines of logs or code into such code fences here
2

Hi @prys,

thanks for the detailed report. I was able to reproduce this on a test system (DietPi v10.8.2, Plex Media Server 1.43.5 arm64, fresh install via dietpi-software):

  • After enabling IPv6 in dietpi-config and restarting Plex, other services like Dropbear listen on [::], but Plex still only listens on 0.0.0.0:32400.
  • This does not change with a global IPv6 address on the interface, nor with EnableIPv6="1", IPNetworkType="dualstack" or IPNetworkType="v6only" in Preferences.xml (edited while the service was stopped).
  • EnableIPv6 still exists, but it is a hidden setting which is already enabled by default. That is why you do not see it in the web UI, and why setting it manually has no effect.
  • A look at the system calls shows that Plex opens its HTTP listener as an IPv4-only socket right at startup, without trying an IPv6 socket at all.

So this is not related to DietPi or its network configuration: IPv6 is working on system level, Plex just does not make use of it for its listener. We also do not apply any network related settings when installing Plex, so there is nothing we could change on our end.

I would recommend raising this in the Plex forum: https://forums.plex.tv/. They are the only ones who can tell whether this is intended or a bug, and whether there is a supported way to enable it.

If you need IPv6 access in the meantime, a possible workaround is a small proxy in front of Plex which listens on the IPv6 address and forwards to the IPv4 port, e.g. socat or a reverse proxy like Nginx. This worked in a quick test here, but note that Plex then sees all those clients coming from the proxy’s address, hence treats them as local ones.

3

Feel free to ping me at the Plex forum (same account name), when you raise an issue.

4

Many thanks for such a quick response and confirmation of the issue. I’ll do as suggested and raise in the Plex forums. In the meantime, I’ve tested a lightweight proxy (socat) which allows me to work around the issue.