MediaMonkey DLNA / UPnP Server Inaccessible / Casting Fails
DLNA/UPnP clients or Wi-Fi Sync clients such as MediaMonkey for Android (MMA) may fail to access content shared by the MediaMonkey for Windows (MMW) DLNA server due to a variety of networking, security/access control issues, or configuration issues that prevent the server from announcing it’s availability and/or sharing content. When you Cast/Stream from MediaMonkey to a Chromecast/DLNA client MediaMonkey also requires access from your Firewall. When no Media Server is enabled in MediaMonkey casting will use a temporary server with a random port to be able to cast media. If your DLNA client can’t access content on the server or MediaMonkey can’t cast, please try each of the following:
Verify that the server is running and configured correctly:
In MMW, click Tools > Options > Media Sharing, and verify that a server is enabled and running. If it isn’t, enable it.
Double click the server (it’ll be named something like ‘MediaMonkey Library’), and make sure that the IP address/MAC address of the client is checked off in the ‘Enabled’ column. If it isn’t listed, then try connecting with MMA to the MMW UPnP/DLNA server, and MMW will prompt you to enable access to the client (alternatively, you can enable ‘Share automatically with all new devices’ though this may not be desireable if you want to limit access to the library).
Make sure that Windows is has the network connection set to Private instead of Public (Settings > Network & Internet > Double-click the active network > Set Network profile to ‘Private Network’). By default Windows will block applications from accessing the local network when the network connection is set to Public.
Ensure that firewalls aren’t blocking the connection.
If the problem started after installing a Windows Update, the issue may be that firewall settings were reset. Try updating to the latest version of MMW–it will reinstalling the firewall rules, possibly solving the problem.
Make sure that the Windows Firewall is configured to allow incoming connections to MMW. Go to
Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Firewall > Allowed apps, and enable Private (or Public if you’re accessing it externally) connections into MediaMonkey.
Windows Firewall > Advanced Settings > Inbound rules, and
Ensure that there’s a rule allowing incoming UPnP connections over the TCP Port configured in MMW (you can see this at Tools > Options > Media Sharing > Double-click the server > Click the Server tab ).
Ensure that there’s a rule allowing incoming SSDP connections over UDP Port 1900.
Restart the machine to ensure that the updated rules are in effect.
Or, try to disable firewall temporarily to see whether it solves the problems (you may want to disconnect your Router from the Internet while the Firewall is disabled).
Make sure other applications aren’t blocking MediaMonkey’s Media Server
BubbleUPnP on Windows can interfere with MediaMonkey’s ability to provide a Media Server to DLNA clients or to Cast to other DLNA/Chromecast clients.
Eliminate basic networking-related issues:
Make sure sure that that the client is connected to the correct Wi-Fi network (if connected via Wi-Fi). Guest Wi-Fi networks generally block devices from seeing other devices on the same network.
Verify that your Router supports Multicast packets and UPnP routing and discovery (most do out of the box)
Ensure that ‘Network discovery’ is enabled on your Windows PC.
Reset your router in case it is frozen (this is just precautionary–no need to reconfigure anything)
On the remote device (e.g. the one running MMA or another UPnP client), Disable/re-enable the Wi-Fi connection.
Restart MediaMonkey for Windows in case the server process stopped or Windows’ firewall blocked the UPnP/DLNA server on idle.
Verify that other more advanced networking issues aren’t causing the problem:
If your server has > 1 network adapter, make sure that the server is configured with the value corresponding to the subnet mask of the desired network interface. In MMW, go to Tools > Options > Media Sharing > Double-click the server > Click the Server tab, and change the IP address from Automatic to the desired setting.
Make sure that the TCP Port# being used doesn’t conflict with any other applications (e.g. Windows Media Player uses port 2869, serviio uses 8895, etc.). The preferred port range is between 10000 and 25000 (rather than 49152 – 65535 which was used in earlier versions of MediaMonkey). To change and test a new port number, in MMW, click Tools > Options > Media Sharing > Double-click the server > Click the Server tab, and change the Port# to 10500, for example, and make sure that the firewall is configured to allow it through. Then, on your Android device, download and install https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.overlook.android.fing , scan your wireless network, and open the IP of the PC running MMW and verify that port 10500 shows up in the results.
If you have multiple MMW servers sharing a single database, then it’s possible that they are all serving using a common UUID, resulting in only one of the servers being recognized. To solve this, create a new Media Server instance via Options -> Media Sharing -> [Add] , and then disable the old one.
Check if your Network connection is Private or Public as Computers in Public Network connections are blocked from sharing any resources. You can check that by Right clicking on Network connection tray icon and select “Open Network and Sharing Center” which will open dialog showing network connection and type. If you are registered on Public network you need to change network type and allow other devices to discover your PC within network.
Disable Jumbo frames for your network adapter configuration as not all routers and network switches support or have not configured correctly to support Jumbo frames. To do that follow these steps: Win 10: Right click on Network connection tray icon and select “Open Network and internet settings” -> Ethernet -> Change adapter options -> [DOUBLE CLICK TO OPEN YOUR DEVICE SETTINGS] -> Properties -> Configure -> Advanced -> Jumbo Frames -> Disable -> Ok -> Ok Win 7: Right clicking on Network connection tray icon and select “Open Network and Sharing Center” -> Change adapter options -> [DOUBLE CLICK TO OPEN YOUR DEVICE SETTINGS] -> Properties -> Configure -> Advanced -> Jumbo Frames -> Disable -> Ok -> Ok
Note: If you change the Port# in for the media server in MMW to 4000, then MMW’s own DLNA/UPnP client will not suppress the MMW server from the list of UPnP servers that appear in MMW itself. This can be useful for debugging purposes, as well.
If MediaMonkey for Android still fails to connect, try saving the server location manually so that failed availability announcements don’t prevent MMA from accessing it:
In MMA > UPnP, click the ‘+’ button to add a media server (for a Sync server, you can also go to MMA > Options > Select Sync Server, long tap on the MMW server) and fill in the template: http://host:port/path_to_device_description_file.xml
host:port – This is the IP address and associated Port number of the MediaMonkey Server. It can be found in Tools > Options > Library > Media Sharing and appears in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:yyyyy
path_to_device_description_file.xml: this is normally DeviceDescription.xml for a MediaMonkey Server.
Save the server settings.
For the clients where you cannot add the server manually (and auto-discovery still fails) you can try restart MediaMonkey while watching the server list on the client. This may help to see the MediaMonkey server in the list finally.
If all of the above fails to resolve the problem, open a browser on your Device/PC and enter “http://<MMWSERVERIP>:<MMWSERVERPORT>/DeviceDescription.xml” e.g. http://192.168.1.100:57302/DeviceDescription.xml . Open a ticket via the helpdesk indicating what data this returns in your browser, and provide logs for MMW (and MMA).
As last resort restart the PC running MediaMonkey, the client and your Router.
