VLC for Android and Chrome OS • Suddenly can’t browse LAN



VLC 3.5.4 for Android TV. I’ve been watching films from my LAN for a year and a half now, almost no issues. But all of a sudden, just as we were watching an episode, it cut off a few minutes before the end. I tried several times to play it – I could start the file from the beginning but fast-forwarding was almost impossible: to jump to 5 min, it would take a minute of loadng, to jump to 35 min, VLC just hanged there for five minutes, unable to load anything.

I restarted my computer, restarted the TV a couple of time (doing this would fix any rare LAN access issues before). This time nothing helped. After some 40 minutes of trying the same, I decided to perform complete reset of VLC (Settngs > Advanced > Clear app data).

Since then, when I go to Browsing > Local Network, I can see one or both of my computers (PC and laptop). But when I try to open them, I invariably see “No meda files found, please transfer some files from your device or adjust your preferences.” Another error message is shown briefly at the bottom of the screen: “YOUR INPUT CAN’T BE OPENED: VLC IS UNABLE TO OPEN THE MRL: ‘smb://CHEESEUSCOMPNEW’. Check the log for details.”

I looked at the log but I can’t make any sense of what I see in it. Here are the relevant (I think) messages:

libvlc stream: Session: Host name = CHEESEUSCOMPNEW, IP = 192.168.1.100
libvlc keystore: looking for keystore module matching “file_crypt,none”: 3 candidates
libvlc keystore: using keystore module “file”
netbios_session_recv: recv: Connection reset by peer
libvlc stream: Unable to connect/negotiate SMB session
libvlc keystore: removing module “file”
libvlc stream: Unable to open file with path (null) (in share (null))
libvlc stream: no access modules matched
libvlc input: Your input can’t be opened
libvlc input: VLC is unable to open the MRL ‘smb://CHEESEUSCOMPNEW’. Check the log for details.

VLC has never asked me to input my computer user’s username and password, it simply worked from the very start.All I had to do was go to Browsing > Local Network. And now that doesn’t work.

I’ve tried both settings in Advanced > Prefer SMB 1 on/off. It makes no difference.

I’ve tried switching from my 2.4 GHz to my 5 GHz wi-fi back and forth. It used to work on both before. Didn’t help, either.

Funny thing is if I browse my Windows shares from Total Commander on the TV > LAN > [my computer] > F: > Films > [choose a film/episode to play], it starts in VLC – but fast-forwarding is still problematic.

What can I do to restore access to my LAN shares from inside VLC?

Statistics: Posted by cheeseus — 16 Apr 2024 00:18