Vlc 3.2.2 local network problem

[Gdragon16]

Hi,

Since the last update 3.2.2 we can't watch video's in our local network, it keeps asking for a username and password. Please fix this ?!

We use it a lot

[glnz]

Gdragon16 - see our complaint about this at
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=150876
Please also go to the App Store and leave a comment and complaint.

[bubu?]

This shouldn't have anything to do with SMB1 issues.

Are you sure that you don't have a user account on your local share?

[glnz]

bubu - of course I have user accounts in my dual-booting Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 10 Pro 64-bit (version 1903) PC. This is my PC at home and so they DON'T have passwords.
Before your very bad update, VLC could see and play ALL my video files in the shared "Vids" folder on the second hard drive in that PC, whether or not it was running Win 7 or Win 10, without ANY problem. The folder permits access by "EVERYONE".
Now, after the update, VLC sees nothing. It does not see ANY shared folder in that PC. The circle just spins around and around forever,
It does not make any difference whether I enter my User Name or not. No connection.
It does not matter whether I am running
- BOTH SMB1 and SMB2 on WIn 7 or WIn 10 or
- ONLY SMB2. No connection in either case, with either OS.
The VLC prompt for the SMB connection does not go away by itself when I hit Connect.
By the way, other iPad apps (not VLC) have no problem seeing the shared folders on my PC. Only VLC is broken.
Your update is a complete mess. There are many other problems with this update, and your score in the Apple App Store is now very low, with many negative comments.
Please stop trying to justify this mess and let us go back to the prior version.

[bubu?]

@glnz Thank you for your passionate and constructive feedback. I'm sure it will motivate our team to improve the application.

As one of our own highlighted in a different SMB related post on this forum, we are working to improve the overall SMB related experience.

On a side note, please understand that nobody is trying to justify anything here, but we are trying to understand the issues since it isn't always the same ones.

The application is under a constant improvement process that includes local network browsing, but we regret to inform you that there won't be any going backs on the user interface part.

If you absolutely want to go back user interface wise, we are an open source project, feel free to do so on your end.

If you need any assistance for it, I'm convinced that people on our IRC channels can help.

[glnz]

bubu - thanks, but your team won't be motivated unless you forward these forum threads to them.

From separate emails with one of your team, I think maybe you are NOT aware of some of the numerous problems with your recent updates. Please ask your team to read at least this thread.

[bubu?]

@glnz I will forward this particular post to the involved developers and update it when I get more information on it.

[njragger]

Same problem here with my iPad. I use VLC for iOS for only one purpose; to play video files hosted on my Win7/64 PC . Until 3.2, it worked perfectly. Unfortunately, one of my 2 iPads was inadvertently set to auto-update and broke when 3.2 was rolled out. Trying to connect resulted in the infinite spinning circle. Version 3.2.1 helped a little; at least a persistent dialog box acknowledged my attempt to connect. An alert reviewer at the App Store discovered that you can Cancel each dialog and eventually connect. Cumbersome, but effective. Now with 3.2.2, everything is broken again. No dialogs, no folders, no connect. The iPad that wasn't updated works perfectly.

How is this an improvement?

[cpufox]

Same issue. I had shares from Synology SMB and QNap SMP, both stopped working; no other changes on the NAS side. ALL my ios devices, iPad, iPhone have same problem, spinning circle never connects with full admin login privelages.

[glnz]

Hey bubu - you see the two new posts above? Please re-forward to the tech team.

[dex Otaku]

Same issue here since 3.2.0 using a Gen1 iPad Air with current iOS 12.4.2 (this model will never get the iPadOS 13 update as it's been deprecated asof 12.4.2).
SMB worked with VLC 3.1.x without issue.
Changes announced with 3.2.1 had no effect whatsoever on any of this (strangely, since other users reported differences in App Store reviews).
Changes with 3.2.2 also had no effect (again strangely, since other reported differences again).

My network has shares from two Windows 10 Home machines (all current updates asof this date on both, v1903 build 18362.418, both connected to network via 1Gb ethernet, accessible via a dual-band wifi access point).
Network settings on the two machines are identical apart from driver-level things which are all at their default since installation.
Using Windows' newish "Network Reset" function and re-verifying settings has no effect.
Sharing is set up on both with password-protected login enabled.
All shares on both machines are set up with permissions only for specific users (No guest accounts on either machine, no "Everyone" on any share except a specifically-configured "Public" folder). This has never caused an issue before and doesn't cause an issue with other devices/apps.
Both computers are on a "Private" network with the same workgroup name.
Both computers (and almost everything else on the network) are forced to static local IPs by MAC address via router DHCP settings.
Network discovery et al are turned on on both.

Weirdly:
From VLC on the iPad the primary sharing machine enumerates just fine (VLC 'finds' it at the Network screen) but no connections can be made (infinitely-spinning spinner, never connects, never brings up any error) ** updated info at bottom of post
BUT the secondary Windows machine's sharing still works with the iPad, and didn't stop working with 3.2.x despite all relevant settings I know of/can find being identical on both computers. Of course, this is the computer that doesn't have 90% of the shared media on it, and moving all the storage from one to the other just to obviate this is not an option.

Other notes:
* SMB support between all tested devices on the network and these 2 machines works (including from Manjaro KDE 18.1.0, LinuxMint Mate 19.03, Ubuntu Studio 19.04, apps on an Android 7 device, other apps on the iPad, and apps through a Roku TV).
* VLC for Windows, Linux, and Android work fine with SMB to both machines (unfortunately I do not have other Apple devices to test).
* This is not a port specification issue (does the same thing whether you specify the port or not).
* This does not *appear* to be a SMB version issue (forcing SMBv1 off/on on both machines doesn't change the behaviour of either between they and any other network devices tested).
* Other apps I know depend exclusively on SMBv1 still work to either Windows machine if SMBv1 is enabled (and don't if it's not).
* This is not a local DNS failure (specifying IP address or manually creating DNS entries on the local router to force the issue have no effect).
* This is not a firewall issue (SMB-related firewall settings are identical on both machines).
* Other network services (like screencasting to a Roku TV from VLC playing a local file on the iPad) work from/to the iPad.
* Neither Windows machine is complaining of plausibly-related issues in event logs.
* Reinstalling/expunging the config details of VLC on the iPad has no effect
* UPnP playback (which yes, I know is not SMB) works though with even a moderately large library is WAY too slow and cumbersome to navigate and use.

I am utterly mystified as to how two machines with ostensibly identical network and security settings can interact in completely different ways with the same app/same device.

I am not as skilled at debugging as an actual dev but if anyone has ideas on where to look for additional relevant information I'll gladly contribute.

Cheers all,
dex.

** Update: Having unintentionally left VLC at the infinite status-spinner, it suddenly (after 20-25 minutes) asked me to re-enter the exact same credentials and then successfully connected to machine #1. After this it seems to be storing the creds correctly but now takes 5-10 minutes to connect, and then somehow doesn't show all shared folders. So... Almost???

[bubu?]

Thank you all for the reports.

There are different issues, so I will try to answer each of them:

Regarding a user session without a password:

We investigated and found that there is definitely an issue with our feedbacks(pop-up dialogues) shown in the app.
The next release should make them less talkative and shown only when really necessary.

In this particular case, disabling the password protected sharing in the Windows settings should make VLC-iOS able to connect the network share without a password(username + empty password).

Here is a random tutorial on how to disable the password protection on Windows 10:

https://www.isunshare.com/windows-10/turn-off-or-on-password-protected-sharing-in-windows-10.html

(Sorry links are broken on the forum right now...)

Regarding the infinite loop - loading duration:

A fix is underway, it is currently discussed in our mailing lists.
Indeed, this was caused by our SMB2 -> SMB1 fallback.

This should be fixed in the next release.

--
Please let me know if I missed an issue.

[glnz]

Bubu - my shared network video folder is NOT password-protected, and the VLC update CANNOT find it.
The problem is not password-protection.
Please stop thinking that the VLC upgrade is ok. It is not ok.

[glnz]

Also, password-protected sharing on my PC is off. That is not the problem.

[bubu?]

@glnz: Please stop constantly assuming what we think, this is not a sane way to communicate.

We are trying to fix a variety of issues, if it isn't the fix for your specific issue, just report it as such.

I can understand your frustration but there is no need to accuse anybody here, let's try to stay civil and polite as the forum rules suggest.

[Naxos]

Hello,

I hope this helps someone.

I'm running VLC on an iPad Air 2 to stream videos from a Windows 10 PC. Until the last update, everything was working great.

After the latest VLC update for iOS I could not connect to the Windows PC. At some point VLC started asking me for a username/password. Long story short, a recent Windows update turned the sharing settings to require a username/password.

A quick way to get to those settings is to right-click the internet connection icon on the system tray (my PC has a wired connection to my router), then click on Open Network and Internet Settings, and then click on Sharing Options. The last option on that window is "Turn off password protected sharing".

So, now I don't get username/password prompts from VLC on the iPad, but I do the endless rotating indicator.

The weird thing in all of this, is that someway, somehow, I was able to connect and stream videos from my PC after the latest update... it worked once only and I have no idea how it happened.

[glnz]

Naxos - you mean that, after the initial update to 3.2, you were able to connect once, and since then you haven’t been able to connect?
That is my experience as well.
My VLC on my iPad still cannot connect to my shared folders on my Win 7. I just checked.
Three weeks now!
What’s taking so long?

[jeff868]

When I use V3.1.9 no smb connection problems, update to V3.2.1, Conect OK! But! Are you kidding me ? I dont't set any password, It keeps asking for a username and password.
NOW! update to V3.2.2(336) never connect OK again !
Please fix BUGGGS. OK?
If can't fix bugs, Can you return to V3.1.9 OK ?

[PhredE]

You make a good point ^^^ jeff868 - it would retrieve VLC's reputation and fix the problem all at once if the code for the last working version of VLC for iOS (3.1.9?) were slotted back in and named 3.2.3.
That way we would have a functional version of the program and it would be known to be valid at Apple, and it would give bubu and his fellow developers time to pilot test, note that, bubu - pilot test - the new code wanting to be 3.2.4.

[glnz]

bubu - PhredE is RIGHT ON, MAN.
Please explain why VLC refuses to let us go back to 3.1.9. Why not?

[Naxos]

Naxos - you mean that, after the initial update to 3.2, you were able to connect once, and since then you haven’t been able to connect?
That is my experience as well.
My VLC on my iPad still cannot connect to my shared folders on my Win 7. I just checked.
Three weeks now!
What’s taking so long?

I don't remember exact versions right now, but, yes, after an update that would not connect to my Windows shared drive as before, I was playing around with share names, user names, etc, and my iPad Air 2 connected to my Windows 10 PC once.

There were probably more updates after that, and Windows also did an update that switched the Network Sharing from no name/password to name/password on my Windows 10 PC.

I see people complaining that they now have to enter a username/password... check your network settings, a recent Windows update may have changed that no name/password setting as it did mine.

I still have the endless spinning indicator though, as I said earlier. I'm hoping for a quick fix.

[fkuehne]

Note that SMB setups are complex and quite diverse. While apparently it was working for you in 3.1.9, we had constant complaints from other users who are happy now as we solved their issues but unexpectedly broke your setup. In 3.2.3, we will make changes to the SMBv1 vs. SMBv2 negotiation again, which should address your problems. If you are interested in beta testing 3.2.3, please sign-up here to be notified once the beta is ready: http://testflight.apple.com/join/bbyXP6Lx

[glnz]

 
Felix - Please make sure we have the same ease of use as before -- for Win 7 or 10, if our home PCs do NOT require a password, then VLC should NOT require a user name or password to connect. That's the way it was before 3.2.

When will we see 3.2.3? Can you give us a timeline?

Thanks.
 

[unidan]

Hi,

Felix - Please make sure we have the same ease of use as before -- for Win 7 or 10, if our home PCs do NOT require a password, then VLC should NOT require a user name or password to connect. That's the way it was before 3.2.

Some NAS might show different content depending whether you login or browse as anonymous, so it's difficult to achieve correctly, but maybe we could store anonymous status per server. That is not an easy question :/

[glnz]

 
unidan - I'm sure it's complicated - that's why VLC is (or was) so well liked - others didn't do what you did.

But you had already accomplished good connections to LAN, without fuss. You already have the knowledge.

There are hundreds of comments in this forum and in the Apple App Store asking to go back to 3.1.9. Why is VLC too stubborn to do that?