The guideline to set up Plex to access scraper API via proxy on macOS

plex-proxy-settings-for-scrapper.md

The Guideline to Setup Plex to Access Scraper API via Proxy on macOS

Similar questions:

• https://forums.plex.tv/t/using-an-http-proxy-for-fetching-metadata/162215/10
• https://forums.plex.tv/t/any-hope-for-plex-to-actually-work-with-a-web-proxy/6752
• https://forums.plex.tv/t/is-there-way-to-specify-a-proxy-for-media-server/23050
• https://forums.plex.tv/t/more-automatic-proxy-configuration/521/7

This post helps you set up plex to access scraper API (thetvdb for example) via your proxy on macOS. Plex doesn't respect the system-level sock proxy (in Network settings), but it respects the HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY variables.

Step l: Set up your HTTP proxy app and configure the scraper domains (thetvdb.com for example).

Because we're going to set up the system-level HTTP_PROXY variable below. It's better to configure your proxy to only the desired domains, so it won't affect other apps.

Test your proxy app.

HTTPS_PROXY=https://127.0.0.1:7070 curl -I https://thetvdb.com
...
HTTP/2 200

Step 2: Add the system-level HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY variables.

http://127.0.0.1:7070 is the example proxy address.

Set once for testing:

launchctl setenv HTTP_PROXY http://127.0.0.1:7070
launchctl setenv HTTPS_PROXY http://127.0.0.1:7070

To make it presistent, create an my.environments.plist file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ with this content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>my.environments</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>sh</string>
    <string>-c</string>
    <string>
    launchctl setenv HTTP_PROXY http://127.0.0.1:7070
    launchctl setenv HTTPS_PROXY http://127.0.0.1:7070
    </string>
  </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Load it the plist file

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/my.environments.plist

Verify it

launchctl list | grep my.environments
-     0     my.environments

Open a new terminal app and print the env

env|grep HTTP
HTTP_PROXY http://127.0.0.1:7070
HTTPS_PROXY http://127.0.0.1:7070

Step 3: Restart the plex and rematch a media via the desired scraper API.

Find a media file and remtach it with the desired scraper api. It should just work.

Double-check the Plex logs. Locate the log files: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/.

~/Library/Logs/Plex Media Server/PMS Plugin Logs/com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb.log

Open it and navigate to the end, you will see below.

... Requesting 'https://artworks.thetvdb.com/banners/.....jpg`
... Not caching .....

If anything goes incorrect you will see a timeout after the request.