Cloud-hosted apps
Cardinal hosts a copy of the Music, Photos and Cinema apps at three addresses:
https://music.cardinalapps.io
https://photos.cardinalapps.io
https://cinema.cardinalapps.io
Fig. 1 — the cloud-hosted apps
They are the same apps your Media Server serves itself, hosted by Cardinal instead of by you. You sign in with your Cardinal Account, pick one of your Media Servers, and the app connects to it and runs against it from there.
Nothing is installed, and nothing about your server changes. Your media, your library and your accounts stay on your own Media Server; the hosted app is only the interface in front of them.
These apps are an alternative to the apps your Media Server already hosts, not a replacement for them. The apps on your server keep working exactly as they do now, and on your own network they remain the shortest path to it.
What you need
Three things have to be true before a hosted app can reach a server:
| Requirement | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| A Cardinal Account | The account you sign into the hosted app with. |
| A Media Server that account has signed into | Signing into an app on your own Media Server with a Cardinal Account is what puts that server on your account's list. See Claiming your Media Server. |
| Remote Access enabled on that server | A hosted app is never on your server's network, so it can only reach the server through Remote Access. |
The server also needs a user account linked to the Cardinal Account you sign in with — the hosted app signs you into the Media Server as that user. See Cloud Accounts.
Signing in
Opening one of the three addresses shows a sign-in screen with a single Sign in with Cardinal button. There is no server address to type, and no separate password for the app itself.
If you signed in previously, the session is resumed and the sign-in screen is skipped.
Choosing a server
After sign-in, the app lists the Media Servers your Cardinal Account has signed into, most recently seen first. Each row shows the server's name and the date it was last seen, or that it has not been seen yet.
Servers that do not currently have Remote Access are listed too, greyed out and unselectable, with a note that Remote Access is off on that server and has to be turned on from the server's own Admin Dashboard. They are shown rather than hidden so that a server you know you own is never missing from the list.
Two cases skip the list:
- Exactly one server can be connected to. The app opens it without asking.
- No servers at all. The app explains that signing into a Cardinal app on your own Media Server once, with the same account, is what makes it appear.
How the connection is made
The hosted app asks Cardinal's cloud for a plan for the server you picked, then dials the routes in that plan in order and uses the first one that answers:
1. your local network ─┐
2. the internet ───────┼─▶ first route that answers ─▶ the app runs
3. Cardinal's relay ───┘
Fig. 2 — the order routes are tried in
The first two are direct connections: the traffic goes straight from your browser to your Media Server. Which of them is available depends on where you are and how your network is set up — a laptop on the same network as the server takes the local route, and a browser anywhere else takes the internet route when your server is reachable from outside your network.
The relay is the fallback, used only when no direct route answers. A relayed connection always works, but it is slower, and the traffic passes through Cardinal's servers on the way. Relay usage counts against your Remote Access quota.
A relayed connection is not permanent. While the app is on the relay it keeps looking for a direct route in the background and switches to one as soon as it appears. The switch is silent; nothing in the app restarts and playback is not interrupted.
The details of how routes are built, and why a direct one may be unavailable, are covered in Remote Access and its Troubleshooting guide. Everything there applies to hosted apps unchanged.
What can go wrong
Each of these is a screen the app can stop on, with what it means and what to do about it.
Cannot connect to server
No route worked — not the local one, not the internet one, and not the relay. This is a Remote Access problem rather than a hosted-app problem: the server is offline, or nothing can currently reach it.
Confirm the server is running and that its Remote Access status is healthy in its Admin Dashboard, then work through the Remote Access troubleshooting guide.
Relay data used up
The connection had to use the relay, and your account's relay allowance is already spent. The allowance resets on its own, and nothing else about your account or your server is affected in the meantime.
A direct connection does not draw on the allowance, so it still works while the relay is unavailable. If you are away from the server and the direct route is not working, the Remote Access troubleshooting guide covers why apps stay on the relay.
Too many relayed sessions
The server already has as many relayed sessions open as it can hold. This is a limit on simultaneous relayed sessions to one server, not on your data allowance.
Close a relayed session elsewhere — another browser, another device, another hosted app — and try again. Sessions that are connected directly do not count.
This account is not linked on that server
The server was reached, but the Cardinal Account you signed in with does not have a user on it. Reaching a server and having an account on it are separate things, and this screen means the first succeeded and the second did not.
Link the account to a user on that server from the server's own Admin Dashboard, or sign into the app your Media Server hosts itself. See Cloud Accounts.
Cardinal is not reachable
Your server list could not be loaded, which is a fault on Cardinal's side rather than yours. Your Media Server is unaffected, and the app it hosts itself keeps working.
Could not connect
A failure on the way to the server that does not match any of the cases above. Try again, or pick a different server; if it persists, treat it as a Remote Access problem and start with the troubleshooting guide.
Using more than one server
Your account can have any number of Media Servers on it, and a hosted app connects to one at a time. Every failure screen offers a way back: Choose another server when more than one server can be connected to, and Try again when there is only one.
Was this article helpful?