HTTPS web server not starting up when Blue Iris Starts but can be started manually

B

bbdude

n3wb
Oct 19, 2020
21
2
Auburn, WA
In the Settings -> Web server menu, when I check the box to Enable the HTTPS: server on port: 443 and click OK on the menu, the web server and the https web page (UI3) comes up and runs just fine. If I go back into that menu, I see a green check mark to the right of the Enable HTTPS line and the web server continues to run until whatever time I shut Blue Iris down (eg when I need to restart the PC, etc).

After Blue Iris has been shut down and then restarted, if I go back into the Settings -> Web server menu, I see the box still checked to Enable the HTTPS: server (as it should be), but I have an orange triangle with a "!" to the right of that line and the webserver does not come up.

If I uncheck the box to Enable the HTTPS: server and click OK on the menu, then go back and recheck the box to Enable the HTTPS: server and OK the menu, then once again the website comes up and runs and the green check mark to the right of the Enable HTTPS line is back.

So, for some reason, it seems some process occurs, only when Blue Iris is starting up, that interferes with the web server startup. Since I don't have to restart Blue Iris very often, I have not been terribly overburdened with manually starting the web server, but it would be nice if it would start automatically when Blue Iris starts.

Anybody have an idea as to why the web server is not starting automatically when Blue Iris starts?
 
I should also mention that in the Web server menu, along with the HTTPS: selected, I also have a .pfx certificate file entered. This was setup with the help of @bp2008 per thread and this is all working (provided the web server is up and running). Could it be that having the trusted certificate as part of the web server startup at the same time Blue Iris is starting up is not completing fast enough or not in the right order? Maybe @bp2008 has some insight into what might be the problem?
 
Check Blue Iris's log to see if it mentions anything about the web server. If they went to the effort of putting a warning/error icon into the user interface, they might have logged something. Or the icon might have a tooltip if you mouse over it.

One fairly common obstacle is having multiple processes trying to listen on the same port on the same network interfaces. When BI's web server is not working, Open "Resource Monitor" in windows and look at the Network tab > Listening ports section. Sort by port number and see if anything else is trying to listen on the same port you've configured (TCP protocol. UDP is not relevant). When BI's web server is working you will see Blueiris.exe in there listening on your port number, TCP, and you can expect it to have rows for both interfaces "IPv4 unspecified" and "IPv6 unspecified" which is its way of saying it is listening on all network interfaces. If anything else is using the same port numbers on one or more interfaces, then that is a conflict you'll want to resolve.

Another possibility is that no network interfaces are ready when the Blue Iris service is starting, although this seems unlikely. Anyway if you can't identify anything more concrete as a cause, try opening services.msc (type that in the start menu) and go to Blue Iris Service > Properties. Set the Startup type to "Automatic (Delayed start)". This will delay service startup by 2 minutes which is more than enough time for pretty much everything else to have initialized.
 
Thanks for your response @bp2008 I checked the Blue Iris log and it does not mention anything about the web server. Also in the Web server menu, the orange triangle with a "!" provides no tool tip.

I also ran Resource Monitor for activity on Port 443 and at all times, the only 2 entries I see are Blueiris.exe Ipv4 and Ipv6, unspecified, TCP, Firewall Status: allowed, not restricted. That's when Blue Iris is up and running with the https web server running ok. When I restart Blue Iris, with the https Web server set to on (which consistently does not come up operational on Blue Iris startup), watching Resource Monitor during this startup and afterward, I never see any activity on Port 443 (no Blueiris.exe or anything else).

I am not running Blue Iris as a service. Maybe I should be doing that. Power failures here at my house are rare and when they do happen, I usually wait until the power has been up and stable for a while before I start PC's back up. I do have a UPS on the Blue Iris PC which keeps the PC running through power dropouts less than 20 minutes.

So, just to be clear, the way I have been operating, Blue Iris does not start at PC boot up time. It only starts when I start it manually. If the last time I had Blue Iris running, the https Web Server was on, then the next time I start Blue Iris the Web server does not come up, ie I get the orange triangle with a "!" and I can then get the web server to come up successfully by unchecking the box to Enable the HTTPS: server, then re-checking the box. Conversely if the last time I had Blue Iris running, the https Web Server was off then the next time I start Blue Iris and I then go check the box to Enable the HTTPS: server the Web server does come up successfully with the green check mark. This is independent of PC startup. I can shut down Blue Iris and start Blue Iris multiple times with and without the https server enabled and I simply find that to get the web server running successfully I must check the box to Enable the HTTPS: server manually.

BTW, this issue (with Blue Iris startup concurrent with web server startup) does not occur with the http: web server enabled on port 81, ie I can restart Blue Iris with the http server enabled at all times and it always comes up operational with green check mark. The problem only occurs with the https web server.

I'll say again, this is not terribly burdensome manually starting the web server, since I have been manually starting Blue Iris this way for the entire 5+ years I have been using it. I have been thinking recently that maybe I should setup the system for automatic restart, in case I am away from home for an extended time during a power failure ... but that's not the issue at hand here in this post.
 
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You should contact Blue Iris support about it. It is definitely broken and with no hint of what is wrong, that is really the only thing I can think of to do.

Service mode is a good idea even if only just so that if Blue Iris crashes it will start again automatically.
 
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Thanks @bp2008
I contacted Blue Iris support regarding this problem, ie I pretty much pasted the text from this thread directly into the email to them. Ken at Blue Iris responded back today saying:
"Before going further we would need to know if this occurs with the current version which is 6.0.6.2. We cannot make changes to the legacy versions. Version 6 is a full new install. Backup settings just in case."

Note: I am currently running Blue Iris Version: Release 5.9.9.98 x64 (11/25/2025) on a PC running Windows 10 Pro. I must confess I have not been paying close attention to the current status of Version 6. I was under the impression it was still beta testing, but it appears now it is in full release. Should I expect the transition to Version 6 to be without a hitch or relatively seamless, including with the https web server and trusted certificate, etc? Hopefully my PC still running Windows 10 Pro will not be a problem?
 
I went ahead and installed Version 6. I ran into one hitch in that the installer updated Visual C++ and then prompted that the PC must be restarted before continuing. I clicked on the button to restart and then I saw in the window underneath that the Blue Iris installer progress bar seemed to continue to the right but the PC restarted before anything else happened with the install. After the PC restart, it appeared that the new version of Blue Iris had not been installed. I tried the same process again, running the Blue Iris installer again with the same results (C++ update, restart, etc) and got the same unsuccessful results. On the 3rd attempt, I decided to skip the C++ update, then the Blue Iris installer warned that the C++ update prerequisite had not occurred. I hit the button to continue anyway. This seems to have worked, but I don’t know if I’m missing some libraries or something?

Anyway, the good news is I am now running Blue Iris version 6.0.6.3 and after repeated shutdowns and restarts of this Blue Iris (with or without PC restart), each time I see that the https website comes up and runs and the green check mark to the right of the Enable HTTPS line is there (no orange triangle with a "!"). Also, the https website is working and accessible on all my devices I use for remote access. So apparently going to version 6 was the solution.

I'm still a little worried that I didn't get the Visual C++ update installed properly (though BI does seem to be running fine). Can anyone shed some light on what went wrong with that part of the install (described in the first paragraph above)?
Thanks
 
If BI runs then you should be fine. It won't be able to start if the C++ thing is not installed.

It just sounds like the installation procedure was done a little sloppy; it should NOT ask you to restart before the install is fully completed but Ken likely didn't wire up the C++ redist installer correctly for that.
 
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bp2008 said:
It honestly shouldn't even require a restart.
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It never has for me. I suspect something is causing the runtime detection to fail on the OP's computer despite it already being installed and in use—and he isn't the only one I've seen report this issue. Due to being already installed and in use, the runtime installer unexpectedly requests a reboot instead of just installing and proceeding as expected.
 
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