Plex w/ TVDB / TMDB Issues

Dev Community Dev/API Corner
1

Hi Guys,

 

I've been using Plex for years, and the media scanng/scraping and metadata downloading have worked great over this time-frame, but it seems that in the last 2 weeks or so, ability for Plex to properly scan files have gone a bit wonky.

 

Movies: Generally, it'll find the movies and match them (using Freebase as default), but it will be missing art for posters and backgrounds. If I manually un-match and match it manually, it may get the poster sometimes. If I still don't get the poster, I then resort to clicking "Refresh" on said movie a few times, and after 5-6 tries it successfully downloads the posters. Even when this happens, I can generally use only the first poster in the poster picker. If I choose any other poster, the end result is that I end up losing all the posters and have un-match and re-match again.

 

TV: TVDB does not work regardless if it is manually matching, or set up to do so through a scan. TMDB will, but in a full library refresh, only 50% come down successfully with episode data and show art. The rest are missing show art, but episode data does get downloaded for all shows it seems.

 

What I've done so far:

 

After trying a few tweaks with the actual agents and read/write permissions in my media folders as per some threads, I opted to start over and created a brand new Plex server:

- Windows Server 2012 R2

- Firewall off

- no A/V or any type of security software

- Plex v0.9.11.7, Web v2.3.14

- All agents on default (Freebase for movies, TVDB for TV shows)

 

So with the brand new server, I get the exact same symptoms as with my older server. Obviously, this is a very coarse methodology, so I can't make any solid conclusions about anything, but did something change with how the agents work or did TMDB/TVDB make some change on their side that broke the agents? Is this just happening to me?

 

Anyhow, I would love to get this thing back to working, or even a clue would be great! 

 

Any assistance would be fantastic!

 

Flo

2

I'm having the same issues, looking at the logs for tvdb, i see this

2015-02-03 09:21:14,038 (24a0) :  DEBUG (networking:172) - Requesting 'http://thetvdb.plexapp.com/api/D4DDDAEFAD083E6F/series/75166/all/en.zip'
2015-02-03 09:21:14,072 (24a0) :  CRITICAL (core:572) - Exception in the update function of agent named 'TheTVDB', called with guid 'com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://75166/16/17?lang=en' (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\NetAdmin\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\Framework.bundle\Contents\Resources\Versions\2\Python\Framework\api\agentkit.py", line 981, in _update
    agent.update(obj, media, lang)
  File "C:\Users\NetAdmin\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\TheTVDB.bundle\Contents\Code\__init__.py", line 534, in update
    zip_data = GetResultFromNetwork(zip_url)
  File "C:\Users\NetAdmin\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\TheTVDB.bundle\Contents\Code\__init__.py", line 78, in GetResultFromNetwork
    result = result.content
  File "C:\Users\NetAdmin\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\Framework.bundle\Contents\Resources\Versions\2\Python\Framework\components etworking.py", line 269, in content
    return self.__str__()
  File "C:\Users\NetAdmin\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\Framework.bundle\Contents\Resources\Versions\2\Python\Framework\components etworking.py", line 247, in __str__
    self.load()
  File "C:\Users\NetAdmin\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-ins\Framework.bundle\Contents\Resources\Versions\2\Python\Framework\components etworking.py", line 187, in load
    f = self._opener.open(req, timeout=self._timeout)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\urllib2.py", line 404, in open
    response = self._open(req, data)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\urllib2.py", line 422, in _open
    '_open', req)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\urllib2.py", line 382, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\urllib2.py", line 1214, in http_open
    return self.do_open(httplib.HTTPConnection, req)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\urllib2.py", line 1187, in do_open
    r = h.getresponse(buffering=True)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\httplib.py", line 1045, in getresponse
    response.begin()
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\httplib.py", line 409, in begin
    version, status, reason = self._read_status()
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\httplib.py", line 365, in _read_status
    line = self.fp.readline(_MAXLINE + 1)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\python27.zip\socket.py", line 476, in readline
    data = self._sock.recv(self._rbufsize)
error: [Errno 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host
3

Whew, I thought it was just me! So what does the log actually mean? Is it our IP is being kicked, or is it Plex's API to TVDB?

4

Okay, after some trial, error, and experimentation, I think I found the answer to what we're experiencing, but I'm not sure how to fix it. Basically, the long and the short of it is that we're (at least I am) most likely blocked by a spam or DOS attack defense service. I came to this conclusion by setting up a VPN connection from my Plex server to my office and directing all traffic through the VPN. I then proceeded to do a complete refresh of all my TV shows and movies. Every single one came down without a hitch. The only thing that changed was my IP address.

I then did a quick lookup, my IP did turn up on the PBL list at spamhaus. In the description though, it says that this isn't really a spam list, but a list of IPs that are dynamic, that shouldn't be sending email. I'm not sure if this is the actual cause, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was indeed the case; especially as Spamhaus.org actually offers a list called "Zen", which combines all their lists together as one big one for clients. It may be that theTVDB is using their services.

Anyhow, the site says that I shouldn't remove myself if I am not running a mail server, so I'm not sure what to do at this point, nor am I sure this is actually the issue. I am quite certain that the problem is based on at least individual IP address (if not, ranges of IP). I will check later when I go home and get a new IP dynamic IP address.

Flo

5

Nothing new to add, but I've been experiencing the same issue with metadata scraping...added myself as a watcher to this thread :)

6

I finally solved it with the help of another forum member. I hope you guys find the solution as helpful as I did!

I’ve been having the same problem recently, it was driving me nuts! I think it is due to ECN (with CloudFlare and/or your ISP); run this command in Windows and reboot your box:


netsh int tcp set global ecncapability=disabled


This solved my problem.


Here is the thread where I got this information: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29818153-qThis-page-can146-t-be-displayedq-in-Windows-2012-Server-with-rCable

7

Wow...brilliant find!

Worked like a charm here!!  And here I had thought a metadata agent (or two) had broken...good to know!

8

I think I am having the same problem but my plex is on FreeBSD.  Does anyone know the equivalent command for Unix?  I did a google search but didn't find anything.  I must be using the wrong search terms. 

9

Hey Eric_B,

I'll be the first one to tell you my *NIX skills are shaky at best **grin**  But I did find something that MAY assist?

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1313193&page=2

Thread discusses netsh command equivalents in Ubuntu...doesn't read like there IS an exact equivalent though...

My Google results about what the ecncapability setting is / does seem to imply it is specific to Windows environ...so it shouldn't be set for you, unless you have a Windows machine in your home where it has been?  Again, I apologize for speaking like I know this stuff, but one of the windows server sites I found (closed before capturing source :() said that ecncapability may impact some routers on network where a Windows machine has had the netsh command ran...

So if you are running Windows desktops, but have Plex server on a freeBSD machine...it MAY be possible that the command from your Windows machine has altered the way your router works...

Again, I am NOT a networking expert...so your mileage may vary...

10

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