@raevengel said:
No, it absolutely isn’t OK. I’ve got this same 500 error multiple times tonight. Only change was upgrading. Previously stable. Really virulent bug. Only way I can get it working again is to close the Plex server and restart. It otherwise appears to be fine when it crashes.
Dude, relax - just roll back to the version linked here. It takes 5 minutes and it doesn’t impact your DB or movies in any way. Things will just be where you last left off. Crashes suck but this isn’t a regular thing.
Yeah people overreacting way too much here.
Maybe true, but they didn’t have to push the release when they did. And if people don’t tell the devs there’s a problem they won’t know.
And for those of us who manage a Plex server and who aren’t devs themselves, it’s a little scary when things start going wrong inexplicably. To say nothing of the completely non-techie family members who use it and have no idea why things are going wrong. From the interface, it wasn’t clear at all what was happening as the server was still showing as running and connected from within the Plex Roku app.
I have the utmost respect for the devs and have defended them strongly when people were getting so terrible about the new Plex interface. I think the world of them. Anyone can have a buggy release or push the wrong one accidentally. It’s fine.
It’s early access beta software. People need to understand the implications of using beta software. It has bugs.
That isn’t how it is presented to us as end user consumers. Yes, you get new features first as PlexPass subscribers before free users but nowhere does this say that as a paid PlexPass member, you are beta testing software. If this is the case, Plex needs to make some major changes in how they present PlexPass. Most people won’t want to essentially pay money to be a beta tester without the option to opt out.
Preview = beta.
No, preview = early look at new features that may be in development. Not full beta.
The difference is (as a developer myself) I expect regression testing and old features to work well. If they are going to push big changes (like the optimizer) I only want advance notice so I can easily have the setup file ready if I find major issues with the preview of the rework.
If this is going to be a real beta build, where even regression bugs are “expected/normal” then that needs to be better communicated, and especially given that it’s on a paid tier they need to create a rollback button so that those who rely on wiki’s and guides to get this setup in the first place can quickly and easily resolve these issues.
Bugs happen, but when core issues like this happen (especially for paid members) they need a better rollback process and communications. I am very frustrated I had to dig into forums to find the issue, as I mistakenly replaced my media drive as Plex has otherwise been a very stable and forthcoming platform (had no other major issues) and the errors made it out to be a failue to access the files (even running plex locally gave the issue).
I really want some of you guys lives… Nothing must go wrong ever.
Never late for anything ever, never lost keys, wallet, credit card, never installed software that causes issues… Life must be good.
I have no idea what is so difficult about add/remove programs and reinstall previous version if something goes wrong . Its basic stuff especially on Windows. Instead people want to delete bundles, mess with the registry and use third party uninstallers. Then having screwed up their Plex install, decide to make a thread on the subject… Carefully ignoring the other 10 threads on the same issue… complete with solution.
The issue was communicated pretty much as soon as it was discovered. It took five minutes to have a fully working Plex again.
@raevengel said:
No, it absolutely isn’t OK. I’ve got this same 500 error multiple times tonight. Only change was upgrading. Previously stable. Really virulent bug. Only way I can get it working again is to close the Plex server and restart. It otherwise appears to be fine when it crashes.
Dude, relax - just roll back to the version linked here. It takes 5 minutes and it doesn’t impact your DB or movies in any way. Things will just be where you last left off. Crashes suck but this isn’t a regular thing.
Yeah people overreacting way too much here.
Maybe true, but they didn’t have to push the release when they did. And if people don’t tell the devs there’s a problem they won’t know.
And for those of us who manage a Plex server and who aren’t devs themselves, it’s a little scary when things start going wrong inexplicably. To say nothing of the completely non-techie family members who use it and have no idea why things are going wrong. From the interface, it wasn’t clear at all what was happening as the server was still showing as running and connected from within the Plex Roku app.
I have the utmost respect for the devs and have defended them strongly when people were getting so terrible about the new Plex interface. I think the world of them. Anyone can have a buggy release or push the wrong one accidentally. It’s fine.
It’s early access beta software. People need to understand the implications of using beta software. It has bugs.
That isn’t how it is presented to us as end user consumers. Yes, you get new features first as PlexPass subscribers before free users but nowhere does this say that as a paid PlexPass member, you are beta testing software. If this is the case, Plex needs to make some major changes in how they present PlexPass. Most people won’t want to essentially pay money to be a beta tester without the option to opt out.
Preview = beta.
No, preview = early look at new features that may be in development. Not full beta.
The difference is (as a developer myself) I expect regression testing and old features to work well. If they are going to push big changes (like the optimizer) I only want advance notice so I can easily have the setup file ready if I find major issues with the preview of the rework.
If this is going to be a real beta build, where even regression bugs are “expected/normal” then that needs to be better communicated, and especially given that it’s on a paid tier they need to create a rollback button so that those who rely on wiki’s and guides to get this setup in the first place can quickly and easily resolve these issues.
Bugs happen, but when core issues like this happen (especially for paid members) they need a better rollback process and communications. I am very frustrated I had to dig into forums to find the issue, as I mistakenly replaced my media drive as Plex has otherwise been a very stable and forthcoming platform (had no other major issues) and the errors made it out to be a failue to access the files (even running plex locally gave the issue).
Thank you, thank you. This is a perfectly articulated description of the paid PlexPass program. We are not paying to be beta testers but to get the latest features immediately. At no time in any literature that I have received has PlexPass been sold as a paid beta. I know issues can and will happen but as so eloquently stated I don’t expect that on long-standing features. I’m not angry, I was initially frustrated. I’m more concerned about the perception many people have of the PlexPass program.
Plex is selling this to folks from multiple backgrounds and for many different platforms. They are expecting near plug and play simplicity based on the description of the Plex Media Server. Otherwise, they’ll consider something like Kodi. I know that’s why I made the choice way back when to go with Plex over the then XBMC. It was worth it to me to pay for the much improved experience with support. I just don’t believe that an Apple TV user ID going to be OK with stuff randomly crashing after paying a couple hundred dollars or whatever the current PP cost is. And, they don’t know what happened. The banner says to update on all web interfaces. So you think it needs to be upgraded. Again, I get it. Stuff happens. But PlexPass is not being marketed as a paid beta. It’s full access to all Plex features as soon as they are available and stable. Just like any other paid premium app. Beta access is a separate entity.
FWIW, I’m truly sorry you had so much work to do because of this bug. There’s no way around that totally sucking.
@davehobson said:
I really want some of you guys lives… Nothing must go wrong ever.
Never late for anything ever, never lost keys, wallet, credit card, never installed software that causes issues… Life must be good.
I have no idea what is so difficult about add/remove programs and reinstall previous version if something goes wrong . Its basic stuff especially on Windows. Instead people want to delete bundles, mess with the registry and use third party uninstallers. Then having screwed up their Plex install, decide to make a thread on the subject… Carefully ignoring the other 10 threads on the same issue… complete with solution.
The issue was communicated pretty much as soon as it was discovered. It took five minutes to have a fully working Plex again.
@davehobson, this post was flat out insulting and infuriating. I can tell you with certainty that you DO NOT want my life. Did you ever stop to think that maybe it’s because so many other things go wrong in our lives that we look for something to just work as expected, some of the time?
So, you want my life? Disabled due to a rare genetic condition at a young age, 47 surgical procedures in the last eight years - and of those, less that you can count on one single hand that went as they were supposed to. I’m all too familiar with things not working. Spouse gave up their career to care for me as I can no longer be on my own due to the severity of my health problems. I don’t want your pity, I don’t want your sympathy. I also don’t want your assumptions about my personal life just because I post my difficulties with a bug on some software. Just because I think that something should generally work as it was presented to me, doesn’t give you the right to assume I’m an spoiled brat with a perfect life. I almost never discuss this online but your post was patronizing and doesn’t even consider that maybe it’s because some of our lives don’t go very well that we look for some things somewhere to go as expected. This is not what I expect in basic interpersonal respect from from someone in the Plex community.
@davehobson said:
The issue was communicated pretty much as soon as it was discovered. It took five minutes to have a fully working Plex again.
This is blatantly false. There was NO communication outside of the forum for a bug that broke core functionality. This is shouldn’t be acceptable for a free application. At least a quick e-mail with instructions on how to roll back is easy and shows they’re aware of the problem. For a paid branch this should be the expected minimum, with detailed rollback instructions (including mentioning that uninstalling won’t delete your data) and possibly an explanation of how it happened being other things I’d see as inclusions. The problem was made worse by no useful error message in the app barring log files, which I’ll admit I failed to check. The errors I got suggested that there was a disk access issue and as such I assumed that was the problem.
This is not a paid beta as many are calling it. Preview is where you do your feature testing with your users. Determine if a given feature is good enough for expansion into the core, or even help drive direction of future features (a la A|B testing or other common SDLC principles). It is not where you push out code you think is good and let users QA it for you, which would be what a beta is.
The suggestion for making rollback easier is because having to rollback is a small feature code wise, and would go far in customer service. AKA it’s a low hanging fruit for these kinds of circumstances.
If this is going to be a paid beta branch they need to update their language, and I’d recommenced not pushing a banner of “LOOK THERE’S A NEW VERSION GO UPDATE” on users.
Actually, preview means basically the same thing as alpha - you get an early look at software that has new features. It’s designed for a small group to test. Beta is a fixed alpha, released to a larger group. A gold or RTM release is made available to the general public (ie, non Plex Pass holders). I think the Plex Pass users are a combination of preview and beta, since there’s no group to receive a beta after the Plex Pass group. It’s not spelled out as alpha/beta, but you can find definitions of those terms online. Upgrades are never pushed as mandatory, especially in the Plex Pass group, unless it’s a security issue of course.
I feel there’s an overwhelming urge to be the first, to upgrade when your system is working perfectly - and that’s not always going to work out. A preview release can have bugs, despite the best intentions of the developers. Bugs happen, and when a bug causes you troubles, you go to the support pages and the forums for assistance. In this case, it wasn’t long before Plex recommended rolling back to 0.9.16.0, and there were a bunch of posts on how to do it and that it wouldn’t impact your database. A fix was released within a couple of days. All in all, I think the solution was pretty quick and the community rallied and helped users out.
Nicely put by kegobeer-plex! I knew what I was getting into because I asked for “previews”. And, I might add, I only have to look at the version number(s) to know what I’m getting - and it’s certainly not Version 1.0 I’ve downloaded.
@raevengel said:
No, it absolutely isn’t OK. I’ve got this same 500 error multiple times tonight. Only change was upgrading. Previously stable. Really virulent bug. Only way I can get it working again is to close the Plex server and restart. It otherwise appears to be fine when it crashes.
Dude, relax - just roll back to the version linked here. It takes 5 minutes and it doesn’t impact your DB or movies in any way. Things will just be where you last left off. Crashes suck but this isn’t a regular thing.
Yeah people overreacting way too much here.
Maybe true, but they didn’t have to push the release when they did. And if people don’t tell the devs there’s a problem they won’t know.
And for those of us who manage a Plex server and who aren’t devs themselves, it’s a little scary when things start going wrong inexplicably. To say nothing of the completely non-techie family members who use it and have no idea why things are going wrong. From the interface, it wasn’t clear at all what was happening as the server was still showing as running and connected from within the Plex Roku app.
I have the utmost respect for the devs and have defended them strongly when people were getting so terrible about the new Plex interface. I think the world of them. Anyone can have a buggy release or push the wrong one accidentally. It’s fine.
It’s early access beta software. People need to understand the implications of using beta software. It has bugs.
That isn’t how it is presented to us as end user consumers. Yes, you get new features first as PlexPass subscribers before free users but nowhere does this say that as a paid PlexPass member, you are beta testing software. If this is the case, Plex needs to make some major changes in how they present PlexPass. Most people won’t want to essentially pay money to be a beta tester without the option to opt out.
Preview = beta.
No, preview = early look at new features that may be in development. Not full beta.
The difference is (as a developer myself) I expect regression testing and old features to work well. If they are going to push big changes (like the optimizer) I only want advance notice so I can easily have the setup file ready if I find major issues with the preview of the rework.
If this is going to be a real beta build, where even regression bugs are “expected/normal” then that needs to be better communicated, and especially given that it’s on a paid tier they need to create a rollback button so that those who rely on wiki’s and guides to get this setup in the first place can quickly and easily resolve these issues.
Bugs happen, but when core issues like this happen (especially for paid members) they need a better rollback process and communications. I am very frustrated I had to dig into forums to find the issue, as I mistakenly replaced my media drive as Plex has otherwise been a very stable and forthcoming platform (had no other major issues) and the errors made it out to be a failue to access the files (even running plex locally gave the issue).
The first place you should’ve looked is the forums which is what I did. I lost maybe 5 minutes of my time. Sometimes the answer is in the most obviously place instead of having to find the root cause on your system.
@raevengel said:
No, it absolutely isn’t OK. I’ve got this same 500 error multiple times tonight. Only change was upgrading. Previously stable. Really virulent bug. Only way I can get it working again is to close the Plex server and restart. It otherwise appears to be fine when it crashes.
Dude, relax - just roll back to the version linked here. It takes 5 minutes and it doesn’t impact your DB or movies in any way. Things will just be where you last left off. Crashes suck but this isn’t a regular thing.
Yeah people overreacting way too much here.
Maybe true, but they didn’t have to push the release when they did. And if people don’t tell the devs there’s a problem they won’t know.
And for those of us who manage a Plex server and who aren’t devs themselves, it’s a little scary when things start going wrong inexplicably. To say nothing of the completely non-techie family members who use it and have no idea why things are going wrong. From the interface, it wasn’t clear at all what was happening as the server was still showing as running and connected from within the Plex Roku app.
I have the utmost respect for the devs and have defended them strongly when people were getting so terrible about the new Plex interface. I think the world of them. Anyone can have a buggy release or push the wrong one accidentally. It’s fine.
It’s early access beta software. People need to understand the implications of using beta software. It has bugs.
That isn’t how it is presented to us as end user consumers. Yes, you get new features first as PlexPass subscribers before free users but nowhere does this say that as a paid PlexPass member, you are beta testing software. If this is the case, Plex needs to make some major changes in how they present PlexPass. Most people won’t want to essentially pay money to be a beta tester without the option to opt out.
Preview = beta.
No, preview = early look at new features that may be in development. Not full beta.
The difference is (as a developer myself) I expect regression testing and old features to work well. If they are going to push big changes (like the optimizer) I only want advance notice so I can easily have the setup file ready if I find major issues with the preview of the rework.
If this is going to be a real beta build, where even regression bugs are “expected/normal” then that needs to be better communicated, and especially given that it’s on a paid tier they need to create a rollback button so that those who rely on wiki’s and guides to get this setup in the first place can quickly and easily resolve these issues.
Bugs happen, but when core issues like this happen (especially for paid members) they need a better rollback process and communications. I am very frustrated I had to dig into forums to find the issue, as I mistakenly replaced my media drive as Plex has otherwise been a very stable and forthcoming platform (had no other major issues) and the errors made it out to be a failue to access the files (even running plex locally gave the issue).
The first place you should’ve looked is the forums which is what I did. I lost maybe 5 minutes of my time. Sometimes the answer is in the most obviously place instead of having to find the root cause on your system.
Except there was nothing in the error messages to suggest anything wrong with Plex. Again, I blame myself for not doing more looking into my drive, I don’t blame Plex. That said they have 2 routes of direct communication with their users (announcements in the app and e-mail) and another route for communications about releases in this forum. The idea that a user experiencing a known major issue has to go to the general discussion or even the bug section of a forum to know that the latest build broke the core functionality is not acceptable customer service IMO.
Preview is NOT beta. We already have the term alphas (for early versions of features that are in development), beta (for mostly fleshed out features to fully fleshed out features that you want to smoke test). There is no reason to use another term if that’s what they’re wanting from the Plexpass subscriber channel. Preview is very often used in development to talk about a build that has passed smoke testing but the team is still finalizing design or for things like user acceptance testing to make sure that the feature works the way users expect and make necessary iterations to fix any issues found there. I’ve never considered the plexpass build to be a beta, not the least of which reasons being how very stable the build usually is. If the expectation is that it is nothing but a closed beta program with paid access… they should add a revert to stable button ASAP.
@raevengel said: @mjovanovic, "… Yes, I know, easily remedied (once you know how,
which I didn’t fully at the time) but what I was responding to was the
person who said it was “OK” for them. Several people, including myself, had
many issues with the server just stopping (and extremely frustrated family
members befuddled as to whey the TV didn’t work for evening watch time).
It might have been people that were running Mac and Linux versions that said it was ok (I hope it was, I can’t stand when there is a wide problem and people just report that everything is fine - if I want that I’ll go the the Steam forums where you see a thousand posts that a game throws a specific error and you get 3 guys that insist it’s all fine).
I do think that Plex admins should have pinged out something to our plex clients about rolling back. Plex has run problem free for years on my system and it was so unusual to see it crash that I came to the forums because I remember something about a crash heap issue years back and thought I’d research that and then saw that more people were having issues.
It sucks, but now I’ll wait a few days and check the forums first instead of just impulsively updating but knowing that I can just roll back without worrying about losing my DB makes it simple. Like others said though - it’s kind of hard to look at that orange reminder and not upgrade. It would be nice to have more options other than “public” and “plex pass”, maybe “public”, “plex pass stable” and “latest plex pass” would be nice.
I just want to know if anyone can confirm that this problem has been 100% fixed in the latest release. Due to the severity of the bug, I feel I need to double check …
For some reason my quote button is not working for me today so manually quoting:
“Uninstalling Plex doesn’t delete your metadata or your settings, so you shouldn’t really refrain from doing it if you want to be able to use Plex before a bug fix is released.”
Uninstalling and re-installing to version 0.9.16.0 caused the following issues for myself:
Broke the camera synch for my Windows tablet AND phone, they no longer update so as in the past the only resolution as been to start the process over again with a new media folder.
Broke over 1K worth of movies metadata information. Yes they are named correctly, and to fix them all I have to do is to go into each one and select match and it finds it with no problem as the first or only entry. And that is what I was looking forward to doing these past couple of weeks finding and clicking all these movies to get their metadata back. (about 6 times each movie so essentially 6,000 plus times). :-/
So some metadata was lost in this process! Afterwards I was wondering if it was due to the fact that I had changed my the root lookup to freebase (which was changed back to the default in this process) but I had already started in my many clicks on the kids movies so they could know what they were watching.
@tggman said:
I just want to know if anyone can confirm that this problem has been 100% fixed in the latest release. Due to the severity of the bug, I feel I need to double check …
@tggman said:
I just want to know if anyone can confirm that this problem has been 100% fixed in the latest release. Due to the severity of the bug, I feel I need to double check …
