The Alexa skill for Plex will not play more than one song in an album on a stereo pair. Looking at other threads, this problem has occurred before and was related to the version of the Plex Media Server.
I’m sorry I don’t know how to properly tag this post, but I would really like to see this skill fixed as soon as possible so that I can finally enjoy my stereo pair (two Echo Studios and one Subwoofer) with Plex again.
Thank you for your help.
Just adding an observation. My FireTV has zero issues playing song after song from my Plex system. I bring this up cause it is a stereo playback device.
However, the FireTV isn’t multiple devices “cooperatively emulating” a single playback device. I suspect that very specific “emulation” niche is where the issue is rooted . Call it a gut feeling!
1 Like
Sounds like you’re probably right, but I wonder how we appeal to them to fix the problem. I read earlier posts that indicated that going to a much older version of the Plex server software was able fix the problem when it happened before. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t any way to reopen the previous thread. I believe they concluded that the problem was on Amazon’s side, but it would be good if an effort was made to work around it. I’ll probably give trying an earlier server version a shot later today, and see how that works.
One of the normal resources we rely upon is missing here: logs. Sure you can snatch up the Plex logs but what is really needed is the logs for the Amazon devices… and to my knowledge that’s not an option unless…
Unless: you tcpdump the data coming into and out of the devices in play. I don’t think it is encrypted (could be wrong here). This would be very tedious. Of special consideration is to be sure to get all to the relevant packets including broadcast and UDP packets.
For giggles, I am going to pair two of my 2nd generation (1st gen doesn’t possess pairing ability) Echoes and see if the issue is common to pairing or to just Studios.
1 Like
Much appreciated!
Just curious is if you had any success, or if your stereo pairs are doing the same thing as mine. It isn’t clear if we should be trying to get Plex to fix this, or Amazon.
Was waiting for (arrived today) a power strip from Amazon as my “experiment area” didn’t have enough space to plug in two “wall warts” at the same time.
The two units I’ve picked for the experiment (both 2nd gen Echoes) won’t allow me to pair them till they upgrade their firmware. They’re on 592452720 and need to move to the latest (669702920). I don’t know of a way to force them to jump, rather I understand they’ll notice they need to update themselves and do so automatically.
I’ll check them after an hour and see if they’ve updated.
Ok, I paired the two 2nd Gen Echoes and asked Plex to play an album. Zero issues progressing from the first song into the second. I stopped my test two minutes into the second song.
Given this news, I think I’d go scorched earth. Scrub every device of Plex configuration. Dis-associate the stereo pairing (plus drop subwoofer). Power cycle everything. Repairing the two Studios (omitting on purpose the subwoofer) and/configure Plex skill and try again. If it works, add subwoofer, test again… (I’m running out of ideas!)
Thank you so much for your help - I’m still unable to get it to work, but it means a lot that someone else took a look at this. I unpaired the two Echo Studios and Echo Sub and then tried your suggestion of rebuilding the pair without the sub. All devices were powered down and back up again to ensure reset. Still having the same frustrating problem. It got through the first song and about 15 seconds into the second after an initial false start on the first song. It looks like the problem might be isolated to the Echo Studios. Incidentally, the Plex skill seems to work fine with just a single Echo Studio. I’ll try contacting Amazon support later, but I don’t expect them to help much. Thank you again - and if you have any other ideas, I’ll try them.
The more I interact with Plex on Alexa the more frustrated I become. My paired 2nd generation Echoes I used for a proof of concept on this thread went from behaving as expected to refusing any, and all, Plex interactions.
I had to delete the Plex skill, power cycle the devices, power cycle the Plex Media Server, re-enable the Plex skill before I could get things working again. And even after that, the pair only worked for several commands before acting up again. It is currently broken and I expect it will stay that way till I scorch earth the install again!
To me, the Plex app on Alexa has all the earmarks of overwriting its own configuration combined with usage of thread unsafe code. It so difficult to make an accurate call when you can not see Alexa’s side of the logs.
Anyone know if there is a public code repository (ala Git) that I can pull the Alexa application code and start going through it with a fine tooth comb? I imagine the learning curve for creating and deploying an Alexa application is fairly extensive.
That makes two of us. I’ve been seriously considering using an Arylic setup to stream our Plex collection. My goal the Echo Studios and Sub was to try to avoid video screens in one room of our home. I appreciate you taking the time to check into this.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
