I found around the time the ExoPlayer V2 update for Plex for Android was pushed to my Xiaomi Mi6 (around late February?), I started to notice an unusual issue where no matter what I’m watching, if any kind of transcoding has to be performed on the server to the app or any streaming client like a smart TV, the video playback will randomly skip forward 5-30 seconds which means you will often miss large chunks of the show, movie or home video you’ve recorded.
I played around with the settings until I discovered that if you perform direct play from the server, the issue goes away. I posted an app review on the 20/03/2018 and was asked to mark this down in the forums in a quick reply from the Plex devs themselves, but I unfortunately did not have a lot of time until now (off work after sustaining injuries! :s).
These forum threads seem to match up similarly to mine:
I will gladly provide whatever log files you need, just give me the word and tell me what you need, I’m off work this week and ready to help
Current Plex App version: 6.15.2.4143 (Xiaomi Mi6 Android phone)
Current Plex Server Version: 1.12.2.4929 (Windows Server 2016)
UPDATE 02/07/2018: To rule out any potential unsupported OS issues, last night I wiped my OS disk for the Media Server and started from scratch on Windows 10 Pro instead of Windows Server 2016. It is still the same after a clean install and adding the libraries manually once more. Transcoding is totally broken for me.
I can confirm this is happening for me as well. Exact same situation. At first I thought it was my media server hardware so I spun up a 2nd PMS instance on my brand new i7 desktop and same thing. Direct play, no issues. Only when transcoding. Started about 1 month ago.
I found a Plex for Android APK for version 6.12.0.3239 which resolves the issue for me. It appears to be client related. My iOS devices have never had an issue. Anything that isn’t transcoded also plays fine. Plex, this seems pretty easy to uncover. I’d like to be able to run the most up to date version of your software but can’t.
IBM Carbon X1 with an i7 Intel with 8GB of RAM. No issues when I transcode using the old Plex client on Android. My wife has an iPhone also no issues transcoding.
Same issues here, would be nice to hear from the staff on this one since it doesn’t exactly seem isolated based on the handful of threads around. I’m on a Pixel XL. Home server is an i5 rig with 16 gigs of ram, 15tb storage, etc. Happens regardless of wifi or LTE. Does not happen using remote Roku’s, Shields, etc at family members homes. Skipping has been happening for quite a few months. Also, the 10 seconds back button doesn’t usually go 10 seconds back for me, maybe 5 based on the scrubber.
I too receive this issue, but I get the skipping on the Xbox app. I had to disable direct stream because of audio issues, but movies will randomly skip forward, sometimes a few seconds, or in the case of Mockingjay Pt.1 I watched last night, skipped forward about 30% into the movie, skipping a number of scenes.
Same issue, latest Plex update (July 12,2018)on a Windows 10 PC. My Android client on the Galaxy Note 8 is skipping forward during movie playback. Very disruptive. Never had a problem with it before, been running this server for over six years. Definitely a new software issue.
Also seeing the same issue on a note 8. Annoying af. Disappointing to not see any response from staff despite how widespread this issue appears to be and how long it’s been around…
I can confirm that this is happening as well on all of my Android devices when transcoding video. It does not happen when the content is synced, it also does not occur on any other platforms other than the Android player.
