Server Version#: 1.23.5.4841 (server version doesn’t appear to matter, as I have a server I haven’t updated in over a year and a server I keep up to date, and the issue appears when playing content from both; seems related to the Android Player version)
Player Version#: Every version for the past few months. Like, I have literally tried every version, including sideloading all the test releases.
Have been having this issue religiously for the past 2-3 months: An error occurred while attempting to play this video. Please check your connection and try again.
I use a Fire TV Cube (2nd gen) and a Google Chromecast. The issue manifests in different ways on both. The Chromecast issue is fairly well covered in this post by another user: Plex restarts new Google TV Chromecast - #87 by Mr_Gareth
But, as that post is focused on how the Chromecast crashes, let me just summarize that Chromecast issue relating to this error message in saying the vast majority of the time when the Plex player on Chromecast attempts to play the next file in a playlist, it generates that error message (and crashes if pressing next item manually). You can clear the error message and just manually click on the next item, and then it’ll play, though obviously annoying and broken. It’s a little different on my Fire TV, which is where I’d like to focus this post on, since the Chromecast issue has a lot of people posting in it already.
On my Fire TV Cube, like clockwork, after I start the Plex app, the first item I try to play will result in the message: An error occurred while attempting to play this video. Please check your connection and try again.
Pressing back and trying to play the item and any subsequent item works fine, to the point I have now developed a pavlovian reflex of just selecting an item (I’d actually sort of already developed this reflex; more on that in a moment), pressing play, and immediately pressing back then selecting what I actually want to watch when starting Plex on the Fire TV Cube.
One thing to note is after pressing back after that first attempt to play an item, that first subsequent attempt will bring a popup message about attempting to talk to the server for a second or two, before working, then every subsequent attempt works fine, nor is there ever any message about attempting to talk to the server again. The first attempt that fails, never shows that message.
This issue’s timeframe also corresponds to the Unable to Navigate issue (which I also suffer from religiously) filled with posts here: "unable to navigate, item not found" pop-up as in it appeared at the exact same time for me. It’s also around the time the plex player started allowing you to sign in via Amazon on my Fire TV Cube, if it helps anyone figure out what version this all started occurring on.
Lastly, having to get past that first attempt at playback to actually successfully play anything back started occurring after months of the first item I’d try to play after opening the Plex app on my Fire TV Cube WOULD play, but you could not bring up any media controls, and would have to back out of playback and play again, after which media controls would become visible for it and any other subsequent playback of media. Interestingly, this issue doesn’t actually appear to have been fixed, as I very rarely do have my first attempt at playback work, but when it does, it continues to exhibit this older issue of there being no media controls (so can’t pull up the seekbar to move within the media file, can’t pause, can’t skip to next, etc).
Anyway, I’ve become well versed in just auto backing out of my first play attempt due to these two back-to-back issues spanning the past many months, but it seems an absurd workaround.
Lastly, if anyone knows what older version of the Android TV player actually worked without any of the current widespread issues (especially the unable to navigate one), or just knows what version we were at say…6-8 months ago, and where I’d be able to download it for sideloading, I’d appreciate it.
Thanks.
