Can't download Easy Audio Encoder on PMS 1.25.8.5663 on PI

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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1

Server Version#:1.25.8.5663
Player Version#:Web Chrome

When trying to play an x.265 file that has EAC3 audio, plex media server tries to transcode the file, it downloads the HEVC codec with no problem, but when it tries to download the easy audio encoder it can’t find it, the URL where it grabs de XML to download (https://plex.tv/api/codecs/easyaudioencoder?build=linux-armv7neon-standard&deviceId=8027556e-1839-4b8a-a2cb-4657c5094532&oldestPreviousVersion=1.25.8.5663-e071c3d62&version=1764) only gives an XML with this information: , can anyone tell me how i can get the encoder so the transcode process would work?

2

Would you provide the Plex server logs ZIP file please so we can see the actual error?

As users, we cannot manually download codecs (licensing restrictions).

PMS must perform the download using the server’s license key (built in)

3

I have the exact same issue. Never had any issues with Plex, up until today. For me it is this URL; https://plex.tv/api/codecs/easyaudioencoder?build=linux-aarch64-standard&deviceId=b883a91e-1289-4596-9c09-c522f22d0d77&oldestPreviousVersion=legacy&version=1764

Log data;
Mar 25, 2022 21:41:26.862 [0x7f9b71aaa8] DEBUG - [Transcode/80f250bc5b850716-com-plexapp-android] Starting a transcode session 80f250bc5b850716-com-plexapp-android at offset -1.0 (state=3)
Mar 25, 2022 21:41:26.874 [0x7f9b71aaa8] INFO - [Transcode/80f250bc5b850716-com-plexapp-android] CodecManager: obtaining EAE
Mar 25, 2022 21:41:26.875 [0x7f9b71aaa8] DEBUG - [Transcode/80f250bc5b850716-com-plexapp-android] HTTP requesting GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/easyaudioencoder?build=linux-aarch64-standard&deviceId=b883a91e-1289-4596-9c09-c522f22d0d77&oldestPreviousVersion=legacy&version=1764
Mar 25, 2022 21:41:26.958 [0x7f9c180aa8] DEBUG - [HttpClient] HTTP/2.0 (0.1s) 200 response from GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/easyaudioencoder?build=linux-aarch64-standard&deviceId=b883a91e-1289-4596-9c09-c522f22d0d77&oldestPreviousVersion=legacy&version=1764 (reused)
Mar 25, 2022 21:41:26.962 [0x7f9b71aaa8] ERROR - [Transcode/80f250bc5b850716-com-plexapp-android] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec ‘easyaudioencoder’
Mar 25, 2022 21:41:26.965 [0x7f9b71aaa8] ERROR - [Transcode/80f250bc5b850716-com-plexapp-android] Error configuring transcoder: Decoder install failed: eac3_eae
Mar 25, 2022 21:41:26.970 [0x7f9b71aaa8] DEBUG - [Transcode/80f250bc5b850716-com-plexapp-android] Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0x7f9b88c808:80f250bc5b850716-com-plexapp-android with reason Conversion failed. A required codec could not be found or failed to install.

Normally - (verified this by replacing the version with 1600) - this XML file, contains the download URL. This is not the case for this version. My hypothesis is, is that because of that lack of a downloadlink - Plex is unable to get the easyaudioencoder version it wants and just fails. But frankly, I don’t know for sure.

This is not something I think I can fix, it’s related to the API of Plex directly. Here are my logs, please advice on how to proceed.
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-03-25_21-49-04.zip (728.1 KB)

(This impact of this is major, all EAC3 content is now unable to play, which is a lot)

4

Just fyi; there is a ratelimit on the URL. When it’s requested too much, Plex thinks it’s being misused by multiple devices. The error you’ll get is 429 Limit of devices using codec exceeded. You can bypass this (to see what you’d normally get as a response) by replacing a character in the deviceId in the URL.

You’ll see this in my logs as well, because I keep trying to retry to play the video (too much).

5

@s_padfoot_gmail_com

Make sure PMS can write to all of its metadata directories – especially Codecs.

6

This is not a permission issue. At least not for me… and I’m pretty sure I’m having the same problem as @s_padfoot_gmail_com

7

I’m just doing due diligence.
I have also asked the build team to let me know everything made it out (got pushed to the downloads servers)

1 Like
8

Do you have an update on this? Has the issue been identified and is a fix being developed? Or is the issue still being identified?

1 Like
10

Note to others affected, my PMS is a dockerized setup. Using pms-docker, I host my plex server. A hotfix that worked for me, is to downgrade the Plex server version. I’m running the latest 1.25.8.5663-e071c3d62 version, which is causing these issues. When downgrading to 1.25.7.5604-980a13e02 my issues are gone.

How to;

This is only a temporary hacky solution, Plex should fix this.

Now I’m going to watch my dear series :grinning:.

1 Like
12

I’m experiencing the same issue running PMS 1.25.8.5663 on a Raspberry Pi4. It is installed natively (i.e. not using Docker). Only since the update this week, have I been getting the error on various devices relating to codec errors. Episodes of TV shows we watched last week now fail to play using a FireStick or Chromecast.

Looking into the debug logs, I can see the following:

Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.429 [0xb104dd48] Debug — [Transcode] We're going to try to auto-select an audio stream for account 1.
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.429 [0xb104dd48] Debug — [Transcode] Selecting best audio stream for part ID 157162 (autoselect: 0 language: en)
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.430 [0xb104dd48] Debug — [Transcode] Audio Stream: 337154, Subtitle Stream: -1
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.437 [0xb104dd48] Debug — [Transcode] Found session GUID of x4prbgtpqiaq40vqwey558sf in session start.
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.437 [0xb104dd48] Debug — [Transcode] Cleaning directory for session x4prbgtpqiaq40vqwey558sf ()
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.437 [0xb104dd48] Debug — [Transcode] Starting a transcode session x4prbgtpqiaq40vqwey558sf at offset -1.0 (state=3)
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.439 [0xb104dd48] Info — [Transcode] CodecManager: obtaining EAE
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.439 [0xb104dd48] Debug — [Transcode] HTTP requesting GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/easyaudioencoder?build=linux-armv7neon-standard&deviceId=7f1307bf-60d7-44fe-aa09-e7e918cc8ff0&oldestPreviousVersion=1%2E19%2E5%2E3112-b23ab3896&version=1764
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.517 [0xb1921d48] Debug — [HttpClient] HTTP/2.0 (0.1s) 200 response from GET https://plex.tv/api/codecs/easyaudioencoder?build=linux-armv7neon-standard&deviceId=7f1307bf-60d7-44fe-aa09-e7e918cc8ff0&oldestPreviousVersion=1%2E19%2E5%2E3112-b23ab3896&version=1764 (reused)
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.518 [0xb104dd48] Error — [Transcode] Codecs: Failed to download XML for codec 'easyaudioencoder'
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.518 [0xb104dd48] Error — [Transcode] Error configuring transcoder: Decoder install failed: eac3_eae
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.518 [0xb104dd48] Debug — [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Terminating session 0xb0ac6110:3df8z5hnu782420a3odmzvcd which is using 8929kbps of WAN bandwidth.  Used is now 0kbps
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.518 [0xb104dd48] Debug — [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0xb0ac6110:3df8z5hnu782420a3odmzvcd with reason Conversion failed. A required codec could not be found or failed to install.
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.518 [0xb15bfd48] Debug — [Transcode] Killing job.
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.518 [0xb15bfd48] Debug — [Transcode] Job was already killed, not killing again.
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.518 [0xb15bfd48] Debug — [Transcode] Stopping transcode session x4prbgtpqiaq40vqwey558sf
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.519 [0xb1579d48] Debug — [Transcode] Cleaning directory for session x4prbgtpqiaq40vqwey558sf (/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/Transcode/Sessions/plex-transcode-x4prbgtpqiaq40vqwey558sf-d490c44f-9cbd-4b55-9620-54deb878093d)
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.520 [0xb15bfd48] Debug — [Transcode] Transcoder: Cleaning old transcode directories.
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.520 [0xb197bd48] Debug — Completed: [5.101.169.146:65059] 404 GET /video/:/transcode/universal/start.mpd?hasMDE=1&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F78292&mediaIndex=0&partIndex=0&protocol=dash&fastSeek=1&directPlay=0&directStream=1&subtitleSize=100&audioBoost=100&location=wan&addDebugOverlay=0&autoAdjustQuality=0&directStreamAudio=1&mediaBufferSize=102400&session=x4prbgtpqiaq40vqwey558sf&subtitles=burn&Accept-Language=en-GB (13 live) TLS GZIP 124ms 510 bytes (pipelined: 10)
Mar 27, 2022 22:20:41.521 [0xb15bfd48] Debug — [Transcode] Whacked session x4prbgtpqiaq40vqwey558sf, 0 remaining.

I’ve checked the /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Codecs directory - all are 777 and owned by plex user and group. In that directory, I do have 2 instances of EasyAudioEncoder. However trying to clear these (by renaming the “Codecs” directory and restarting PMS) does not resolve the issue after Plex tries to re-download them.

drwxr-xr-x  3 plex plex 4096 Mar 18 10:21 EasyAudioEncoder-1757-linux-armv7neon
drwxr-xr-x  3 plex plex 4096 Nov 27  2020 EasyAudioEncoder-798-linux-armv7hf_neon

Sorry to tag on an existing thread, but thought it might help give some weight to resolving the problem if we could combine multiple instances of the problem - am happy to help debug or find further information if any more is needed.

13

I’m also getting the same error and it’s frustrating. When will it be updated?

14

:crossed_fingers:

the build team will resolve it on Monday (28-Mar-2022)

3 Likes
15

Question from the build team –

Who’s using a VPN and getting these errors?

Asking because this URL, which was reported failing for a few users, works for the build team as well as myself.

https://plex.tv/api/codecs/easyaudioencoder?build=linux-aarch64-standard&deviceId=b883a91e-1289-4596-9c09-c522f22d0d77&oldestPreviousVersion=legacy&version=1764

16

I don’t use a VPN and don’t have any kind of other proxy active. Maybe geolocation has an impact (CDN)? My location is in the Netherlands (Europe).

17

Perhaps the problem is understood wrong, the URL works fine. The issue (I think) is that there is no download link in the response. See my details in other comments as well.

18

Please look at the PMS log.

At that URL, you will get XML.

XML is what PMS is expecting – as in:

<MediaContainer friendlyName="myPlex" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.myplex" title="Codec Downloads" codec="easyaudioencoder" version="1764" size="0"> </MediaContainer>
19

That’s correct. There is however, no download link. Try the same URL - but with version 1600. You will see the difference.

https://plex.tv/api/codecs/easyaudioencoder?build=linux-aarch64-standard&deviceId=b883a91e-1289-4596-9c09-c522f22d0d77&oldestPreviousVersion=legacy&version=1600

20

@mjvog

Version 1600? That’s too old.
Which version of PMS are you attempting to download codecs for ???

I get:

<MediaContainer friendlyName="myPlex" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.myplex" title="Codec Downloads" codec="easyaudioencoder" version="1600" size="1">
<Codec url="https://downloads.plex.tv/codecs/1600/linux-aarch64-standard/EasyAudioEncoder-linux-aarch64-standard.zip" fileSha="8cda0267e6be527928ac463865fe3cf41114813b" fileSha256="15a4026bf917db18566741b47982e5b99b64b2d6267d050a35ab205d9f9d3b7e" fileName="EasyAudioEncoder-linux-aarch64-standard.zip" build="linux-aarch64-standard" license="lifetime 2c133ab950a0217452626db417f282cf436a74afdf9eee586fbb17e446ed d22c4475a6c9351fa7373632ac0e6175a8758aa795ec6d213d01837b63aeffb9"/>
</MediaContainer>
21

Please re-read all my comments. You’re not getting my point or understanding the issue. You can see my PMS version in the logs and I also stated it in my hotfix, but that has nothing to do with why I send the reply relating to version 1600.

The point is; 1600 has a download link - 1764 (the version the new PMS update wants) does not. Result; failed codec retrievals.

23

Thanks. Having “one of those mornings” :frowning:

:man_facepalming:

I see it now.

Give me a minute please