Server Version#: 1.30.0.6442
Around November 24, 2022 commercial skipping quit working on Plex. I don’t think it has anything to do with a client as the “Skip” button doesn’t show up on any device. I noticed in my Windows Reliability Report that “Plex Commercial Skipper.exe” started crashing repeatedly starting November 24th. How can I figure out what’s gone wrong? I have attached my server logs.
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-12-06_13-14-27.zip (4.1 MB)
We are aware of this issue. A fix should be coming out soon. Please note that this issue is for the 32-bit version of PMS for Windows. You can install the 64-bit version, which does not have this issue.
I was unaware there were two versions of PMS. How do I tell which one I have? Where do I find the 64 bit version and can I install it without having to start fresh with all my settings, metadata, etc?
You need to install the 64-bit version manually the first time. It will auto-update to the 64-bit version from then on. You can get it from our downloads page. https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/
The 64-bit version will install over the 32-bit version, so you do not need to uninstall first. The same is not true if you change your mind and go back. You will need to manually uninstall the 64-bit version, regardless if you are going to a newer or older version number. Another advantage of the 64-bit version, you can roll back to older versions without having to uninstall too.
Thanks for all the great info! Just to be perfectly clear, if I install the 64 bit version, all my settings will be preserved? I won’t have to redo all my libraries, metadata, etc.?
Correct. Nothing will change your current setup.
The installation went perfectly. Thanks for all your help!
Update: I recorded a show and I still get no commercial skipping with the 64 bit version of PMS. I wonder if my installation is corrupted somehow. Or maybe installing the 64 bit version over the 32 bit version kept the same bug with commercial skipping.
The errors we were seeing on the 32-bit Windows build were not seen on the 64-bit build. Could you get debug server logs of a recording after the plex commercial skipper processes the recording
Please make sure that debug server logging is enabled in general server settings (advanced) and then suggest restarting the server to get fresh logs created and repro the problem and download the server logs zip after the completion of a recording with all post processing completed
Thank You
With regards to updating from 32-bit to 64-bit, the update would detect the 32-bit version and then uninstall it first. Check that Plex Media Server is not running when doing the manual update
The fix for the 32-bit windows build has now been released in beta 1.30.0.6486-629d58034 - but still would recommend using the 64-bit build as it should give better performance
I installed the new (64 bit) version but still no commercial skip. I’ve attached my server logs here. Hopefully it’s of some help.
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-12-08_13-04-57.zip (4.5 MB)
Dec 08, 2022 12:31:23.910 [21540] DEBUG - Jobs: ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Plex Commercial Skipper.exe’ exit code for process 5524 is 1 (Commercials found)
It says it worked. Can you provide the xml info for that episode of Family Feud?
Sure.
155218.zip (1.6 KB)
Do you have it set to remove the commercials or just mark them? It looks to me like it’s set to mark, but nothing got added. If it’s set to remove, then something isn’t working because your logs don’t show it trying to do that.
It’s just set to mark the commercials. I’ve tried recording several different shows (ones that worked before) but nothing works. Like I said, it started happening around November 24th. Since that date I get about 8 notifications of “Plex Commercial Skipper.exe stopped working” in my Windows Reliability Monitor every night at about 1:50am with the following details:
Description
Faulting Application Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Plex Commercial Skipper.exe
Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Plex Commercial Skipper.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 637c9064
Fault Module Name: msvcrt.dll
Fault Module Version: 7.0.22621.608
Fault Module Timestamp: f8ef3607
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0008dfcc
OS Version: 10.0.22621.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 4105
Additional Information 1: f66d
Additional Information 2: f66d8fc453b9e5c92b4c30c651083b77
Additional Information 3: 0b31
Additional Information 4: 0b31ea1b3fb7d515f6ccbf1535b9bd01
Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 2d55384e8b64463c1283b4d536c60d97 (1334108742471781783)
Right, that was with the old version. Do you see that with the new 64-bit version you updated to recently?
Actually there were no errors in the Reliability Monitor last night. I thought maybe that was just because I didn’t have any recorded shows in my TV folder. Would that matter? I can leave a couple of new recordings in the folder and check again tomorrow.
I was having this problem and this resolved it. Thanks Plex team!
@rcrang It could just be comskip was unable to detect the commercials for that recording. Try a few more and let us know if it still doesn’t work.
I have made a few different recordings. None gave me a commercial skip button. When it used to work, every show I recorded worked. I checked my Reliability Monitor from last night and for the second night in a row since installing 64 bit PMS, there were no Plex Commercial Skipper crashes so clearly that has gone away but still no commercials found. Maybe something is corrupt. Should I try uninstalling Plex and reinstalling? If I did that is there any way that I wouldn’t have to start all over again with my libraries and metadata? I have put so much work into my database over the years I think I’d rather give up on commercial skipping rather than have to rebuild everything from scratch.
The skip points are stored in the database so uninstall/install won’t do much for the situation. Check the xml of the show to see if the commercial tags were added.
You can also analyze the show at the season level and then during scheduled maintenance it will scan for commercials if you have the library set to “new and scheduled tasks”
