@mashuto, at least there’s a positive thing and that’s the fact that you can consistently reproduce it, so if the next version helps, we’ll definitely know it. It’s strange that it happens even without opening the app after a boot. I wouldn’t think that a UWP app would run without opening it manually…
In any case, thanks again for your help in figuring this out!
@mashuto: can you please try the 3.0.27 build which is now in the store?
@pombeirp So I updated to 3.0.28. Unfortunately the issue is still there.
I made some observations though that hopefully will be useful.
This time around I updated plex through the windows store, ran it once then restarted and put the computer to sleep almost immediately. Ran a sleep study after I rebooted and saw the same results, Plex is active 98-99% of the time while the computer is sleeping. I opened up task manager and there was plex running as a background process.
So I wanted to check something. I rebooted the computer and opened task manager, very briefly I saw a process named plex background task host, but it disappeared (not sure if it was from the win 10 version or the older windows store version). But I confirmed that there was no background processes running for plex. I put the computer to sleep. When I woke the computer back up, I opened up task manager and there was plex, running as a background process again. The sleep study confirmed again that plex was active 99% of the time during this sleep too.
Interestingly, this also seems like it might be related to crashes I have been having. Very often when I run this new version after booting up my computer (or I guess actually after running it after sleep), I get the screen to choose a user, then it just crashes and exits. So I loaded it up after I woke the computer from sleeping, and got that crash, but when it crashed, the background process disappeared too.
Edit: Did a little bit of testing, and it seems that when I sleep the computer (tried the power button and closing the lid on my surface book) it definitely somehow seems to launch plex as a background process as far as I can tell from looking at task manager. However, if I launch plex it seems to kill the background process (after that crash I mentioned). But after closing plex, the background process does not seem to start up again when I put the computer to sleep (at least in my very short testing). Instead of shutting down tonight when I go to sleep, I will close plex and put the computer to sleep so I can get a sleepstudy run in the morning or immediately after I get home from work tomorrow.
This time around I updated plex through the windows store, ran it once then restarted
what did you restart, the computer?
Also, are you closing the app by clicking on the X button and then putting the laptop to sleep?
Not sure if this is related, but some people have found a similar issue with the Photos app in Windows 10 and have fixed it by unregistering/re-registering the app through Powershell: http://www.tenforums.com/performance-maintenance/7781-photos-background-task-host-high-cpu-usage.html
Thanks! This seems to have worked for me, too. The Photos app was eating CPU like crazy. After re-registering, it has settled down.
Interestingly, this also seems like it might be related to crashes I have been having. Very often when I run this new version after booting up my computer (or I guess actually after running it after sleep), I get the screen to choose a user, then it just crashes and exits. So I loaded it up after I woke the computer from sleeping, and got that crash, but when it crashed, the background process disappeared too.
I’ve seen this recently on my Surface Pro 3. After some attempts at finding the issue, I noticed the problem went away just by uninstalling the app and reinstalling it. Sounds like some state was corrupted or something. It happened as soon as I unlocked an account from the account picker.
This time around I updated plex through the windows store, ran it once then restarted
what did you restart, the computer?
Also, are you closing the app by clicking on the X button and then putting the laptop to sleep?
Yes, restarted the computer in that case. And yes, closing the app by clicking the X button, then putting the laptop to sleep.
I just ran another sleep study, this time after running the new version last night. I still have plex showing up as a background app, but it seems this time it was only active about 60% of the time during sleep. So definitely something weird going on there causing plex to run in the background.
I am going to try your other two suggestions, reregistering the app and also uninstalling it. Its entirely possible that something corrupted with the current install I have.
Thanks. What exact version of Windows 10 are you running on, btw?
The background task in the latest 3.0.28 build now flushes the logs when it is canceled or completes, so there should actually be a log there this time.
I believe its Win 10 Pro, whatever was included with the surface book. And I am running the release version, which should be up to date with all the latest updates. No insider or preview release.
I reinstalled this morning, but had to charge my laptop, so I will check after work if reinstalling made any difference. I did notice after a short 10 minutes of sleep (after reinstalling) though that Plex was still showing up as a background process without me having opened it.
Will try unregistering and reregistering it through powershell as well after I do another sleepstudy.
For the logs, still best to go into the app and do the email or is there a folder where I can access them directly? Especially to check if there is anything there when I dont have the app open.
@mashuto: you can find the logs at
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\CAF9E577.PlexUniversalBeta_aam28m9va5cke\LocalState\Logs
I’m running the latest Insider build (10.0.14379.0). Wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that I’m not seeing the issue.
I reinstalled and tried reregistering. Still seeing the same behavior. Plex starts running as a background process on its own when i put the computer to sleep (though not sure if its actually putting the computer to sleep thats triggering it). I also looked at the logs, but I doubt there is anything useful there since it looks like it only logs when the app is actively running.
I can run a sleep study again later and double check, but my guess is that the background process is the issue.
Plex starts running as a background process on its own when i put the computer to sleep
Not sure what to make of that, since Windows Store apps don’t (can’t?) create any processes, that is managed by the runtime. So I don’t know what is causing the OS to run that process on Plex’s behalf.
@pombeirp said:
Plex starts running as a background process on its own when i put the computer to sleep
Not sure what to make of that, since Windows Store apps don’t (can’t?) create any processes, that is managed by the runtime. So I don’t know what is causing the OS to run that process on Plex’s behalf.
Yea I know, sounds like a weird one too. But just reporting what I am seeing. Task manager shows no sign of plex when I first boot, but if I put the computer to sleep, plex shows up as a background process after I resume from sleep, which I can imagine is why the sleep study is showing it as active during sleep. And as I said in an earlier post, when the background process is there, I get that crash immediately after selecting a user.
I can try disabling background app access for it in privacy settings, which I would hope would prevent this issue, but I imagine I might lose some functionality… live tile maybe?
Yeah, live tile and background camera upload wouldn’t work.
@mashuto, is there any chance you’d be willing to update to the insider preview build of Windows 10?
@roguecode said:
@mashuto, is there any chance you’d be willing to update to the insider preview build of Windows 10?
Im not super familiar with the insider builds. Is it easy to roll back to release version, or at least stick with the full anniversary build when its officially released? Because if so, I would be happy to try it out and then see if my issues still remain. Unfortunately though, I am out of town and the internet connection here is pretty weak, so it wouldn’t be until sometime Sunday afternoon/evening (eastern US time).
No, once you run an insider build, you will always get the insider builds - you have to reinstall Windows to switch back to the stable releases.
Yeah once you leave the insider program you’re stuck with the build you’re currently on so a clean install is the only way to get to PROD builds. However, you also get 30 days to roll back to the previous build, which is a process that works surprisingly well, so you could enroll in the insider program, install the current build, test and roll back. That said, the anniversary version should be out early next month…
@pombeirp, I have a sleep study I did today after I installed the beta again. I can send it to you - rather not post it here.
The culprit today was this: - TaskEntryPoint: Plex.Tasks.AudioPlayerBackgroundTaskRunner - Name: (null)
@kegobeer-plex Please send it to me, along with the exact version number of Windows (Start > Run > “winver”)
