Conversion failed. The transcoder crashed or failed to start up.

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Hello all,
I am having the same issue that it seems that this guy is also having. forums.plex.tv/discussion/287383/error-conversion-failed-transcoder-crashed-or-failed-to-start-pms-1-10-1-4561#latest

I didn’t want to steal his thread so I made my own here.

I am running plex version 1.10.1.4561 .
OS: Unraid
I have also attached the logs.

Basically, a few days ago transcoder isn’t working. None of my devices can stream from my server unless using direct play.
It happens on movies, tv shows, etc.

I have rebooted server, forced updates on docker, reverted down to version 10.0.0, checked transcode folder, and deleted the library and started from scratch. None of those have changed the issue. It is still happening.

Logs are attached.

Thanks!

2

@“micaiah&charlotte” said:
Hello all,
I am having the same issue that it seems that this guy is also having. forums.plex.tv/discussion/287383/error-conversion-failed-transcoder-crashed-or-failed-to-start-pms-1-10-1-4561#latest

I didn’t want to steal his thread so I made my own here.

I am running plex version 1.10.1.4561 .
OS: Unraid
I have also attached the logs.

Basically, a few days ago transcoder isn’t working. None of my devices can stream from my server unless using direct play.
It happens on movies, tv shows, etc.

I have rebooted server, forced updates on docker, reverted down to version 10.0.0, checked transcode folder, and deleted the library and started from scratch. None of those have changed the issue. It is still happening.

Logs are attached.

Thanks!

Each case may be different. The topic you linked has a specific failure that was referred to the development team. Only 6 users had that specific underlying issue that led to the error text. The error text is generic and could be for different underlying errors

So please get the logs attached. No attachment to your post

3

Strange I could of sworn I got the logs up. Anyways. I have attached them now.

4

Has this been looked at yet?

5

@“micaiah&charlotte” said:
Strange I could of sworn I got the logs up. Anyways. I have attached them now.

Seeing errors like this in the logs

Dec 11, 2017 22:28:51.698 [0x151a623fd700] ERROR - Error creating directory /transcode/Transcode/Sessions/plex-transcode-jcx3zg63g3scnmj3vwcg5h60-ee8a29d2-171a-417f-b774-fa3541a58d17: boost::filesystem::create_directories: Permission denied: "/transcode/Transcode/Sessions"

Leading to

Dec 11, 2017 22:28:51.709 [0x151a623fd700] ERROR - Failed to calculate available disk space for path '/transcode/Transcode/Sessions': 1 (Operation not permitted)

Dec 11, 2017 22:28:53.261 [0x151a60bfd700] ERROR - [Transcoder] Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Permission denied
Dec 11, 2017 22:28:53.262 [0x151a623fd700] ERROR - [Transcoder] Error initializing output stream 0:1 --

Please look into permissions for the transcode temp directory

6

hmmmm, ok. I will do that. It’s linked to /tmp/ which is ram. Would permissions bar plex from running there?

7

I did a few things and the only fix was to chmod the transcode folder to 777. Are there any other things you recommend?

Thanks!

8

@“micaiah&charlotte” said:
hmmmm, ok. I will do that. It’s linked to /tmp/ which is ram. Would permissions bar plex from running there?

Well permissions stopped it from creating the transcode directory area here
/transcode/Transcode/Sessions"

It also stopped it establishing how much space is available on the drive the /transcode is on

@“micaiah&charlotte” said:
I did a few things and the only fix was to chmod the transcode folder to 777. Are there any other things you recommend?

Thanks!

The /transcode directory needs to have full read / write permissions to the plex account that Plex Media Server runs in

The EasyAudioEncoder program is downloaded into /tmp and that must have execute permissions
This is used for DTS and TrueHD

The EasyAudioEncoder temp transcode files would be here
/tmp/pms-93271008-22da-408b-8e85-b376b86fb052/EasyAudioEncoder
and this needs to be fully accessible

The codecs are downloaded into here
/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Codecs/b077134-1269-linux-ubuntu-x86_64/ and there needs to execute permissions as well as read and write

9

the solution that worked for me :
open a terminal and write
sudo chown plex:plex -R /var/lib/plexmediaserver/