Downloads sucks and doesn’t work “Error downloading item”

PlexJB · July 16, 2022, 5:37pm

Praised too soon lol

Despite setting 192 kb/s it’s downloading my flacs

PlexJB · July 16, 2022, 5:54pm

Deleted the DLs and tried again. Now it’s completely broken. Stuck on waiting to download and then errors.

I know send us logs blah blah blah but does anyone actually test this stuff or is it just thrown up on Play store so n times users all waste their time on it breaking?

Ender5191 · July 18, 2022, 11:30pm

I’m having a horrible time with Downloads. Multiple clients on iOS/iPadOS 8.5 and Downloads will fail with a generic Error downloading item message. There is no corresponding error on the PMS that I can detect… It’s so random. I can sometimes download a single episode of TV fine… but if I try to download a season it fails every time. Or, if I download a single movie, sometimes it works and sometimes not. But if I download 5 movies at a time, boom… fails. It fails on network, off network, with download quality settings changed to original or not. This is terrible functionality. It’s bad enough that you have to keep Plex on the download screen to get anything to actually download, but it has become so unreliable that it’s a surprise when it actually works. I don’t want to be dramatic about this, but it seems like it’s getting lost in the shuffle just how bad Download functionality is. It barely works and needs prioritized attention. Thanks

anon18523487 · July 19, 2022, 4:17am

This is how it should work.

Despite setting 192 kb/s it’s downloading my flacs

You set the “Audio Quality” setting, right? If it is still downloading as FLAC, please provide me logs. It’s working correctly for me. I set the quality to 192 (please note this is a threshold value of when to transcode, not the transcode quality) and it downloaded as 128 bps ogg (when transcoding music, it will use this or the threshold value, whichever is lower).

binarytec · July 19, 2022, 1:46pm

Iam very dissapointed

There was a BIG Announcement that Sync was Evil and Downloads are Good.

On my Android Phones Downloads stills doesnt work. Music, Movies, Series cant be downloaded

I tried serveral Workarounds:

Use different Android Phones Samsung S20, Samsung A51, Motorola G8 Power
Used different Settings on my Phones (High Quality, 720p Quality)
ReInstall die Plex App
Restart PMS
Used different Transcoding Setting (Somewhere i read this could helped)
Give Plex Download a lot of free Space…

My Server runs on a Synology 918+ with a Reverse Proxy. I tried to download on my local LAN.

On my Windows 11 Laptop i can download the content without a problem.

It would be great to fix this problem.

If i forced the download on one device the PMS crashed

PlexJB · July 19, 2022, 7:12pm

I wish I could send logs. Can’t even download with quality Original now.

Tried removing the app, still no joy.

…So the download quality sets a threshold to transcode based on the source bitrate but is always <=128 kb/s ogg if not original?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to use the rate that’s been set?

I thought it was supposed to use Opus, but maybe I’m thinking of plexamp.

anon18523487 · July 19, 2022, 8:19pm

Yes. Downloaded music will transcode to OGG. A 128-bit OGG is indistinguishable versus using a higher bitrate (192 or 320 OGG) so it’s just extra unneeded bits at that point.

I thought it was supposed to use Opus

Sorry, OGG is the extension. The codec is opus.

PlexJB · July 19, 2022, 9:07pm

Crikey, a 128 bit ogg is either very short duration or extremely low bit rate (<1 frame in fact so actually impossible )

I know this subject is beaten to death and beyond in Internet forums but with all due respect, the ability to discern audio quality is highly dependent on the individual.

To determine my own ‘needs’ I conducted a double blind test. Listening VERY intently I could just about pick out 320 kb/s MP3 versus lossless on certain material, but decided 192 kb/s aac was perfectly fine for mobile to avoid needing a large micro SD card. Far field is less forgiving when the stereo image collapses due to lossy compression but most people would never notice it.

I seem to remember the results from statistically significant listening tests proving 128 kb/s is quite easily distinguishable for most people.

But yes, this topic’s been beaten to death so blah blah blah…golden ears blah blah blah lowest common denominator blah blah

Trying to see anything relevant in the logs. No errors or anything obviously related to DLs failing but they are

Opus codec, ogg container at least is good news if it ever decides to work

PlexJB · July 19, 2022, 9:35pm

Urghhh… It’s just the same DNS rebind issue why can’t it just use the same addressing for downloads that it does for every other part of the app? Then most ppl wouldn’t have any issues??

prange · July 21, 2022, 4:33am

What a crock this “Download” is…

Tried to download 2 movies for a road trip on an iPad, modified every setting I could find , got multiple errors, was unable to download either movie.

Went to Disney+, downloaded 5 episodes of Bluey.
Went to Hulu, downloaded a Madagascar movie.
Went to Netflix, downloaded 2 Smurfs movies.

WTF Plex? It shouldn’t be this hard to just download my content. Love the service generally but traveling with it sucks. It’s clunky and doesn’t adapt to the storage space like the other services.

mebein · July 22, 2022, 7:17pm

Not working here. Went through loads of websites and tried the 8.8.8.8 DNS trick, still unable to download anything on to my fire tablets.

When will this be sorted??

mebein · July 22, 2022, 7:41pm

anon18523487 · July 25, 2022, 5:33pm

That log is from Web. We need to see the android log from your tablet.

beeman · August 4, 2022, 11:00pm

I fixed this about six months ago for someone by downgrading (android app) to

<version>834096928</version>
<versionName>8.27.2.29938</versionName>

I came across it again today on my own device having forgotten I’d done this, til reminded and by then I’d upgraded Plex server to latest version but fortunately downgrading still works and Download is up again!

PlexJB · August 6, 2022, 4:17pm

Gave up on transcoding ever working. Bought a 1TB micro SD card instead.

Now the next issue.

Say I’m trying to DL a 1k track playlist. It’ll work well for a bit (~20 MB/s) - say a few minutes, before there starts being a really long delay between each track DL.

The behaviour seems to coincide with following error in the server log:
Caught exception trying to stream file [server path to file] write: protocol is shutdown

I checked the Android log and there are no errors, but I see the following once it’s in this state:
[HttpServer] Client closed the channel

nuvoli · August 7, 2022, 9:47pm

Raising my hand here too.
Impossible to get a single Download to work in Plex on any iOS device.

Got a pretty advanced setup (nas/Ubuntu/docker/ansible) and a good amount of Linux expertise - I work in Tech. I know my stuff. No DNS rebind available on Router, using Google’s DNS on iOS.

Server is at 1.28.1 / PlexPass,
Client is TestFlight 8.7 branch.

Here, nothing useful in Logs, No error message means I am just unable to investigate.

The most annoying is that Infuse 7 works like a charm. But having 15Gig movies on iPad because i couldn’t use the transcoding from Plex isn’t a long term solution.

To the Plex team: I get it. You’ve got investors to please and growth numbers to attain.
But keep in mind Churn is your worst enemy, and you’re doing everything wrong when it comes to addressing a foundational value prop of Plex: WORKING NETWORKED VIDEO

Not having Downloads « Just work » is a dealbreaker for most of your core user base. You might see good growth numbers because of all the new users come in, but lose your core, and the foundations are gone. This is how big companies lost in the end.

PlexJB · August 8, 2022, 6:00pm

Classic stalling tactic by the devs, or given the timeframe, fobbing off tactic.

Nothing to see here, downloads work perfectly

kaiser12345_gmx_net · August 10, 2022, 12:50am

Can you please explain how and where you can find the random …plex.direct hostname from the log file? How can I open the log file?

I have a fritz box too and Im trying to get plex downloads to work on my android tablet.

ScholesScores · August 13, 2022, 1:17pm

Some movies downloaded without an issue but most failed with “error downloading this file”. The titles that failed had optimised versions (mobile device, 12Mbps). When I’ve removed the optimised versions, the downloads now get to “waiting to download” but no further (yet). The download quality settings are set to “automatic”.

Downloading to a Windows 11 laptop works perfectly every time. Downloading music to my phone works every time.

Both mobile devices are Samsung running latest Plex app and latest PMS.

Speedst3r · August 14, 2022, 5:23am

Here’s some logs from trying to download a single episode. The episode in question has two qualities, both with EAC3, not sure if that is an issue. But I have tried disabling hardware transcoding, Android client is set to original quality yet the transcoder has an error. This used to work a couple of months ago.

PMS log: https://pastebin.com/pufAx56G
Android log: https://pastebin.com/bmGp7hcL

PMS 1.28.1.6041, running in a container with Intel GPU acceleration.
Client device is a Samsung S22 Ultra, but also having the same problems with a Tab 6.

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Downloads sucks and doesn’t work “Error downloading item”

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