Failed to play downloaded file, external storage not found

Plex Players Mobile Devices
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Server Version#: 1.32.5.7318
Player Version#: 9.26.1.2783

I posted previously about an error I was receiving for a downloaded file. I’ve narrowed down the behavior enough that hopefully some kind of official bug report can be made so this issue can be remediated.

My playback device is a Google Pixel 7, using the non-beta Plex app installed via Play Store.

For some media items, they will stream from my server just fine. But if I download them (At quality Original) and try to playback I get an error:

Failed to play downloaded file, external storage not found.

If I set the player to External, then the external app (I use VLC) will play the file back, but around 80% of the way through playback will fail.

I believe this has to do with the codec of the media file, and the device’s playback capability. When I set the download preferences to download at 720p @ 4 MB/s, the file is transcoded for download, and this version of the file will play back just fine.

I believe this is could be due to some kind of remux/file modification that Plex does when downloading a file, as if I copy the original file to my device and play it back with VLC directly (Rather than Use external player via Plex app), the entire file plays back just fine, I don’t get the failure I do at around 80%.

I’m not able to pull the downloaded file out of my device’s storage to look at its codec information with/without transcode, as my device is not rooted. But the relevant ffprobe output to the video stream for the file:

  Metadata:
    encoder         : libebml v1.4.4 + libmatroska v1.7.1
  Duration: 00:55:35.01, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 6812 kb/s
    Chapter #0:0: start 417.625000, end 521.292000
    Metadata:
      title           : Intro
    Chapter #0:1: start 521.292000, end 541.250000
    Metadata:
      title           : Scene 1
    Chapter #0:2: start 541.250000, end 1070.833000
    Metadata:
      title           : Scene 2
    Chapter #0:3: start 1070.833000, end 1587.208000
    Metadata:
      title           : Scene 3
    Chapter #0:4: start 1587.208000, end 2349.792000
    Metadata:
      title           : Scene 4
    Chapter #0:5: start 2349.792000, end 3181.958000
    Metadata:
      title           : Scene 5
    Chapter #0:6: start 3181.958000, end 3335.008000
    Metadata:
      title           : Credits
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(tv, bt709, progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 24 fps, 24 tbr, 1k tbn, 48 tbc (default)

This is an annoying bug, which may have some fault on the device for misreporting what it can/can’t natively play back, but I am definitely not the only one being affected by this issue with many posts on these forums describing the same problem and not having any clearly defined solution or fix.

Can fixing this bug be added to the roadmap, hopefully in the nearer future? It’s a pretty frustrating experience that breaks the smooth playback experience that led me to purchase a Plex Pass in the first place.

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I feel like 10 days of silence is enough to warrant a bump of this thread. Would anyone from Plex be willing to acknowledge receipt of this bug report, and confirm it’s on the roadmap to be fixed?

I can provide more details if necessary, including logs, and/or logcat.

1 Like
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Bumping this again in the hope someone from Plex will acknowledge the issue.

1 Like
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what is the remote quality set to in the app?

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Original quality. Is it possible to change playback quality on synced files? I always assumed it just played at the quality it was synced at.

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no you cannot but there was a bug where the app that tried to apply it and was failing ( because the app cannot transcode itself) if the remote quality was less than file bitrate. Was just checking it was not that.

is it possible to get the logs after it happens. The “external storage not found” error is odd.

also are you playing from the Downloads source or do you have “Prefer downloaded content” enabled and are playing from the regular library?

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Here are the logs:

plex-log-goose.zip (2.3 MB)

And the device information generated with them:

Manufacturer: Google
Device: panther
Model: Pixel 7
Product: panther
Version: 13

I have to play through the “Downloads” menu, as even with Prefer local content enabled, playback fails to initiate from the home screen/regular library screen. That behavior appears to be related to this post/bug.

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Do you know how to get logcat logs by any chance?

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Yes, I do know how. My device is not rooted, however, so it will be a few hours before I can get to a computer to run ADB on.

What process name(s) should I grep for output of logcat?

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When is streams from server is it direct playing or transcoding?

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Interestingly, I am now experiencing an issue where it will playback fine on my desktop client:

Screenshot 2023-08-30 210723

But no longer on my mobile device, with the error: An error occurred while attempting to play this video. Please check your connection and try again.

In any case, here is the logcat of attempting to playback the video from the server. This is a grep for the case insensitive word “Plex”, since I’d rather not post raw logcat of other things here. If you do need other things, let me know and I’ll post accordingly.

logcat-plex.log (148.4 KB)

And here is the logcat of attempting to playback the synced file from the “Downloads” menu, with the sync quality set to “Original”. Again, a grep for the case insensitive word “Plex”, since I’d rather not post raw logcat of other things here. If you do need other things, let me know and I’ll post accordingly.

logcat-plex-local.log (291.2 KB)

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I’m having the same issue with downloaded TV episodes. Downloaded movies and music works fine. The idea of downloading episodes is exactly when you do not have the server available, Yet it complains about a connection and fails. This makes no sense.

Screenshot_20230911_181411_Plex
Screenshot_20230911_181411_Plex474×1054 52.1 KB

Screenshot_20230911_181445_Plex
Screenshot_20230911_181445_Plex1054×474 27.4 KB

I have a galaxy A3

When connected to the server it plays fine.

1 Like
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We are still looking into this. Was wondering if it only happens with content with eac3 atmos, and with all content with eac3 atmos on that android device

Also can you play a download from Plex via VLC ( using the external player setting in Plex app), and see if seeking to ~80% once playback starts works, or if it’s only a problem if you play from the beginning

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