# Force download of codecs **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [May 29, 2018, 9:55pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/force-download-of-codecs/237052 "2018-05-29T21:55:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vassteel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8c91f0/32.png) [@Vassteel](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Vassteel)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 9:55pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/force-download-of-codecs/237052/1 "2018-05-29T21:55:57Z")
i was just wondering if there was a way to force plex to pre install codecs it might need to play future content. im preparing to depart on a 7 month deployment and i would like to avoid the plex cannot play this item because it cant download a codec. if you have any tips and tricks that might help avoid this issue that info would be great. the plex setup i have is a thin Mini ITX 16gb ram and a I7 6600k and the data is stored on a Drobo this tandom setup seems to work pretty good i made the mistake of depending on the drobo to play stuff and that didnt work out at all lol ---
**Author:** ![jjross](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jjross/32/5936_2.png) [@jjross](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jjross)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 5:49am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/force-download-of-codecs/237052/3 "2018-05-30T05:49:53Z")
So I feel like they changed this behavior in one of the recent betas because after I upgraded I was watching the logs on my Plex Server (to make sure there were no problems)and saw these messages at startup: `May 12, 2018 19:21:18.373 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'dca' May 12, 2018 19:21:19.622 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'h263' May 12, 2018 19:21:21.521 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'h264' May 12, 2018 19:21:22.893 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'hevc' May 12, 2018 19:21:24.066 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining encoder 'libx264' May 12, 2018 19:21:25.534 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'mp2' May 12, 2018 19:21:26.629 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'mp3' May 12, 2018 19:21:27.771 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'mpeg1video' May 12, 2018 19:21:28.992 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'mpeg2video' May 12, 2018 19:21:30.095 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'mpeg4' May 12, 2018 19:21:31.207 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'msmpeg4' May 12, 2018 19:21:32.366 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'vc1' May 12, 2018 19:21:33.828 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'wmav2' May 12, 2018 19:21:34.825 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'wmv1' May 12, 2018 19:21:36.093 [3560] INFO - CodecManager: obtaining decoder 'wmv2'` This was on PMS version: `May 12, 2018 19:21:11.783 [12248] INFO - Plex Media Server v1.13.0.5023-31d3c0c65 - Microsoft PC x64 - build: windows-i386 english - GMT -06:00` So perhaps they are downloading everything at startup again (this was just a sample of the lines, there were more) or perhaps it looked at the codec I already had on the system and forced an update just for them? Not sure how I could tell if all the codec were there. Anyone done a fresh install of the above version to see if it says the same things? � ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 1:06am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/force-download-of-codecs/237052/5 "2020-01-08T01:06:12Z")