FreeBSD matching since moving to the new "Plex Movie" function

Server Version#: 1.40.3.8555
Player Version#: 4.129.1
I have been running Plex on FreeNAS/TrueNas for over 7 years.

Since upgrading to the version with the new “Plex Movie” match, it cannot match any movies, even ones that were previously matched.

I loaded an old version PlexMediaServer-1.21.4 onto my TrueNas server, and it matches movies using the old matching with NO issues.

The NEW version of FreeBSD has not been tested for the new matching technique.

I currently am running the new version on a Linux Mint workstation, and it works fine with the new matching, it seems to be only the FreeBSD version that has this issue.

Please take a look at it on any FreeBSD machine and you will see.

Lets start with a copy of your server logs going to bet its not a FreeBSD issue, but something else.

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-06-16_13-54-17.zip (2.1 MB)

I have loaded an old FreeBSD version on my NAS before the new Matching, and it works great.

I have also installed a new LInux version with the new matchingon a Linux box and it works great too.

I have been running plex on my nas for many many years, and it stopped being able to match movies after a Plex update, which I do everytime there is a new update.

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-06-17_10-30-39.zip (2.3 MB)

To give you more to work with I did a refresh all metadata on the test library I set up.

I hope that gives you better information.

What is weird if you look in alerts it says it is downloading the metadata, and it happens real fast like the new agent works, but it doesn’t actually populate anything.

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-06-17_10-58-32.zip (2.4 MB)

Turned on verbose debugging and tried a couple of matches

I just spun up a FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE VM and installed the latest version of Plex Media Server (1.40.3.8555). I created a new Movies-type library and left it at defaults (except for disabling find extras and intro/end credits detection). I copied a movie over to the VM and pointed the library at the containing directory. It detected properly and correct metadata was downloaded.

So I don’t think there’s any inherent incompatibility between FreeBSD and the newer agents/scanners or PMS versions. It’s likely something environmental there.

You’ve turned on “Verbose” logging for your server; that needs to be turned off. It floods the logs with useless (for most issues) information and makes them nearly impossible to read. It also shortens the timeframe covered by logging. After turning verbose off you must restart PMS for the change to take effect (you can enable logging without doing so, disabling requires a restart for security reasons).

Ok. I’ve turned off verbose loging. And I’ve stopped and started the Plex server.

Debug logging is still on.

What would you like me to try ?

Please Plex Dance one of your movies (make sure to perform a manual library scan at the end). When done, post the resulting logs and include the name of the movie you did the dance on.

What is a Plex Dance

It’s described in the link. Just follow the steps there for one of your movies.

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-06-17_13-40-55.zip (2.2 MB)

I did it several times because until I left one file in the directory it would not delete the others.

The name of the movie is “The Polar Express”

Thanks. Let me know it there is anything else to try.

Your system cannot communicate with hosts at plex.tv. This prevents matching, downloading metadata, etc.

Plex Media Server.log Timeout Messages
Jun 17, 2024 13:14:22.465 [0x8100b1500] WARN - [PubsubServerManager/process] Connection to 23.239.17.115 failed: Operation timed out.
Jun 17, 2024 13:14:22.465 [0x8100b1500] WARN - [PubsubServerManager/process] Connection to pubsub.plex.tv failed: Operation timed out.
Jun 17, 2024 13:14:22.465 [0x8100b1500] WARN - [PubsubServerManager/process] Connection to 172.104.213.234 failed: Operation timed out.
Jun 17, 2024 13:14:22.465 [0x8100b1500] WARN - [PubsubServerManager/process] Connection to 45.56.82.212 failed: Operation timed out.
Jun 17, 2024 13:14:22.465 [0x8100b1500] WARN - [PubsubServerManager/process] Connection to 172.104.152.89 failed: Operation timed out.
Jun 17, 2024 13:14:22.465 [0x8100b1500] WARN - [PubsubServerManager/process] Connection to 172.105.203.197 failed: Operation timed out.
Jun 17, 2024 13:14:22.465 [0x8100b1500] WARN - [PubsubServerManager/process] Connection to 139.162.219.82 failed: Operation timed out.
Jun 17, 2024 13:14:22.465 [0x8100b1500] WARN - [PubsubServerManager/process] Connection to 172.104.44.222 failed: Operation timed out.
Jun 17, 2024 13:14:22.465 [0x8100b1500] WARN - [PubsubServerManager/process] Connection to 172.105.13.59 failed: Operation timed out.
Jun 17, 2024 13:14:22.465 [0x8100b1500] WARN - [PubsubServerManager/process] Connection to 45.33.119.35 failed: Operation timed out.

Do you have any firewall settings, a PiHole, router settings, etc. that would prevent the server from communicating with plex.tv?

No I don’t run any firewalls or PiHole.

Should I be able to ping these addresses ???

Who is your ISP?
Anything “complex” about your network setup - multiple subnets, vlans, routers?
How does the server connect to the Internet? Connected directly to a router, etc.

Plex Media Server picks up your public IP address, so basic networking is working. However, it cannot communicate with plex.tv.

Some things to check / try:

Verify the network settings on the server: IP address & mask, default gateway, etc.

Configure the server to use a public DNS server such as 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare), 8.8.8.8 (Google), or 9.9.9.9 (Quad9).

Perform a “network reboot.”

  • Shutdown the Plex server.
  • Reboot the router and any switches, etc. between the router and the Plex server.
  • After they are all back online, restart the Plex Media Server.

I use 8.8.8.8 and 4.4.4.4 as backup

My provider is spectrum, and I have a Plexmediaserver setup and working on a linux box on the same network.

It has something to do with Truenas. Is there someway I can test since it doesn’t respond to a ping ?

I have nothing fancy set up on my network. It must have something to do with the jail on Truenas.

I can get to https://plex.tv/api/downloads/5.json to check and see if there is a newer version of Plex from inside the jail.

I can’t shut down my internal network right now, I’m doing a 10TB replication of my NAS

If I set the agent to “The Movie Database” I finds the metadata and installs it, but it is much slower than the new one works.

Thanks for the info.

I’ve never used Truenas, so cannot help with setup, etc., but the device should respond to a ping.

This seems like a fat fingered netmask/default gateway or maybe a process is hung or something similar.

If you haven’t done so, give the network settings a quick check and reboot the server.

Hopefully @pshanew or others familiar with Truenas will have some thoughts on other items to check.

I would think if that were the case, I could not download new versions of plexmediaserver from plex.tv.

But I don’t understand the timeouts either. I was a Solaris sysadmin for 30 years in the AF.

So I’m familiar with troubleshooting this, but I don’t understand how it is timing out to some plex.tv IP’s but still be able to download new versions of the plexmedia server.

I’m just grasping at straws here, but I am running a plexmediaserver on a standard LinuxMint box on the same network, and it works fine.

What are the chances that plex.tv set up a rule to block anybody coming from a truenas box ?

Just a thought because I cannot come up with another explanation.

Thanks

I vaguely remember something about DNS lookup failures in FreeBSD being related to the the standard C/C++ runtime libraries used by PMS (MUSL). Plex isn’t built against the standard C/C++ runtimes as far as I know (unless that has changed). Unfortunately I cannot remember the details as I was only peripherally involved/aware at the time. But there was an entire thread about it. I’ll see if I can find it, but I don’t recall what the final resolution was.

[Edit]
I could also be very much misremembering this.

Yeah, I don’t understand why it isn’t working. Everything says it should be.

If it were a problem with the Truenas version of PMS or if Plex were blocking something, then there would be a lot of people making noise here and on reddit.

The IP addresses are from across the US and some international and are hosted by Akamai. If there were some problem on the Internet, then a lot of people would be making noise.

That’s why it seem to be something local to your server. I’ve just no idea what else to check.