I am receiving the “Conversion failed. The transcoder crashed or failed to start up.” error as well. It has been going on for a few months now. I’ve received the error on my Amazon Fire and my Android phone. It happens with almost every media file I watch now. Sometimes multiple times per single viewing. My server is up to date running 1.10.1.4602.
@joesweats you are on the latest Plex Pass but not the latest build. Current Beta build is 1.11.3 which contains numerous DVR/Transcoder updates since the latest Public build. Might want to try the latest Beta build to see if it fixes the issue you are experiencing.
@johnm_ColaSC ah yea I didn’t think about checking on the beta versions. Just ran the update. I’ll comment back in if I end up seeing the same issues again.
Thanks @johnm_ColaSC !
@johnm_ColaSC said:
@joesweats you are on the latest Plex Pass but not the latest build. Current Beta build is 1.11.3 which contains numerous DVR/Transcoder updates since the latest Public build. Might want to try the latest Beta build to see if it fixes the issue you are experiencing.
So… i should buy PlexPass to see if it will fix the bug with transcoding? Seems like an odd way to try and resolve an issue that Plex should fix for everyone.
So… I used the 30 day trial of Plex Pass to get the Plex build 1.11.3. Did a full uninstall and reinstall— and transcoding works (audio and video) for the first time in months!
Glad it worked for you. Guess I should have paid more attention to the particular forum I was posting in, thought it was the DVR & Live TV but I see now it isn’t. The current Plex Pass build will make it to Public just don’t know when.
I’m running latest beta, hitting this problem. I started my own thread here with a list of everything I have tried and not gotten to work.
I made a thread here that has a log attached. It just crashed again and I have a log, but the error looks exactly the same as in this one.
Can anyone help?
So I was having this symptom.
For me the issue was that the transcoder could not access the “Transcoder temporary directory” (Settings->Transcoder). My server is running on Ubuntu and I needed to give access rights to plex:plex.
Probably me just being stupid and unrelated to the issues you are all seeing, but thought I’d mention it.
@thehritzinator said:
I’m running latest beta, hitting this problem. I started my own thread here with a list of everything I have tried and not gotten to work.I made a thread here that has a log attached. It just crashed again and I have a log, but the error looks exactly the same as in this one.
Can anyone help?
I am merging your two forum threads together. I will let you have a link when done
@sa2000 said:
@thehritzinator said:
I’m running latest beta, hitting this problem. I started my own thread here with a list of everything I have tried and not gotten to work.I made a thread here that has a log attached. It just crashed again and I have a log, but the error looks exactly the same as in this one.
Can anyone help?
I am merging your two forum threads together. I will let you have a link when done
Both threads - one without logs and one with logs now in here
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/306984/conversion-failed-transcoder-crashed-or-failed-to-start-up
I had this exact same issue and the problem was I was using an external SRT file that seemed to be jamming up the transcoder (don’t ask me the science behind this issue). Once I removed the SRT file, it played back immediately without issue.
Same here, started in recent month. Never had this issue before. Could of course be the media too but it is weird that this always happens at 80-90%. Subtitles or not, still crashes.
I just started having this issue, plex is completely useless to me now. It seems the Plex team has no idea what is causing this. I think its funny because better error codes would actually help instead of a generic “Conversion failed” error. Does the Plex team know how their own software works?
@“Chemical Sam” said:
I just started having this issue, plex is completely useless to me now. It seems the Plex team has no idea what is causing this. I think its funny because better error codes would actually help instead of a generic “Conversion failed” error. Does the Plex team know how their own software works?
Transcoder crashes need to be investigated through logs and after that may need sample files
There could be many different reasons for the transcoder process to crash or fail to start
See https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/
Please reproduce the problem after a restart of the server and indicate what was being streamed and when
Thanks
@sa2000 said:
@“Chemical Sam” said:
I just started having this issue, plex is completely useless to me now. It seems the Plex team has no idea what is causing this. I think its funny because better error codes would actually help instead of a generic “Conversion failed” error. Does the Plex team know how their own software works?Transcoder crashes need to be investigated through logs and after that may need sample files
There could be many different reasons for the transcoder process to crash or fail to startSee https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/Please reproduce the problem after a restart of the server and indicate what was being streamed and when
Thanks
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jdENxYxSDrwwZsJpQuligE0cxeOLjdQu
@“Chemical Sam” said:
@sa2000 said:
@“Chemical Sam” said:
I just started having this issue, plex is completely useless to me now. It seems the Plex team has no idea what is causing this. I think its funny because better error codes would actually help instead of a generic “Conversion failed” error. Does the Plex team know how their own software works?Transcoder crashes need to be investigated through logs and after that may need sample files
There could be many different reasons for the transcoder process to crash or fail to startSee https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/Please reproduce the problem after a restart of the server and indicate what was being streamed and when
Thanks
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jdENxYxSDrwwZsJpQuligE0cxeOLjdQu
I cannot see any conversion failed transcoder crashed or failed to start up error in the log (which was the error this forum topic was raised for)
What was the error and what time was it ?
@sa2000 said:
@“Chemical Sam” said:
@sa2000 said:
@“Chemical Sam” said:
I just started having this issue, plex is completely useless to me now. It seems the Plex team has no idea what is causing this. I think its funny because better error codes would actually help instead of a generic “Conversion failed” error. Does the Plex team know how their own software works?Transcoder crashes need to be investigated through logs and after that may need sample files
There could be many different reasons for the transcoder process to crash or fail to startSee https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/Please reproduce the problem after a restart of the server and indicate what was being streamed and when
Thanks
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jdENxYxSDrwwZsJpQuligE0cxeOLjdQu
I cannot see any
conversion failed transcoder crashed or failed to start uperror in the log (which was the error this forum topic was raised for)What was the error and what time was it ?
The error I keep getting is “Playback was terminated by the server. The transcoder crashed or failed to start up.” Here are the fresh logs with the error message; I started playing an MKV file (Pirates of the Caribbean) on my Apple TV from my server (macOS High Sierra 10.13.4). I randomly get these errors usually half way through just about any movie, with or without captions on. I have already deleted the contents of the codec directory as many suggested but that has not fixed the issue, Plex has become very unusable for me when this started a few days ago.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VWc5Vg9OuRltRJEZkSzMS4UbN43be_kU/view?usp=sharing
@“Chemical Sam” said:
@sa2000 said:
@“Chemical Sam” said:
@sa2000 said:
@“Chemical Sam” said:
I just started having this issue, plex is completely useless to me now. It seems the Plex team has no idea what is causing this. I think its funny because better error codes would actually help instead of a generic “Conversion failed” error. Does the Plex team know how their own software works?Transcoder crashes need to be investigated through logs and after that may need sample files
There could be many different reasons for the transcoder process to crash or fail to startSee https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/Please reproduce the problem after a restart of the server and indicate what was being streamed and when
Thanks
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jdENxYxSDrwwZsJpQuligE0cxeOLjdQu
I cannot see any
conversion failed transcoder crashed or failed to start uperror in the log (which was the error this forum topic was raised for)What was the error and what time was it ?
The error I keep getting is “Playback was terminated by the server. The transcoder crashed or failed to start up.” Here are the fresh logs with the error message; I started playing an MKV file (Pirates of the Caribbean) on my Apple TV from my server (macOS High Sierra 10.13.4). I randomly get these errors usually half way through just about any movie, with or without captions on. I have already deleted the contents of the codec directory as many suggested but that has not fixed the issue, Plex has become very unusable for me when this started a few days ago.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VWc5Vg9OuRltRJEZkSzMS4UbN43be_kU/view?usp=sharing
Plex Conversion Failed - Transcoder Crashed Error - Album on Imgur
There was an error relating to the EasyAudioEncoder job
Apr 29, 2018 20:42:30.001 [0x70000d11d000] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_eae @ 0x7fd41c821a00] EAE timeout! EAE not running, or wrong folder? Could not read '/var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/pms-937f1245-60c3-42c7-af17-e810120398f3/EasyAudioEncoder/Convert to Dolby Digital Plus (Max Quality - 1024 kbps)/DE84DCFE-3F90-4AC5-974F-C60274349E76_836-1-9712.ec3'
Apr 29, 2018 20:42:30.280 [0x70000c8ed000] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_eae @ 0x7fd41c821a00] error reading output
Apr 29, 2018 20:42:30.281 [0x70000cf11000] ERROR - [Transcoder] Audio encoding failed
Issues with EasyAudioEncoder could be because it failed to run due to not having execute permissions
Do any of the other logs show the start of the EasyAudioEncoder job ? or download of the program?
Check the permissions of the directory where the codecs are and EasyAudioEncoder application is
and see Activity Monitor when starting playback to see if that starts running
I checked all the permissions of the codec directory, and changed the ones that were not read and write admin, to that.
ex; https://imgur.com/a/Nk0WNoo
Here are all the logs from last getting the error.
@“Chemical Sam” said:
I checked all the permissions of the codec directory, and changed the ones that were not read and write admin, to that.
ex; EasyAudioEncoder - Album on Imgur
Here are all the logs from last getting the error.
Thanks for the zipped logs
What files / folders exist in this directory
/var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/pms-937f1245-60c3-42c7-af17-e810120398f3/EasyAudioEncoder/
and do we have execute permissions for that directory?
The actually EasyAudioEncoder process was started some time before the error
Apr 29, 2018 19:11:28.349 [0x70000c5db000] INFO - CodecManager: starting EAE at "/var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/pms-937f1245-60c3-42c7-af17-e810120398f3/EasyAudioEncoder"
Could you see if it actually is running after starting streaming that requires the EasyAudioEncoder and if any files get written to within the path mentioned above
if it does run but fails when processing the media file, then would need a sample file that fails so the issue can be reproduced
