Getting a "Conversion failed. Transcoder crashed or failed to start up" error.

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
121

Here are the files inside the codecs directory, I made sure they all had all permissions on all files in that directory.

[Album] Codecs directory

I’m not sure what you mean by “/var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/pms-937f1245-60c3-42c7-af17-e810120398f3/EasyAudioEncoder” - I do not see anything named this.

I checked activity monitor last night while running a movie, which surprisingly that time did not come up with an error but it has before. I did not see anything for EasyAudioEncoder or EAE in Activity Monitor at all, so I can assume it is not running?

I just tried to watch a movie this morning and received the error again as you can see from the new logs attached.

I have gotten this error before on almost all the media I’ve tested over the past few days, it does not seem to matter what the file is, they are all MKV files (x264).

I assumed from last night correcting the permissions would fix this issue, however it is clear that this morning it still will not work. And as I pointed out this happens randomly at different times when playing just about anything.

122

@sa2000 said:

@“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

I apologize, I located the folder /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/pms-937f1245-60c3-42c7-af17-e810120398f3/EasyAudioEncoder/ and the files do appear to be running during playback; here is a screenshot.

[Album] T - EasyAudioEncoder

Plex EAE Service is also now randomly showing up in Activity Monitor as well.

123

@“Chemical Sam” said:

@sa2000 said:

@“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

I apologize, I located the folder /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/pms-937f1245-60c3-42c7-af17-e810120398f3/EasyAudioEncoder/ and the files do appear to be running during playback; here is a screenshot.

T - EasyAudioEncoder - Album on Imgur

Plex EAE Service is also now randomly showing up in Activity Monitor as well.

Thank you for the screenshots. Execute permissions must be there for it to be running and writing to the files

The symptom and error is identical to having the EasyAudioEncoder temp folders not supporting notifications. Network shares for example do not support it and would give that symptom

Is your /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/ directory on an internal disk or could it be one that is not supporting filewatch notifications?

Is it the temp directory?

124

@sa2000 said:

@“Chemical Sam” said:

@sa2000 said:

@“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

I apologize, I located the folder /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/pms-937f1245-60c3-42c7-af17-e810120398f3/EasyAudioEncoder/ and the files do appear to be running during playback; here is a screenshot.

T - EasyAudioEncoder - Album on Imgur

Plex EAE Service is also now randomly showing up in Activity Monitor as well.

Thank you for the screenshots. Execute permissions must be there for it to be running and writing to the files

The symptom and error is identical to having the EasyAudioEncoder temp folders not supporting notifications. Network shares for example do not support it and would give that symptom

Is your /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/ directory on an internal disk or could it be one that is not supporting filewatch notifications?

Is it the temp directory?

I made sure all the files in /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/ as well as the codec directory all had the proper admin permissions.

I played an entire movie although it has had failed before, however this time it played without error. I assumed this meant it was finally fixed. I played a second movie (one that I had used previously) and that playback failed with the same error as I have a screenshot here from the log;

[Album] Conversion failed again

As I stated this happens with all my media, regardless of what you’re playing. Sometime during the stream, it will usually fail.

Yes all those files are on the internal disc, I only keep my MKV files on a external WD drive. I am not sure what filewatch notifications are.

I have attached another set a new logs zip with the error from what I just tested tonight. This error is very frustrating. This problem only started about a week ago even tho Plex was working fine until then, however I did not change anything.

Plex EAE Service is still in Activity Monitor, as well as the files showing up inside of /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/ during playback.

After restarting my server, and going back to the /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/pms-937f1245-60c3-42c7-af17-e810120398f3/ I attached screenshots to the above Imgur album. The permissions I set were missing and reverted it back to default. And all the folders in that folder are missing. Is it possible that the System Integrity Protection needs to be disabled in order to make the permissions function properly?

Also are the EasyAudioEncoder folders inside of /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/, only there when playback is happening? And if so how do you make the admin permissions settings stay after playback has finished. As it seems to then revert back to default.

However T was not reverted, assuming the sub folders are not always there and they are temporary, how do I then make them to always come up as all access. – I have attached many screenshots with the above Imgur link. I am very dedicated to getting this issue fixed, and finding out as to why this is a prominent issue for me and not many others.

125

Ignore this one too. I can’t delete it. Just look at my long above post

126

Ignore this comment I cannot delete the copy.

127

Sorry for getting of topic but how do I unsubscribe from this thread?

128

i have this error too. i can’t reproduce anything that is AC3 5.1 because i get the “Conversation failed” error. Same content with AAC audio play just fine. The log also show an error with eac3 codec:

May 01, 2018 17:17:19.654 [4408] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_mf @ 03e45840] could not find any MFT for the given media type
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.658 [7536] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_mf @ 03e45840] could not create MFT
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.670 [4408] ERROR - [Transcoder] Error while opening decoder for input stream #0:1 : Function not implemented
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.679 [10688] DEBUG - Jobs: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\PlexTranscoder.exe' exit code for process 1596 is 1 (failure)

All this happen with latest plex pass update (1.13.0.5003). All videos was reproduced perfectly with previous version.

129

@sharkiller said:
i have this error too. i can’t reproduce anything that is AC3 5.1 because i get the “Conversation failed” error. Same content with AAC audio play just fine. The log also show an error with eac3 codec:

May 01, 2018 17:17:19.654 [4408] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_mf @ 03e45840] could not find any MFT for the given media type
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.658 [7536] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_mf @ 03e45840] could not create MFT
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.670 [4408] ERROR - [Transcoder] Error while opening decoder for input stream #0:1 : Function not implemented
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.679 [10688] DEBUG - Jobs: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\PlexTranscoder.exe' exit code for process 1596 is 1 (failure)

All this happen with latest plex pass update (1.13.0.5003). All videos was reproduced perfectly with previous version.

Please do not post in every topic relating to transcoder errors - they are not all the same. You are already in this thread and it has users with same issue as yours
http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/319243/transcoding-errors-after-upgrading-to-1-13-0-5003-windows-media-foundation-related

130

@sa2000 said:

@sharkiller said:
i have this error too. i can’t reproduce anything that is AC3 5.1 because i get the “Conversation failed” error. Same content with AAC audio play just fine. The log also show an error with eac3 codec:

May 01, 2018 17:17:19.654 [4408] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_mf @ 03e45840] could not find any MFT for the given media type
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.658 [7536] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_mf @ 03e45840] could not create MFT
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.670 [4408] ERROR - [Transcoder] Error while opening decoder for input stream #0:1 : Function not implemented
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.679 [10688] DEBUG - Jobs: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\PlexTranscoder.exe' exit code for process 1596 is 1 (failure)

All this happen with latest plex pass update (1.13.0.5003). All videos was reproduced perfectly with previous version.

Please do not post in every topic relating to transcoder errors - they are not all the same. You are already in this thread and it has users with same issue as yours
http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/319243/transcoding-errors-after-upgrading-to-1-13-0-5003-windows-media-foundation-related

I made sure all the files in /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/ as well as the codec directory all had the proper admin permissions.

I played an entire movie although it has had failed before, however this time it played without error. I assumed this meant it was finally fixed. I played a second movie (one that I had used previously) and that playback failed with the same error as I have a screenshot here from the log;

[Album] Conversion failed again

As I stated this happens with all my media, regardless of what you’re playing. Sometime during the stream, it will usually fail.

Yes all those files are on the internal disc, I only keep my MKV files on a external WD drive. I am not sure what filewatch notifications are.

I have attached another set a new logs zip with the error from what I just tested tonight. This error is very frustrating. This problem only started about a week ago even tho Plex was working fine until then, however I did not change anything.

Plex EAE Service is still in Activity Monitor, as well as the files showing up inside of /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/ during playback.

After restarting my server, and going back to the /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/pms-937f1245-60c3-42c7-af17-e810120398f3/ I attached screenshots to the above Imgur album. The permissions I set were missing and reverted it back to default. And all the folders in that folder are missing. Is it possible that the System Integrity Protection needs to be disabled in order to make the permissions function properly?

Also are the EasyAudioEncoder folders inside of /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/, only there when playback is happening? And if so how do you make the admin permissions settings stay after playback has finished. As it seems to then revert back to default.

However T was not reverted, assuming the sub folders are not always there and they are temporary, how do I then make them to always come up as all access. – I have attached many screenshots with the above Imgur link. I am very dedicated to getting this issue fixed, and finding out as to why this is a prominent issue for me and not many others.

131

I will have a look at this tomorrow - but permissions get inherited from the parent - so make sure the parent directory has the right permissions so that any new directories would get those permissions

The parent directory is /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/
I presume this does not change and is where the tmp is defined to be

132

@“Chemical Sam” said:

@sa2000 said:

@sharkiller said:
i have this error too. i can’t reproduce anything that is AC3 5.1 because i get the “Conversation failed” error. Same content with AAC audio play just fine. The log also show an error with eac3 codec:

May 01, 2018 17:17:19.654 [4408] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_mf @ 03e45840] could not find any MFT for the given media type
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.658 [7536] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_mf @ 03e45840] could not create MFT
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.670 [4408] ERROR - [Transcoder] Error while opening decoder for input stream #0:1 : Function not implemented
May 01, 2018 17:17:19.679 [10688] DEBUG - Jobs: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\PlexTranscoder.exe' exit code for process 1596 is 1 (failure)

All this happen with latest plex pass update (1.13.0.5003). All videos was reproduced perfectly with previous version.

Please do not post in every topic relating to transcoder errors - they are not all the same. You are already in this thread and it has users with same issue as yours
http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/319243/transcoding-errors-after-upgrading-to-1-13-0-5003-windows-media-foundation-related

I made sure all the files in /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/ as well as the codec directory all had the proper admin permissions.

I played an entire movie although it has had failed before, however this time it played without error. I assumed this meant it was finally fixed. I played a second movie (one that I had used previously) and that playback failed with the same error as I have a screenshot here from the log;
Conversion failed again - Album on Imgur

As I stated this happens with all my media, regardless of what you’re playing. Sometime during the stream, it will usually fail.

Yes all those files are on the internal disc, I only keep my MKV files on a external WD drive. I am not sure what filewatch notifications are.

I have attached another set a new logs zip with the error from what I just tested tonight. This error is very frustrating. This problem only started about a week ago even tho Plex was working fine until then, however I did not change anything.

Plex EAE Service is still in Activity Monitor, as well as the files showing up inside of /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/ during playback.

After restarting my server, and going back to the /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/pms-937f1245-60c3-42c7-af17-e810120398f3/ I attached screenshots to the above Imgur album. The permissions I set were missing and reverted it back to default. And all the folders in that folder are missing. Is it possible that the System Integrity Protection needs to be disabled in order to make the permissions function properly?

Also are the EasyAudioEncoder folders inside of /var/folders/_7/bm87t6pj1xgbsnf9jxkvy0cw0000gn/T/, only there when playback is happening? And if so how do you make the admin permissions settings stay after playback has finished. As it seems to then revert back to default.

However T was not reverted, assuming the sub folders are not always there and they are temporary, how do I then make them to always come up as all access. – I have attached many screenshots with the above Imgur link. I am very dedicated to getting this issue fixed, and finding out as to why this is a prominent issue for me and not many others.

See if the information given in replies on this page helps you with permissions for tmp directories

133

Plex is useless now. Try Emby. You won’t look back.

1 Like
134

I starded getting the transcoder failed error a couple of days ago. Every file i started stopped playing after a couple if sec with the msg conversion fail due to transcoder error. Clearing up some space on my NAS and restarting it solved the issue for me.

135

Having similar Transcode failures as listed above… I’ve been having this issue since April 2018, I have tried every fix suggested in the forums.
My transcoder/optimize functions work perfectly for ANYTHING other than 4k files. feed it any of the 40+ 4k source videos and it fails 100% of the time, even files that transcoded/optimized previous to this issue happening now fail.
Currently a fully updated win10 with plex server v 1.13.6.5339, but I have tried every plex release and windows patch since this issue started back in April, nothing has improved it. Any suggestions?
Here is my current log with Transcoder-log verbose turned on and a few different 4k movie transcode attempts

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-08-26_20-46-45.zip (2.6 MB)

136

@itguy101

I see no recordings in the logs provided. At least not the recording starting.

Couple of things I do see in the logs:

  1. Turn off Verbose logging unless requested by a Plex Employee. Verbose throws extra messages in the logs that makes them difficult to read and causes the logs to roll over more frequently.

  2. I would suggest turning off Hardware Acceleration based on these lines:

Aug 26, 2018 19:53:41.705 [15184] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: opening hw device failed - probably not supported by this system, error: Unknown error occurred
Aug 26, 2018 19:53:41.705 [15184] ERROR - [FFMPEG] - Cannot load nvcuda.dll
```
137

I am not trying to record anything, this thread is about Transcoder/optimize operations failing.

  1. I turned on verbose because I was trying to figure out what was causing the failure. I have a bit of experience. Completely understand the side affects therein

  2. On, off doesn’t matter, it fails. I’ve rolled back to old versions, newest versions, Completely wiped the plex server installation, regkeys, leftover directories and started fresh. Even went as far as buiding a new VM and tried a completely separate instance, all fail to transcode/optimize. Something is very broken in Plex it is abundantly clear that these transcode/optimize issues are extremely widespread and response from Plex employees has been minimal at best.

Interestingly enough, installed Emby on my original windows instance alongside the non-functional plex, Everything worked perfectly the first time including hardware transcoding.

138

Did you make changes to how the transcoder exe is run ? eg compatibility mode?

In the last log you had this error

Aug 26, 2018 20:44:46.631 [13384] ERROR - JobRunner: exec of C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\PlexTranscoder.exe failed: error 0x2e4.
Aug 26, 2018 20:44:46.631 [13384] WARN - TranscodeSession: job runner failed to start

Error 0x2e4 is windows error 740 which is
740 (0x2E4) ERROR_ELEVATION_REQUIRED - The requested operation requires elevation.

Last time i had come across that was on this forum topic

Actually there was also this

Also check that your permissions are set correctly for your specified directory areas

c:\PlexTempFolder\Transcode
c:\Plex Media Server\Local
139

18 months down the track, we have now discovered that these specific transcoder errors appear to be due to Malwarebytes Premium blocking some localhost Plex Transcoder requests.

I do not know if you were using Malwarebytes on Windows - and if not, it could have been some other similar security software

A Support Article has now been published for this problem

The specific errors this relates to is this error together with other errors
ERROR - [Transcoder] av_interleaved_write_frame(): Unknown error
coupled by

Examples

ERROR - [Transcoder] [stream_segment,ssegment @ xxxxxxx] Failed to open segment list 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/seglist
ERROR - [Transcoder] av_interleaved_write_frame(): Unknown error
ERROR - [Transcoder] Error writing trailer of media-%05d.ts: Invalid argument

or

ERROR - [Transcoder] [dash @ 028ef3c0] Unable to open http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/manifest for writing
ERROR - [Transcoder] av_interleaved_write_frame(): Unknown error

The support article is
Windows: Transcoder failures during playback, live TV, or DVR recording

140

sa2000 - after following this thread on and off since February-ish of 2018 I finally feel compelled to reply. While Malwarebytes may very well have caused problems, as any AV could do, I’ve not used MB, even in a temp fashion, on my systems. I’ve suffered from transcoder errors for over a year, still to this day (upnp is fine). I’ve gone through the troubleshooting suggestions on this thread that I could, excluding installing betas and uploading my logs. I’ve run my Plex box with no AV or firewall at times, and through different switches and routers, just to rule that out. I stream to different devices including Xbox, Apple, Win7 and Win10 w/different browsers and the apps, all with failures. In my case, MB is not the problem. AV is not the problem. So, to proclaim that an AV or security app is the ultimate problem is BS. I do see that I dodged a bullet though, as I was fixing to do a premium membership when this problem started back in 2018. Luckily, I didn’t. I’ll keep checking back every once an a while and see if anything comes up. But, at this point it looks like the folks posting problems here have moved on as have I.