I can't stream from the Android app, all other TV apps and PC working fine

Plex Players Mobile Devices
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1

Server Version#: 1.25.2.5319 - Latest
Player Version#: 8.27.2.29938 - Latest

I’m not sure when this stopped working because I don’t use it frequently but have some travel coming up soon and would like to be able to take my collection with me. Please let me know what other information you need and I’ll add it swiftly. Thank you for any assistance.

Symptoms:
I can view the library and when I play a video, the title attempts to buffer for an apparently indefinite period - I left it going for about 8 minutes with no video being produced and no error message.

Plex Pass:
I did the one-time Plex app purchase quite some time ago and I recently purchased a lifetime PlexPass subscription.

What have I tried?
Logging out of the app and signing in again.
Read a few other related threads, but very old so not sure what advice applies any longer.

2

while it’s a PITA.

  1. Make sure DEBUG logging ON, VERBOSE logging off
  2. Start the playback again.
  3. Abort after 30 seconds of waiting
  4. Settings - Server - Troubleshooting (plex/web) - Download Logs
  5. Attach the ZIP file

If that fails to resolve, given there was an outage earlier today, it might also be prudent to just reinstall the app.

3

Hello, you can find the log .zip file here, thank you.

4

And then I reinstalled the app on my mobile device and restarted. Problem no longer persists.

5

I’m having the same issue on my S21.

What I’ve done so far:

  • Clean installation
  • Beta installation
  • Tested various connections
  • Various player settings

Server Version#: 1.25.2.5319
Player Version#: 8.28.0.29997

Logs taken while trying to play a title using the Android device:
Plex Media Server Logs_2021-12-27_11-50-31.zip (4.6 MB)

Appreciate any help and assistance on this matter!

6

I have had the same issues since like a week or two, think it was after an update. It coincided with big Android update so I’m not sure it’s entirely plex fault. Been waiting for a fix but…
My symptoms are: Starting a movie have about 75% risk of getting stuck in loading indefinitely. Closing the movie-progress-bar-box at the bottom helps.

The playback often crashes when jumping forward or backwards in movie.

7

Ok I’m pretty sure my issue is android device specific (Samsung galaxy s21 +) connected to this issue Plex Android App didnt work after update on Android 12 - #238 by sixones

8

My issue got solved after new android update.

9

I’m having the same issue on my S21 Ultra. Playback mostly doesn’t work on the Android app. I say “mostly” because I can reboot my phone and it works for an hour or two, then it stops playing media again. I can open Chrome on the same phone and play with no issue so it’s definitely app-related.

10

Can you please grab and provide the logs for me to forward to Engineering?

11

My wifes S21 is having the same issue. Restart and it works for a time then stops.

12

Sorry to sound rote –

“Me too” doesn’t help fix it.

May I have some log files please?

13

I was about to start a new topic and came across this thread which describes the issues I am experiencing, with Android devices.

There are no issues viewing images, the problems arise when I play video files from an Android device, I have tested two mobile phones and one tablet - all have the same symptom whereby the video doesn’t play however i can hear the sound fine.

Note - I have tested two Apple Iphones and these work absolutely perfectly.

A diverse range of video files were tested eg from camera phones, DSLR, youtube and no matter which i try it fails on ALL android devices, IOS plays everything.

On both platforms (IOS and Android) i have experimented with Direct Play, Direct Stream and also transcode and in the case of IOS everything is fine with the experience flawless, however, with the Android devices I cannot get the video to play at all, sound but no moving video unless i set the Android devices to use an external player such as VLC.

Using VLC is fine, when I am home. Not so great when I am away from home because i wish to use the transcode feature to reduce the stream size and this is only done within the native plex player, not external players. I have a fast PC, transcode is fine by me for these occasional times i need it. IOS works fine in this scenario, not so for Android.

Server ver# 1.25.2.5319

Android Clients use 8.28.0.30077 (241173d0) on Samsung Note8, Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 uses 8.28.0.30077 (241173d0), an old Huawei Y5 is also 8.28.0.30077

Apple IOS client ver 7.26 on 11Pro, 7.26 on 5S.

On Android, the caches have been cleared, the app re-installed plus numerous other items tested. I also tested Optimized versions (custom setting > selecting Android) however this too fails, now i’m truly at a loss.

I’m not sure when this issue started.

Help?

1 Like
14

Nobody?

Think i’ll start a new thread shortly…

15

I started a similar thread earlier today and just came across this one. Appears I am having the same issue however while also an S21 Ultra, If I leave it trying to load for 10 - 15 seconds and then stop and play again it works instantly.

If I don’t wait the 10 - 15 seconds and try it sooner it stays in the same loading loop.

17

Thanks cmurrayais, I tried your workaround but unfortunately it’s made no difference to my Android experience.

I have now updated Plex server (Resides on a Win10x64 21H2 19044.1466 build which i didn’t mention initially) to Version 1.25.3.5409 and no difference to Android, while the apple devices perform perfectly. There is no further client updates for Android at time of writing.

This may be of value to the devs or anyone willing to troubleshoot this at Plex:

  • When I have Home Streaming set to recommended I can see my Plex PC server uploading data at approx 45Mbps (4k video file) and bursting to 70Mbps which suggests it’s the fully quality file and i agree based on the visuals - FYI the video doesn’t play (sound is ok) with the Plex player on Android, apple is fine (apple is always fine!)

  • When i set the Home Streaming to 8Mbps, the Transcode/Sessions folder populates with the media****.ts files, the PC uploads far less data suggesting the Plex server is transcoding fine, Android still can’t play video and you can hear the sound, Apple is fine again.

So, from my testing i conclude my Android experience is bad and unusable for video using the Plex player (external player fine, but i need plex player for transcoding playback), The PC experience using the MS store app is meh and crashes at times, i have not thoroughly tested it but hey I don’t use it so don’t really care, the Apple experience is perfect and salute you to a good product there.

For those only using Android, the Apple app is more friendly and simply WORKS well (for me). You can change the video quality from within the player as opposed to exiting the playback and navigating to settings etc, not only that you can change other settings on the App which cannot be done on Android. Can the same features and rigorous testing please be invested in the Android product?

Get it fixed and I’ll buy the lifetime subscription even through i don’t need the features, Plex saves me on cloud storage and allows me to manage my own data and privacy, lots of plus’s there.

20

Hi Plex,

I have a similar issue like this, the below is my description and the android phone log.
  1. the PlexMediaServer work fine, because my ios device work well in any network(LAN network or celluar network or WIFI), and the android TV is also works fine(this is in LAN network), Plex Desktop APP is also works fine. the works fine means can find the repo of my library in app.
  2. The Android Phone (issue device), in LAN network, is also works fine.
  3. The issue point: if switch network to hotpoint (my iphone shared a wifi AP), the Plex APP can’t access my media library, it promts offline.
  4. if switch celluar network, the plex is also can’t be access my plex media server library.
    The resut: only in same LAN network with plex media server, the plex app will works fine.
1 Like
21

Hi
This is my android phone(issue device)'s log:
plex-log-pzhaoyang.zip (693.6 KB)

22

This is my android phone(issue device)'s log as well:
plex-log-misesenforce.zip (298.7 KB)

24

@misesenforce Please watch the language. We understand not having the app working properly is frustrating, but picking on the support team isn’t going to help.

I looked at your android logs and they show 3 playback attempts. Let me know if this is correct.

On the 13th, you played a tv episode. This appears to work for 4 seconds then you hit stop.

On the 18th, another playback of a tv episode, but something happens and the app loses the connection to your server.

Recently, it shows it asks for a trancode from the server, but it never gets anything back.

Can you provide me a new set of server logs? Your previous ones are after the attempt on the 18th but before the recent attempt so it doesn’t include any information on the actual attempts.