Yes but just in case any other setting was affecting I’ve set them all to Maximum and it still won’t make a difference. I also tried different permutations to see if a specific option would enable/disable more quality options in the dropdown but no dice.
Can you get me a new ios log and server log after playing a different video with all of those settings now set to maximum?
Please check your PM.
@anon18523487 I noticed that Plex/Tautulli reports my connection as Cellular. Could it be that the iOS Plex app has some sort of buggy check for quality options when I’m not connected to Wi-Fi?
I cannot test whether the problem goes away once I’m connected to Wi-Fi as mobile data is my sole provider of Internet connection as of right now.
The “Limit Cellular Data” setting in “Settings > Quality” is off, but I’m wondering if the settings value isn’t being applied correctly. I’ve tried changing it but it doesn’t make a difference. Here’s what the quality settings page looks like right now:
If there’s a different cause you found from the logs please let me know!
Your logs so who it was on a cellular connection, but as you showed, there is no limitation applied when using a cellular connection so you should still be able to see all the options. There is something odd going on and the app is thinking there is (why you only see some options) and is not (why you can play at original quality) a limitation at the same time. This is definitely something I’ve never seen.
Figured out the root cause.
Cellular - bug.
Connected through WiFi - all options show!
@anon18523487 so it seems like we were looking at the wrong root cause – it had nothing to do with port forwarding or Tailscale or anything. The iOS app is just buggy when it comes to mobile data.
Hopefully this gets fixed soon, because I only have cellular where I work (WiFi is restricted). Probably contributed to how late I found the root cause too since I don’t (read: cannot) use WiFi a lot.
I can confirm that the Android Plex app does not have the same bug. So it seems like this UI bug is limited to iOS only.
@anon18523487 any updates on this? Can you guys reproduce the issue with the steps I posted above?
If you need any more data to identify this bug I’m happy to contribute, I’ve been experiencing this bug for over a year with multiple iOS devices iPad and iPhones alike. Clean installs of Plex run on a bare Ubuntu server and in docker. Always with direct connection to the server e.g. 100% not relay. It seems the “Limit Cellular Data” setting isn’t being respected and is always applied irrespective of the user’s choice.
As soon as the device switches from Cellular to Wifi even when on a remote wifi network, the options reappear for greater than 2mbps.
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This is definitely a bug with iOS app. Regardless of whether you choose to limit cellular data, it will always limit. The switch is basically broken and stuck at “throttle cellular” setting.
iOS + WiFi = OK
iOS + Cellular = Not OK
Android + WiFi = OK
Android + Cellular = OK
I raised this issue in a separate thread “Bug Report: Transcoding capped at 2Mbps / 480p on iOS app” back in April but they have not done anything to fix this issue till now. What am I even paying for when I can’t make use of the hardware transcoding?
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This has been reported to the team.
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@anon18523487 any updates?
Issue still persists on latest iOS and Plex versions: Plex 8.9 running on iOS 16.0 (20A362).
Sorry, no updates yet.
@anon18523487 Have there been any updates yet? Sucks to have paid for a lifetime membership and built a new server only to find out I can’t even use it when on the go cause my cellular internet is too slow to play 50mbps files and 480p max conversions look really bad. Surely after all these months you’ve figured out what’s wrong with the app?
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iOS+Plex app user here… I have the same problem (480p max on cellular, all options on wifi) and would really appreciate an update.
I do not understand why it would be so difficult to show all quality options by default.
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@anon18523487 what’s the status on this bug? Is the team having trouble reproducing it?
All they have to do to replicate the bug is try playing anything over cellular data. I don’t understand what the hold-up is here. If you guys can’t replicate the bug, maybe due to some other factor at play, then let us know in this thread and I’m sure we can provide further debugging data to help triage the problem. If you guys can replicate the bug but are holding off on a fix for some reason or another, then great, but please let us know so we’re not wondering on what the status is.
This bug basically makes Plex unusable for me because I primarily consume content on my phone and I frequently stay at places with abysmal signal quality. I have to fiddle around with the workaround above and stop/start the playback session every time I need to adjust the quality, which is a lot because the available bandwidth fluctuates rapidly depending on time of day, number of people in the area, etc.
Please let us know how the issue is progressing. Thanks.
The issue is filed internally. Just waiting for resources to free up to work on it.
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There has been some progress! I updated to Plex iOS version 8.11.1 and the behavior of the quality drop-down has now changed:
if I connect using Tailscale, the app shows me all of the quality options correctly (yay!)if I turn off Tailscale and connect directly with the port, the same issue persists and only options below 480p are shown.
This is an improvement in that Tailscale now appears to allow the app to show all quality options when the phone is on cellular. Hope the devs can manage to fix the other case above too.
Never mind, spoke too soon. I forgot that I published my home subnet using Tailscale, and it was tricking Plex into thinking that I was connecting at home. (Basically phone on cellular → Tailscale → another device at home → server with Plex on it, and Plex sees “another device at home” sending packets and assumes the phone is at home.)
So the app is not yet fixed. But for people who use Tailscale you can temporarily mitigate this problem by using subnet routing to basically trick the app into believing you’re at home.
Any updates on this bug? Commenting so the forum software doesn’t auto-lock
