And just to clarify since there is a lot going on here, I don’t know if I am having a transcoding issue specifically, the iOS player just won’t play this particular type of video file if the app setting has Picture in Picture mode enabled.
Pretty sure it is related to the HE-AAC audio, since I don’t have issues with any other audio type playing in PiP mode within the app. Trying to locate another video file to test, as I don’t appear to have any other videos with HE-AAC.
Okay so it is not specifically HE-AAC, I finally found a video file with HE-AAC 5.1 that plays fine. So maybe it is not audio related.
Anything I can provide to help troubleshoot? The logs in the first post are the debug logs from the iPad and server. THANK YOU!
I think what would be really useful for @ChuckPa to try to troubleshoot this would be if you can reproduce the issue with PiP and afterwards capture the server log without doing anything else so that its easier to find in the logs and troubleshoot. The logs you posted above have the error in them but they also have a lot of other stuff which can make it difficult to track down.
Any way I can reduce the noise in the logs?
I followed the support document to enable debug then restart the Plex service. I did nothing else with Plex except try to play the offending episode.
It’s not that there is noise, its that isolating that issue is very helpful. Recreating the issue and capturing the logs right afterwards puts the issue at the end of the log as the most recent event making it easy to find in the log and troubleshoot.
Yeah that’s what I thought I did, I’ll do it again just to be sure.
Here are the latest logs, I turned on debug server logging. Stopped service, restarted service, in the plex web admin I click on troubleshooting page, then I hit play in the iOS app it spins for about 20 seconds then produces the something went wrong message, then I immediately clicked on download logs button in the web admin page.
Plex Media Server Logs_2021-12-02_14-39-48.zip (1.9 MB)
PlexDebugInfo-7.25-1615 (2021-12-02 14.40.04 -0600).zip (1004.3 KB)
Looking at the iOS app I log I see a lot of errors, but nothing I clearly understand:
2021/12/02 14:39:08.899 (145 MB) (1288636) ❌ PMKAVQueuePlayer.m:140 | Current item did finish playing with status FAILED. Error: Error Domain=AVFoundationErrorDomain Code=-11829 "Cannot Open" UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=This media may be damaged., NSLocalizedDescription=Cannot Open, NSUnderlyingError=0x280820a20 {Error Domain=CoreMediaErrorDomain Code=-12848 "(null)"}}
Error log entries:
(null)
2021/12/02 14:39:08.900 (145 MB) (1288636) ⚠️ PMKVideoPlaybackEngine.m:1793 | Player duration (0) and part duration (2732.404) are too different
2021/12/02 14:39:08.900 (145 MB) (1288636) ⚠️ PMKVideoPlaybackEngine.m:1800 | Player duration is 0, falling back to part duration (2732.404)
2021/12/02 14:39:08.900 (145 MB) (1288636) 🔧 PMKVideoPlaybackEngine.m:1822 | It looks like item { <PMKPlayQueueMetadata:0x1208cb060 key:/library/metadata/7235 title:Hide and Q type:4 isDirectory:0> }, playQueueItemID:220483 part /library/parts/7162/1563983884/file.mkv finished prematurely (time=0, part interval=0-2732.404), trying again 2/5...
2021/12/02 14:39:26.153 (146 MB) (1288636) ❌ AVPlayer+PMKAdditions.m:253 | Different number of tracks in player item ((
"<AVPlayerItemTrack: 0x28071eb50, assetTrack = <AVAssetTrack: 0x28074a840, trackID = 1, mediaType = vide>>"
)) and asset ((
))
2021/12/02 14:39:26.154 (146 MB) (1288636) ❌ PMKAVVideoPlayer.m:217 | Unexpected problem loading tracks in player item <PMKAVPlayerItem: 0x2809fc660, asset = <AVURLAsset: 0x280f41cc0, URL = https://192-168-1-5.52d1c94467194d8683b956c55e9b52ee.plex.direct:32400/video/:/transcode/universal/start.m3u8?audioBoost=100&autoAdjustQuality=0&directPlay=1&directStream=1&directStreamAudio=1&fastSeek=1&includeCodecs=1&location=lan&mediaBufferSize=40000&partIndex=0&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F7235&protocol=hls&session=1C48BAF7-A840-4720-BB57-4BB516CFAB18&subtitleSize=100&videoQuality=100&videoResolution=4096x2160&X-Plex-Client-Identifier=BCE92A91-DB0A-4A15-94F8-B9DD59672CF1&X-Plex-Client-Platform=iOS&X-Plex-Device=iPad&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Density=2&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=2388x1668&X-Plex-Device-Vendor=Apple&X-Plex-Drm=fairplay%3Avideo&X-Plex-Http-Pipeline=infinite&X-Plex-Model=8%2C3&X-Plex-Platform=iOS&X-Plex-Platform-Version=15.1&X-Plex-Product=Plex%20for%20iOS&X-Plex-Provides=client%2Ccontroller%2Csync-target%2Cplayer%2Cpubsub-player%2Cprovider-playback&X-Plex-Supported-Commands=abort%2CchangeQuality&X-Plex-Sync-Version=2&X-Plex-Token=qphVSxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&X-Plex-Username=joey%&X-Plex-Version=7.25&X-Plex-Language=en&X-Plex-Device-Name=Joey%20iPadPro11>>. Error: Error Domain=AVPlayerAdditionsErrorDomain Code=1 "Number of tracks for item <PMKAVPlayerItem: 0x2809fc660, asset = <AVURLAsset: 0x280f41cc0, URL = https://192-168-1-5.52d1c94467194d8683b956c55e9b52ee.plex.direct:32400/video/:/transcode/universal/start.m3u8?audioBoost=100&autoAdjustQuality=0&directPlay=1&directStream=1&directStreamAudio=1&fastSeek=1&includeCodecs=1&location=lan&mediaBufferSize=40000&partIndex=0&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F7235&protocol=hls&session=1C48BAF7-A840-4720-BB57-4BB516CFAB18&subtitleSize=100&videoQuality=100&videoResolution=4096x2160&X-Plex-Client-Identifier=BCE92A91-DB0A-4A15-94F8-B9DD59672CF1&X-Plex-Client-Platform=iOS&X-Plex-Device=iPad&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Density=2&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=2388x1668&X-Plex-Device-Vendor=Apple&X-Plex-Drm=fairplay%3Avideo&X-Plex-Http-Pipeline=infinite&X-Plex-Model=8%2C3&X-Plex-Platform=iOS&X-Plex-Platform-Version=15.1&X-Plex-Product=Plex%20for%20iOS&X-Plex-Provides=client%2Ccontroller%2Csync-target%2Cplayer%2Cpubsub-player%2Cprovider-playback&X-Plex-Supported-Commands=abort%2CchangeQuality&X-Plex-Sync-Version=2&X-Plex-Token=qphVSxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&X-Plex-Username=joey%&X-Plex-Version=7.25&X-Plex-Language=en&X-Plex-Device-Name=Joey%20iPadPro11>> ((
"<AVPlayerItemTrack: 0x28071eb50, assetTrack = <AVAssetTrack: 0x28074a840, trackID = 1, mediaType = vide>>"
)) didn't match with asset <AVURLAsset: 0x280f41cc0, URL = https://192-168-1-5.52d1c94467194d8683b956c55e9b52ee.plex.direct:32400/video/:/transcode/universal/start.m3u8?audioBoost=100&autoAdjustQuality=0&directPlay=1&directStream=1&directStreamAudio=1&fastSeek=1&includeCodecs=1&location=lan&mediaBufferSize=40000&partIndex=0&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F7235&protocol=hls&session=1C48BAF7-A840-4720-BB57-4BB516CFAB18&subtitleSize=100&videoQuality=100&videoResolution=4096x2160&X-Plex-Client-Identifier=BCE92A91-DB0A-4A15-94F8-B9DD59672CF1&X-Plex-Client-Platform=iOS&X-Plex-Device=iPad&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Density=2&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=2388x1668&X-Plex-Device-Vendor=Apple&X-Plex-Drm=fairplay%3Avideo&X-Plex-Http-Pipeline=infinite&X-Plex-Model=8%2C3&X-Plex-Platform=iOS&X-Plex-Platform-Version=15.1&X-Plex-Product=Plex%20for%20iOS&X-Plex-Provides=client%2Ccontroller%2Csync-target%2Cplayer%2Cpubsub-player%2Cprovider-playback&X-Plex-Supported-Commands=abort%2CchangeQuality&X-Plex-Sync-Version=2&X-Plex-Token=qphVSxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&X-Plex-Username=joey%40&X-Plex-Version=7.25&X-Plex-Language=en&X-Plex-Device-Name=Joey%20iPadPro11> ((
))" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Number of tracks for item <PMKAVPlayerItem: 0x2809fc660, asset = <AVURLAsset: 0x280f41cc0, URL = https://192-168-1-5.52d1c94467194d8683b956c55e9b52ee.plex.direct:32400/video/:/transcode/universal/start.m3u8?audioBoost=100&autoAdjustQuality=0&directPlay=1&directStream=1&directStreamAudio=1&fastSeek=1&includeCodecs=1&location=lan&mediaBufferSize=40000&partIndex=0&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F7235&protocol=hls&session=1C48BAF7-A840-4720-BB57-4BB516CFAB18&subtitleSize=100&videoQuality=100&videoResolution=4096x2160&X-Plex-Client-Identifier=BCE92A91-DB0A-4A15-94F8-B9DD59672CF1&X-Plex-Client-Platform=iOS&X-Plex-Device=iPad&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Density=2&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=2388x1668&X-Plex-Device-Vendor=Apple&X-Plex-Drm=fairplay%3Avideo&X-Plex-Http-Pipeline=infinite&X-Plex-Model=8%2C3&X-Plex-Platform=iOS&X-Plex-Platform-Version=15.1&X-Plex-Product=Plex%20for%20iOS&X-Plex-Provides=client%2Ccontroller%2Csync-target%2Cplayer%2Cpubsub-player%2Cprovider-playback&X-Plex-Supported-Commands=abort%2CchangeQuality&X-Plex-Sync-Version=2&X-Plex-Token=qphVSxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&X-Plex-Username=joey%&X-Plex-Version=7.25&X-Plex-Language=en&X-Plex-Device-Name=Joey%20iPadPro11>> ((
"<AVPlayerItemTrack: 0x28071eb50, assetTrack = <AVAssetTrack: 0x28074a840, trackID = 1, mediaType = vide>>"
)) didn't match with asset <AVURLAsset: 0x280f41cc0, URL = https://192-168-1-5.52d1c94467194d8683b956c55e9b52ee.plex.direct:32400/video/:/transcode/universal/start.m3u8?audioBoost=100&autoAdjustQuality=0&directPlay=1&directStream=1&directStreamAudio=1&fastSeek=1&includeCodecs=1&location=lan&mediaBufferSize=40000&partIndex=0&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F7235&protocol=hls&session=1C48BAF7-A840-4720-BB57-4BB516CFAB18&subtitleSize=100&videoQuality=100&videoResolution=4096x2160&X-Plex-Client-Identifier=BCE92A91-DB0A-4A15-94F8-B9DD59672CF1&X-Plex-Client-Platform=iOS&X-Plex-Device=iPad&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Density=2&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=2388x1668&X-Plex-Device-Vendor=Apple&X-Plex-Drm=fairplay%3Avideo&X-Plex-Http-Pipeline=infinite&X-Plex-Model=8%2C3&X-Plex-Platform=iOS&X-Plex-Platform-Version=15.1&X-Plex-Product=Plex%20for%20iOS&X-Plex-Provides=client%2Ccontroller%2Csync-target%2Cplayer%2Cpubsub-player%2Cprovider-playback&X-Plex-Supported-Commands=abort%2CchangeQuality&X-Plex-Sync-Version=2&X-Plex-Token=qphVSxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&X-Plex-Username=joey%&X-Plex-Version=7.25&X-Plex-Language=en&X-Plex-Device-Name=Joey%20iPadPro11> ((
))}
2021/12/02 14:39:26.168 (146 MB) (1288636) ❌ PMKAVQueuePlayer.m:140 | Current item did finish playing with status FAILED. Error: Error Domain=AVFoundationErrorDomain Code=-11829 "Cannot Open" UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=This media may be damaged., NSLocalizedDescription=Cannot Open, NSUnderlyingError=0x280929650 {Error Domain=CoreMediaErrorDomain Code=-12848 "(null)"}}
2021/12/02 14:39:42.206 (146 MB) (1288636) ➖ PMKPlaybackSession.m:513 | Play decision: {
directPlay = "3000 - App cannot direct play this item. No direct play video profile exists for protocol http, with container mkv, and video codec hevc.";
general = "1001 - Direct play not available; Conversion OK.";
transcode = "1001 - Direct play not available; Conversion OK.";
}
2021/12/02 14:39:42.285 (146 MB) (1288636) ➖ PMKPlaybackSession.m:513 | Play decision: {
directPlay = "3000 - App cannot direct play this item. Direct play is disabled.";
general = "1001 - Direct play not available; Conversion OK.";
transcode = "1001 - Direct play not available; Conversion OK.";
2021/12/02 14:39:42.285 (146 MB) (1288636) 🔧 PMKAppEventMonitor.m:128 | [AppEventMonitor]: Playback Decision did end 14:39:42,2850 | ⚠️ This event ended before?, this shouldn't happen⚠️
In the server log I also found the reference to no hardware decode accelerator. But stranger, the server reports direct play isn’t supported (while it sure may not be in the Picture in Picture mode
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.239 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Selected protocol hls; container: mp4
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.239 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: analyzing media item 7154
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.239 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E10 - Hide and Q: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.239 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E10 - Hide and Q: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/aac
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.239 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Hide and Q - audio.channels limitation applies: 8 > 6
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.239 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Hide and Q - audio.channels limitation applies: 8 > 6
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.240 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Hide and Q - audio.channels limitation applies: 8 > 6
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.240 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Cannot direct stream audio stream due to profile or setting limitations
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.240 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: analyzing media item 62729
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.240 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E10 - Hide and Q: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.240 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E10 - Hide and Q: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/aac
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.240 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Hide and Q - audio.channels limitation applies: 8 > 6
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.240 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Hide and Q - audio.channels limitation applies: 8 > 6
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.241 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Hide and Q - audio.channels limitation applies: 8 > 6
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.241 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Cannot direct stream audio stream due to profile or setting limitations
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.241 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Star Trek: The Next Generation - S1 E10 - Hide and Q: selected media 0 / 7154
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.242 [0x7fa12c994b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Killing job.
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.242 [0x7fa12c994b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Signalling job ID 22525 with 9
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.242 [0x7fa12c994b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Job was already killed, not killing again.
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.242 [0x7fa12c994b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Stopping transcode session 1C48BAF7-A840-4720-BB57-4BB516CFAB18
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.243 [0x7fa12c9dab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Cleaning directory for session 1C48BAF7-A840-4720-BB57-4BB516CFAB18 (/volume1/Plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/Transcode/Sessions/plex-transcode-1C48BAF7-A840-4720-BB57-4BB516CFAB18-9dc4e3f0-bee3-44c4-b13d-f7156a17396f)
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.243 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=7235 codes=(General=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK. Direct Play=3000,App cannot direct play this item. No direct play video profile exists for protocol http, with container mkv, and video codec hevc. Transcode=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK.) media=(id=7154 part=(id=7162 decision=transcode container=mp4 protocol=hls streams=(Video=(id=18376 decision=copy width=1440 height=1072) Audio=(id=18377 decision=transcode bitrate=258 encoder=libmp3lame channels=2 rate=48000))))
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.438 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode/F6886FA0-CDB1-457A-B5A5-D17F762D1164] Starting a transcode session F6886FA0-CDB1-457A-B5A5-D17F762D1164 at offset -1.0 (state=3)
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.439 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode/F6886FA0-CDB1-457A-B5A5-D17F762D1164] TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.439 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode/F6886FA0-CDB1-457A-B5A5-D17F762D1164] [Universal] Using local file path instead of URL: /volume1/video/Star Trek - The Next Generation (1987)/Star Trek The Next Generation Season 1 (1080p BD x265 10bit FS79 Joy)/Star Trek TNG S01E10 Hide and Q (1080p x265 10bit Joy).mkv
Dec 02, 2021 14:39:42.439 [0x7fa12fa50b38] DEBUG - [Transcode/F6886FA0-CDB1-457A-B5A5-D17F762D1164] TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder:
Unfortunately today’s iOS app update did not seem to fix this issue.
I’ve mysteriously started getting transcoder errors on files with HE-AAC the last few days. These are from IPTV streams that I DVR. They play fine on plex web player but can’t play on iOS or tvOS. Media also plays fine in alternate players like KODI.
Wonder if we have a similar issue? I posted a thread about my problem earlier today if you want more details
I also tried the same files on a different server I have, running Ubuntu, same failures so it sure does seem to be the app has an issue. Would Be nice to be able to file a bug report since this issue is more than a year old for me
getting same issue on nvida shield. only with DVR recordings
Sure would be nice if this bug was at least acknowledged, it appears to be an issue with the iOS “Classic player” mode that is used for PiP playback within the iOS plex app. I understand it would be a low priority issue, but at least say it will be added to the list instead of just ignoring the report.
Latest iOS app update did not fix this issue with the PiP player
With the latest iOS app update (7.28) and current server server version (1.25.4.5487), the issue is finally resolved!! 
Seems like the app finally requests the proper transcode compatible with the classic player used by PiP mode.
Here is how it plays successfully now:
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