Long time issue: Playback Error - An error occurred loading items to play

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: Version 1.13.6.5339
Player Version#: Version 3.63.1

I’ve had this problem for a couple months at this point, with no responses to my other thread, so going to try again here fresh. Also became a Plex Pass subscriber in hopes of things changing, but that did not work…

I’ve had plex for a long time (years) without issue. A couple months ago, I suddenly stopped being able to stream videos from my desktop to my tv via Chromecast. The same goes for streaming from the Plex app on my Pixel 2 (the server shows as “offline”). Simply playing from the web player on my desktop (via Chrome) also does not work.

I can, however, play from the web player on msft Edge (though obviously can’t see my chromecast device, so this doesn’t solve my problem).

I have performed the steps on these two sites several times to no avail:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201941078-uninstall-plex-media-server/?_ga=2.239376259.1234969074.1535812687-1388776994.1529960591

https://support.plex.tv/articles/201100678-repair-a-corrupt-database/?_ga=2.239376259.1234969074.1535812687-1388776994.1529960591

I’m running Win10 with Asus OnHub Google router. I made no software or hardware changes (that I can remember). I may have lost power at some point which would have forced my desktop off while the server was running, but otherwise can’t remember any other reason why things would have changed.

Media Server log attached, and any help is much appreciated! Plex Media Server.log (2.4 MB)

2

The log shows some network issues initially from time of launch up to 18:01:33 on the 1st September - with DNS errors

The server detected network interface - a wifi connection

Sep 01, 2018 17:37:04.033 [8680] DEBUG - Network interfaces:
517 Sep 01, 2018 17:37:04.034 [8680] DEBUG -  * 24 Wi-Fi 2 {F9B97710-CAF7-400D-9032-F954A1709A9B} (192.168.86.248) (loopback: 0)

examples

Sep 01, 2018 17:35:57.569 [10096] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET https://plex.tv/servers/0a8da23742e20e2b3169643a2e9cdd2448c34681/access_tokens.xml?auth_token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&includeProfiles=1&includeProviders=1
Sep 01, 2018 17:35:57.569 [10096] ERROR - Error issuing curl_easy_perform(handle): 6
Sep 01, 2018 17:35:57.569 [10096] WARN - HTTP error requesting GET https://plex.tv/servers/0a8da23742e20e2b3169643a2e9cdd2448c34681/access_tokens.xml?auth_token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&includeProfiles=1&includeProviders=1 (0, No error) (Could not resolve host: plex.tv)

Other examples of DNS errors

Sep 01, 2018 18:01:33.256 [19128] WARN - HTTP error requesting PUT https://plex.tv/devices/0a8da23742e20e2b3169643a2e9cdd2448c34681?httpsEnabled=1&httpsRequired=0&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (0, No error) (Could not resolve host: plex.tv)

I am not sure if these errors had a bearing on attempts later to connect to the server

What actually happens when you attempt this on Google Chrome
http://192.168.86.248:32400/web ?
any errors / detail of error offered ?

Does Plex Web screen load up ? We can enable plex web verbose logging if it does load plex web
Settings / Web / Show Advanced / Debug / Enable verbose logging / save changes
then retry the url to connect
and capture plex web log
Settings / Web / Show Advanced / Debug /view log / select all and copy to text file

and copy the logs folder in plex media server and zip that copy
C:\Users\Ross Klos\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\logs

Then could you repeat the test in chrome for the hosted plex web
https://app.plex.tv/desktop
and again enable logging in plex web
Settings / Web / Show Advanced / Debug / Enable verbose logging / save changes
and refresh the browser and see if the server shows up
and if not to get the web log
Settings / Web / Show Advanced / Debug /view log / select all and copy to text file

and get another copy of the Logs folder and zip the copy

Attach both server logs zips and saved plex web logs text files

could you also try to shut down plex media server and only launch it after you know DNS is working - eg if command line do nslookup plex.tv
and launch the server and try the tests from chrome

3

Uploaded the 4 files you asked for in numerical order.

nslookup plex.tv did not work, but pointing through google DNS did. I had my wireless adapter forced through Google DNS for IPv4 (for several months) and just did the same for IPv6, restarted computer, and nothing has changed. DNS is now both set to resolve automatically.

Log 1.txt (465.8 KB)
Logs 3.txt (452.4 KB)
Logs 2.zip (2.2 MB)
Logs 4.zip (2.2 MB)

4

Thanks for the plex web and plex media server logs using the bundled plex web app through http://192.168.86.248:32400/web and the hosted plex web app via https://app.plex.tv/desktop

I can see in both cases it managed to get the list of libraries / a Movies and TV Shows libraries. I would not recommend what you have done - which is to use the same media path of G:\Movies Home for both - you should not mix movies and TV Shows -
see
https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/media-preparation/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200381023-naming-movie-files/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200220687-naming-series-season-based-tv-shows/
(Anyway this is a separate matter)

In your first post you said

Was this referring to playback on Chrome ? I cannot see any evidence of you attempting to playback any media file on Chrome on the desktop

is the issue only to do with the Companion and Casting function ?
Are you referring to the Choose a Player icon and pop up not working?
See https://support.plex.tv/articles/201358253-choose-a-player/

what do you actually see ?

and what works in Plex Web using chrome and what does not?

and is chromecast on the same network 192.168.86.xxx ?

and have you tried with wired ethernet for the server nstead of wifi ?

5

Thanks for the suggestions! Before answering, I have an update:

Although mobile on LAN still doesn’t work (server shows as “offline”), I just randomly tried to open the web player in incognito mode and I can get it both to play in the web player and cast to my TV… though the buffering is quite poor (may just need optimization since everything is back to mostly default).

Was this referring to playback on Chrome ? I cannot see any evidence of you attempting to playback any media file on Chrome on the desktop

Yes, I’ve tried to play back directly in chrome several times… it doesn’t even try to play it, all I immediately get is the error popup in the title of the thread.

is the issue only to do with the Companion and Casting function ? Are you referring to the Choose a Player icon and pop up not working?

No, even just playing a file via web is impossible.

what do you actually see ?
and what works in Plex Web using chrome and what does not?
and is chromecast on the same network 192.168.86.xxx ?
and have you tried with wired ethernet for the server nstead of wifi ?

I click any file to play on the page and get the following box:
image

I can see all movies and tv shows in plex, looks like everything gets indexed correctly (incl. every time I’ve uninstalled or reset everything)

everything is on the same singular LAN via wifi, no mesh

My desktop (server) was on hardwire ethernet as of a couple weeks ago for most of the time I’ve tried to troubleshoot this. It is now on wifi leveraging a USB stick.

6

Thanks - I need to relate that error dialogue box to the logs you provided - impossible question now but I need to know the time that this popped up for the logs 1 to 4 that you provide

7

Hi sa2000.

Sorry for the long delay in reply, life has been hectic :slight_smile:

My hard drive was also pretty clearly in the process of failing, so I got a fresh drive and transferred my files over. I also repeated the first 2 steps - repairing a corrupted database and complete reinstall of Plex - to no avail.

To help comb through the logs, I stopped the server, deleted all existing logs, and restarted and then immediately tried to play several media files, all getting the same error - so what you see in the logs are all events that happened within the prior 30-60 seconds only. I also included the verbose debug text.

I’ve attached 2 copies - one set of logs before I did clean reinstall and one set of logs (incl. verbose) after clean reinstall. Plex logs after reinstall.zip (72.5 KB)
Plex logs.zip (14.3 KB)

I can consistently have the videos play when I’m using chrome incognito, which is why this is so confusing to me.

Appreciate your continued help!

8

I can see logs for 2 different server instances
Nov 5th
Plex Media Server Log 00:18:32 to 00:18:49
and a new server ID
Plex Media Server Log 00:33:37 to 00:34:19

and you say you did a fresh install and copied files across - the C:\Users\Ross Klos\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server ? but you got a new server ID so the registry area is new but old app data

I do not know the implications of migrating the app data with all cached data and not the registry settings across
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/

I can see it used cached data from the AppData area for marking the server as signed in even though it is a new server instance with a new machine id.

If you can access the server, i would suggest signing it out - within settings / server / general and then reclaiming and then rescanning all libraries

If there are still issues please provide fresh logs from web and server as before plus full screenshot of error screen including the time and url - please do not crop

Suggest also you purge the old server entry from your account
Settings / Account / Authorized Devices / filter on server and remove the old one

9

Further to my earlier reply. some of the errors i cannot explain at this point

Plex Web log shows requests like this

 "url": "http://127.0.0.1:32400/playQueues?type=video&extrasPrefixCount=0&uri=library%3A%2F%2Fa58743af-1ec4-4d91-ad91-76cc7efd45ca%2Fitem%2F%252Flibrary%252Fmetadata%252F15&repeat=0&own=1&includeChapters=1&includeGeolocation=1&X-Plex-Product=Plex%20Web&X-Plex-Version=3.69.1&X-Plex-Client-Identifier=x6swll8tf3mghx7r8b7b2qp7&X-Plex-Platform=Chrome&X-Plex-Platform-Version=70.0&X-Plex-Sync-Version=2&X-Plex-Device=Windows&X-Plex-Device-Name=Chrome&X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=1920x938%2C1920x1080&X-Plex-Token=TOKEN&X-Plex-Language=en&X-Plex-Text-Format=plain",

and getting error

"statusText": "error",
    "time": "2018-11-05T05:33:57.926Z"

This was at 00:33:57 but I cannot find that request in the server log. Strange

Could you also get me output of netstat
start an elevated command line window (right click and Run As Administratorand then run this commandnetstat -a -b -n > “%LocalAppData5\netstat_2018-11-06.txt”`
and upload the file

10

sorry for the multiple replies - but the exact sequence is very important to know

Was there a launch of Plex Media Server between 00:18:49 and 00:33:37 - period of time which is not covered by any of the logs you provided. With a new machine identifier i expected need to go through a claim server sequence

11

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