# Mac plex client sometimes transcodes **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Players\ **Tags:** player-mac\ **Created:** [January 6, 2025, 11:48am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235 "2025-01-06T11:48:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 11:48am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/1 "2025-01-06T11:48:40Z")
Server Version#: 1.41.3.9314 Player Version#: 1.105.2.269-12a32491 Has anyone else experienced this? I have plex running on another devive in the house (linux, in an LXC container under proxmox with HW transcoding enabled for what it’s worth). plex in general works very well but one of the clients I use is the plex app on my mac. when the app is freshly loaded then it works great and direct plays pretty much anything. however I don’t tend to turn my computer off that often. I just send it to sleep overnight and wake it again the next day. I’ve usually got the mac plex client just left around running. After a while of this, when I play something through the mac client, it stops direct playing, anmd suddenly transcodes down to SD. I don’t know why and quitting out and reloading the client fixes it, but it’s been doing this for ages.. is this something that other people have noticed, is there a setting I can change to fix this? thanks ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/2 "2025-01-10T22:48:11Z")
Is no-one else experiencing this? is it something wierd about my setup? ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2025, 2:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/3 "2025-01-11T14:37:02Z")
> [@fyonn](#): > > in an LXC container Verify if the Mac player is seen as “local” or “remote” during playback. “Remote” can trigger transcoding even if the player could play the original file unchanged. Bandwidth restrictions for remote content require transcoding. Containerization often causes the separation of server and local clients into different subnets. Which causes the clients to be seen as “remote”. [https://support.plex.tv/articles/200871837-status-and-dashboard/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200871837-status-and-dashboard/) ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2025, 11:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/4 "2025-01-11T23:37:39Z")
okay. I’ll wait for the next time it does this and I’ll see what it says. that said, it did this in my previous install which was just running on a synology nas. ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/5 "2025-01-13T13:08:57Z")
okay, so it’s doing it now and it is showing the player as being local. here’s a pic of the dashboard entry: ![SCR-20250113-lsrp](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/9/b/d/9bdac972a836d1d15a7b5636a53abbf93ff9cf63.png) and then if I simply quit the plex application on my mac and immediately rerun it, I get this: ![SCR-20250113-ltbh](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/6/6/d/66d218733f193c7cd712de6ee2b5503cf04f3332.png) no idea what’s causing it… ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 1:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/6 "2025-01-13T13:29:22Z")
You can see that the bandwidth in the first screenshot is restricted to 2 mbps. That is the upper limit for a relayed connection. I can only assume that something in your local network connection is not fully working upon the first start. But somehow this situation is rectified after a while and the client si started a second time. I am not familiar with the peculiarities of Mac OS. I assume that something is interfering immediately after the first start, which makes the player think that your server is not accessible directly. ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 1:43pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/7 "2025-01-13T13:43:17Z")
thanks for your response. the thing is, I’m not waking the mac from sleep and then immediately playing plex. the plex player might have sat there at the menu for 6 hours before I hit play… this afternoon is a classic example. my macbook got woken up hours ago while I was either doing something else, or not even at the keys. plex wasn’t paused or anything, just sat at home screen. Is the bandwidth restricted to 2Mb, or is that just what it’s using? how do I tell if it’s relaying? wouldn’t it show as remote if that were the case? ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/8 "2025-01-13T13:46:06Z")
> [@fyonn](#): > > the thing is, I’m not waking the mac from sleep and then immediately playing plex. The player might have performed a connection test when it was started but something has changed inbetween. Keep also in mind that not only the machine as a whole can sleep, but also single components. Like the network adapter for instance. Some of these will for instance reduce their link speed when idle, in order to save power. ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/9 "2025-01-13T13:57:25Z")
so I guess the question is, do anyone know what I should do to fix it? is anyone else getting this? ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 6:46pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/10 "2025-01-20T18:46:04Z")
anyone got any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/11 "2025-02-28T18:04:21Z")
Just putting it out there that this is still happening. Anyone got any suggestions? I don’t know if it’s a bug in the client or somewhere else but it is annoying… am I alone with this bug? ---
**Author:** ![michael\_766](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@michael\_766](https://forums.plex.tv/u/michael_766)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 7:03am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/12 "2025-03-01T07:03:11Z")
Wouldn’t the connection have a info button to indicate the stream is going through a relay? Try Something Like the following in `Settings > Network`: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/3/4/4/344d0bc051f9776403b52a07b525d5c48cd59b36.png) ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/optimized/4X/1/8/5/185b9963a6b23cbbfd8c1edc279458745916b8b5_2_690x56.png) ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/2/f/4/2f4c9025738eaa0e0d857e79b4e3b335c3a338be.png) ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 12:22am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/13 "2025-03-02T00:22:25Z")
The dashboard gives me no indication of why it’s transcoding, just that it is. Here is an example from right now. the (i) just gives me a tooltip that says "1080p (h264) ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/a/a/a/aaa755b2817c851e5c6ef4010f9d7dc069abd7a4.png) I checked the settings. I didn’t have anything under LAN networks but nothing has seemed to need it before. the “treat wan ip as land bandwidth” button was checked however. I saved the settings but the client is still transcoding. It never happens with any other client, such as my ipad, iphone or appletv. or infuse, though obviously infuse doesn’t transcode anyway. just the mac client. ---
**Author:** ![TheLivingBubba](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/thelivingbubba/32/336226_2.png) [@TheLivingBubba](https://forums.plex.tv/u/TheLivingBubba)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/14 "2025-03-02T00:34:58Z")
What are your quality settings? ```auto Settings -> Plex for Mac -> Quality ``` ![Screenshot 2025-03-01 at 16.32.59](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/c/1/3/c13d1baf5b0201aafc83e60812dac78f0568118b.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/15 "2025-03-02T00:46:04Z")
yup, maximum ---
**Author:** ![pshanew](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/pshanew/32/160555_2.png) [@pshanew](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pshanew)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/16 "2025-03-02T01:15:17Z")
Do you have multiple network connections configured? Perhaps both a wireless and wired connection, both connected at the same time? ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/17 "2025-03-02T15:26:34Z")
What do you mean, on the client or the server? the server has only ethernet. the client has both wifi and ethernet, but often has wifi disabled to ensure that I’m using ethernet. This bug has however happened whether the mac is on wifi only, both wifi and ethernet and ethernet only. ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 12:31pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/18 "2025-03-10T12:31:57Z")
just putting it out there that I’m mostly using infuse on the mac desktop now because of this bug. ---
**Author:** ![elb212](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f04885/32.png) [@elb212](https://forums.plex.tv/u/elb212)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/19 "2025-03-31T19:01:23Z")
I have the same problembut it only seems to do it with 4K DoVi/HDR10 videos. Its annoying. And even when you stop the movie it still continues to Transcode it. Definately a bug. Works great on my Apple TV. ---
**Author:** ![fyonn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@fyonn](https://forums.plex.tv/u/fyonn)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235/20 "2025-03-31T20:54:03Z")
it happens for me when no video is playing. the client is just sitting there. [Next page](https://forums.plex.tv/t/mac-plex-client-sometimes-transcodes/901235.md?page=2)