MKV & MP4 files won't play, an "Analyze" fixes it, then a week passes, and files won't play again

General Discussions
21

I’m still checking. There isn’t a reason for the XML to change like that.

@superblammo said:
Could the degrading metadata XML files have to do with the weekly analyze cron job running at a time where perhaps the NAS is down? Any other ideas what might be going on?

Possibly. But, if the file is unavailable, it should get ignored. Can you get me the entire PMS log package after the next time you see this issue? Let me know what video you see that changed so I can search for clues as to why it changed.

22

Thanks so much for your help.

Since seeing those XML files, though, I dove into the cron job settings page, and adjusted the time for the Plex media library maintenance jobs. My NAS shuts off every night, and there was an hour overlap between that shutdown, and the period that Plex was allowed to run the tasks, which is why I asked about the network thing.

Since adjusting that job, 4 days ago, the XML files haven’t yet degraded. If/when they do, I’ll get the full PMS log package. But in case they don’t degrade, then it does seem like there’s been some weird network issue.

23

As a small status update, it’s now October 9th, which makes it 8 days since the files last degraded (and I made the change to when the cron job runs). While it’s still probably too early to conclude that the metadata files only degrade when the cron job runs and the network server is unmounted, it does seem more likely than last week. I’ll post another update in a week.

24

It’s now October 16th, and the problematic files have worked since October 1st.

As such, it seems like the metadata XML files for these particular MKVs only “degrade” and lose their video/audio streams if the analyze cron job runs when the NAS server is disconnected. This may still be bug in Plex. But for now I’m going to mark this one as resolved, as it provides a functional workaround. If you find that an MKV file that used to play suddenly stops working, perhaps with a “shaka1001” error, try this:

  1. Make sure the cron job runs at a time when you’re sure the NAS is connected (Settings > Server > Scheduled task)
  2. Re-analize your libraries (Click ellipsis next to library > Analyze)