Playback Error Conversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an error

Plex Media Server
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1

Server Version#: 1.21.0.3711
Player Version#: 4.43.4
Server Operating System: Linux Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS
Issue:
When playing a movie from the Roku Plex application or Plex web based client the following error occurs:

Plex web based client error:
Playback Error
Conversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an error.

Plex application on Roku:
Playback Error
Playback has stopped due to multiple playback errors.

First noticed:
This started three updates ago. The movies can be played on PC with any media application and had worked on the Plex until the update. The issue occurs on a majority of the movies, but not all.

Troubleshooting:
Tried moving movies to another medium and mount point and the issue still followed. Verified permissions. Ran the Optimize Database and Clean Bundles in the Troubleshooting areas. Ran updates on the server and restarted multiple times. Checked the /etc/fstab for the lack of exec or the presence of noexec in this thread: SOLUTION: Conversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an error.

Attached are the server logs
(File removed)

2

Thank you for supplying the logs with your OP.

The issue here is that you don’t have the codec needed.

Dec 05, 2020 17:09:32.984 [0x7fdf81ffb700] ERROR - [Transcoder] Unknown decoder 'aac_lc'
Dec 05, 2020 17:09:32.985 [0x7fdf8bfc6700] DEBUG - Jobs: '/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder' exit code for process 2957 is 1 (failure)
Dec 05, 2020 17:09:32.985 [0x7fdf25ffb700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Terminating session 0x7fdf004349a0:i36w89ydsuul5dodiujzde25 which is using transcoder slot.  Used slots is now 0
Dec 05, 2020 17:09:32.985 [0x7fdf0effd700] DEBUG - [Transcode] Using default transcode duration of 120 minutes

That’s different than the not permitted you get from exec/noexec.

I would like you to open a terminal window,
navigate down into the “Codecs” directory under /var/lib/plexmediaserver

  1. Stop Plex.
  2. Remove the directory but not the .device-id file
  3. while there, verify everything is owned by plex:plex (or the username you run it as)
  4. When all is in order, start Plex again
  5. Give it a good minute to get up and running
  6. Now attempt to play the file. Allow extra start time because it will go to Plex.tv and download the codec again.
  7. If it fails again, download and attach those logs please.
3

Thank you for the prompt response ChuckPa.

To confirm, you want me to delete the files in the Codecs folder except the device-id file? After I shut down the service. See below:

root@plex-server:/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Codecs# ls -la

total 20
drwxr-xr-x 4 plex plex 4096 Nov 28 08:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 11 plex plex 4096 Dec 5 20:04 …
drwxr-xr-x 2 plex plex 4096 Nov 28 08:21 7c50c14-3596-linux-x86_64
-rw------- 1 plex plex 36 Dec 23 2018 .device-id
drwxr-xr-x 3 plex plex 4096 Sep 1 05:27 EasyAudioEncoder-798-linux-x86_64

Thanks,
Robert

4

ChuckPa,

That did the trick. Thank you so much! Greatly appreciated, especially on the weekend. I did notice that the EasyAudioEncoder-798-linux-x86_64 directory did not repopulate/rebuild. Do you believe that may have been the issue?

Have a great weekend!
Best regards,
Robert

5

The directory will repopulate when next needed.

All codecs are “Download on Demand”

6

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