Playback Problems on several Android Devices, new player buggy

Plex Players Mobile Devices
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1

Server Version#: 1.18.4.2171
Player Version#: 7.27.0.14844 (d827d062) on Android Tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab S3), Android Phone (Google Pixel 2) and Android TV (NVidia Shield TV 2017)

When trying to play mkv-Videos (which have always worked in the past) I get the following error:

“Playback has stopped because the connection to the Plex Media Server has been lost”

On the Android TV I can get it to work again by setting “Enable new video player” to off. On the Tablet or phone, I can’t seem to find that option, so plex on the mobile devices is absolutely unusable at the moment.

On the Android TV, I have to redisable the new player every 2 days or so. Is there a way to diable the new player permanentely? And mostly, is that bug of the new player known and is something done to fix that?

It seems that there was a similar problem in 2018 (see "Playback has stopped because the connection to the Plex Media Server has been lost"), but I don’t think there is a connection.

3 Likes
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BTW, in Plex Web or using the Plex Plugin for Kodi everything is still working.

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Would you be able to share some logs and a sample that has the issue on the new player? Will take a look and see if i can investigate.

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Does there exist a documentation to get these logs? For starters, I will look into /var/log if I can see anything.

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Oops meant to include a link, steps on grabbing the logs from the Android client are available here: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201573117-android-android-tv-fire-tv-logs/

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Just using the webinterface I found the following error:
Caught exception trying to stream file: /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Metadata/TV Shows/3/cef80c37f2a8df570312cbefcbb473e8119d901.bundle/Contents/_combined/themes/com.plexapp.agents.plexthememusic_2af589cd893f6274e027ae53bb305a0174da0843: write: protocol is shutdown

I will try the link above to get the context, because copying from the web seems problematic.

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Ah but these are the logs on the server, will try the phone also

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Share Debugging Data only gives the following:

Plex for Android Logs (ThSpeck)

Manufacturer: Google
Device: walleye
Model: Pixel 2
Product: walleye
Version: 10

Description of issue:

Link to Plex.tv forum post:

But enabling the network logging and searching for the timeframe of the servererror above, I found something.

plex_android_debugging_pixel2.txt (49.1 KB) plex_android_debugging_pixel2.txt (49.1 KB)

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According to this Plex has already identified the issue related to DNS Rebinding and is working on a solution.

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Ah, so let’s hope for the next serverupdate.

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Hello,

I have opened a ticket for the same issue here ==> The server connection was lost, but no (logs are in this ticket)

Regards,
Maxime

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Plex client version on android : 7.27.0.15018
Plex server version on Synology : 1.18.5.2260-056ab4be9-x86_64

The problem is still present in the last update.

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Hello @sixones, can you do an update please ?
It is extremely frustrating not to have an answer and not to know whether our problem is taken into account or not. Was it identified? is being resolved? Or you don’t care and we have to look for another software?

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I have an Android TV ABOX-A4, it is running Plex client version 7.27.0.15018 (57fc93ee), my server version is 1.18.4.2171. It received an update yesterday and I now have many video files that just present a black screen, the audio still plays but I get a message that Plex is not responding. One file that isn’t playing has the following specs (though there are many others with different specs):

Size 349.62 MB
Audio Profile lc
Container MP4
Web Optimized Yes
Video Profile high

Codec H264
Bitrate 1568 kbps
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Location left
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Coded Height 400
Coded Width 720
Frame Rate 25 fps
Height 400
Level 5.1
Profile high
Ref Frames 3
Stream Identifier 1
Width 720
Display Title SD (H.264)

Codec AAC
Channels 2
Bitrate 128 kbps
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Profile lc
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 2
Display Title Unknown (AAC Stereo)

If I turn off the New Player support all my files play perfectly fine. This problem began with yesterday’s update, I didn’t have any problems before that on Android TV. My Roku works fine, my Fire TV has several problems when the new player is active.

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Yep; but we can’t disable the new player on the Android smartphone application :confused:

2 Likes
16

Since I opened this thread, we got a new Plex App (7.28.0.15196 (7057ab81)) and a new server Version (1.18.5.2309), but all that has changes is the text of the error I get:
“An error occured while attempting to play this video. Please try restarting both the Plex Media Server and this app.”

plex_android_debugging_pixel2_20200203.txt (55.1 KB)

plex_android_pixel2_20200203
plex_android_pixel2_202002031094×457 39.6 KB

I have included a screenshot of the error and the logging from my Pixel 2.

In the meanwhile, the android TV Version still works (albeit I still have to redisable the new player from time to time). The solution would be so easy (allow to disable the new player for good on all devices).

1 Like
17

It’s crazy that we have zero answer when we open a new thread… where is the support team ? You need to fire a lot of your guys !

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Even a message telling us, that the problem is known but we are too bad for the fixed, or we don’t care, would be better than to stay in the waiting…

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In my case, it seems to be a rather specific problem, which I am in contact with an developer about. I think potential solutions will be included in App Updates.

20

Same here, pixel 2 XL app version 7.28, server updated to latest version

1 Like