I’ve had a look through lots of logs but, I’ll be honest, I don’t have the knowledge to know exactly what to look for. No obvious errors as such. There seems to be a mix of transcoder and driver interaction causing hard crashes of either Plex or the computer. There’s also an issue with auto quality control.
To troubleshoot, I’ve found it helpful to isolate your server to local traffic only and kick everyone except yourself on something that can direct play content (check the dashboard to see if direct play is occurring). From here, wait for the crash or, if it doesn’t come, up the ante and play something that needs transcoding, then quality control etc etc. Pinpoint failure times and check logs. Try and find where the stream ended.
What I can recommend is to roll back to 1.16.6.1592 or earlier and set the MovieDB above TVDB in Agents to ensure you get TV artwork. This is where I’m at. I can’t get anything later to stream smoothly, however I recognise this is automatic quality control in my instance. I can’t not use it on my poor outbound connection.
Hey @snickers_1, do you have any logs where you’re streaming locally and the stream fails? I can only see you as a remote client and all the log entries are the same failure:
Feb 19, 2020 01:15:19.163 [0x7fe82e186700] DEBUG - Failed to stream media, client probably disconnected after 278528 bytes: 104 - Connection reset by peer
“me to” reply. Synology Plex server, multiple clients within and outside network on multiple devices. ALL report playing for a while (10-15min) then video and audio freezing, as progress bar continues.
Running latest 1.18.8.2468, though previous version (non-beta) also had same bug. Restarted servers, routers, etc etc, nothing. Running gigabit fibre both ways, gigabit network on a 1019+ server. All direct play. All having this issue.
Plex is on life support until this is figured out.
Searching forums and advice in the Windows server section I ran across the setting for:
“Terminate Sessions Paused for Longer Than”
I had it set for 10minutes… and thinking that MAY have been what was causing the freezing. I’ve deleted entry (set to “0” now), and testing currently. So far no freezing.
I just came across this issue.
While playing a movie from the Plex app on my Nvidia Shield TV Pro, the movie would freeze just after 30mins. I have the “Terminate Sessions Paused For Longer Than” set to 30mins on my server which resides on a windows 10 pc.
So I will delete the 30 and hope that I can go back to watching my movies without interruption, but this problem needs to fixed asap.
The logs are showing these 'Denying access to direct playback errors a couple times a minute, every minute.
Mar 13, 2020 20:16:22.912 [3584] WARN - Denying access to direct play of part 15599 due to terminated session
Mar 13, 2020 20:16:22.912 [12668] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.1.65:38062] 503 GET /library/parts/15599/1583593140/file.mkv?autoAdjustQuality=0&hasMDE=1&location=lan&mediaBufferSize=101376 (7 live) TLS 7ms 290 bytes (range: bytes=3382194053-)
Mar 13, 2020 20:16:26.051 [12672] DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as FQs19
Mar 13, 2020 20:16:26.051 [3584] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.1.65:38064 (Subnet)] GET /library/parts/15599/1583593140/file.mkv?autoAdjustQuality=0&hasMDE=1&location=lan&mediaBufferSize=101376 (7 live) TLS Signed-in Token (FQs19) (range: bytes=3382194053-)
Mar 13, 2020 20:16:26.057 [3584] WARN - Denying access to direct play of part 15599 due to terminated session
Mar 13, 2020 20:16:26.057 [12668] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.1.65:38064] 503 GET /library/parts/15599/1583593140/file.mkv?autoAdjustQuality=0&hasMDE=1&location=lan&mediaBufferSize=101376 (7 live) TLS 6ms 290 bytes (range: bytes=3382194053-)
Mar 13, 2020 20:16:31.413 [12672] DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as FQs19
Mar 13, 2020 20:16:31.414 [3584] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.1.65:37820 (Subnet)] GET /:/timeline?
Me too. Latest server on Windows. Experienced it 4x times in the last 24hrs on two different direct stream clients. I had terminate sessions set to 30m and just removed. Hopefully this workaround fixes it.
Iv been having the exact same issue for nearly a year and its becoming unbearable!
I have tried Different hardware (complete different systems), All of windows 10 updates done, all plex updates done, and nothing has changed over the year. Iv tried the terminate sessions paused - with no difference.
Originally only started on my local network with none of the users connected experiencing this issue, after few weeks random users would experience the freezes and others wouldn’t, this would then change where streams worked fine for them then the others that had no issues would experience this, this is now at the point where all users experience this on local network and via stream. All users are using variety of devices, TV apps, Android apps, Web browser etc… all experiencing same issue.
Have tried different file types on different drives with same issues occurring, no difference made. Some times can get 2 hours into film and it happens, other times get 2mins into film or tv and freezes. Has predominately got worse over time.
Noticed it happens more frequent the higher the quality is set, although still happens regularly in low quality . Another trend iv noticed is everyone that has said something about this issue is a plex pass member,
Tried to add as much to my experience with this issue as possible but also apologise I don’t have much to add either in terms of helping, iv attached my logs to this , I don’t know what I’m looking for but some one might make some use of them
I know there’s the option to revert back to an old version which has been reported to be fine although features are lost, nearly at my witts end with this and tempted to jump ship
I’ll have a look at your logs when I can, but reverting to a previous server version is okay for the feature set at the moment; just don’t go back too far (like 1.16.6 is okay).
Edit:
Mar 15, 2020 14:02:15.602 [8516] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0x9335068:383F0CBA-36A6-45C6-910C-2E8326085B39 with reason Client stopped playback.
Now I notice that playback was stopped after buffering for about 20 seconds - is this what you found? This chromecast is not on your local network, so I’m wondering what your upload speed is? This video was being transcoded to the default 2Mbps limit before being sent out.
Thanks for taking a look, yeah it randomly stops now and then, the chrome cast is not on the local network here. The chromecast location is about 40miles away from the server. The upload speed from the server is 36.2Mbps & the Chromecasts location is 13.06Mbps.
After closing the video and instantly reopening it, the video resumes fine.
Tried on Philips Tv tonight hardwired in, got two different error codes with the same freeze, literally reload video 2seconds later, continues with no issues, not sure if any good to keep providing logs but more than happy to try help provide as much information where I can
+1 for me, going to try downgrading and seeing if that makes a difference.
I’ve found one workaround is to switch from streaming original content, to convert automatically, and switching back and forth to the current time, server and everything else is fine though, very strange.
Sure, it’s a client problem, but for many devices. I have this problem with both the client from Shield TV and from Samsung TV. The server is on the Shield TV. So maybe you don’t need a Shield TV to work on the bug.
I’ve just installed Kodi and the PLEX for Kodi add-on, and now I don’t have any problem(*) with “PLEX inside Kodi”, but it is sub-optimal.
(*) because the random pause problem, there is also random crash problem or some movie can’t be played, both with Shield TV and Samsung TV clients.
+1
Been having this issue for a while now, but only only on web player through chrome. My chromecast (ultra) streams fine.
Plex server is running on Ubuntu 18.04 linux, and downgrading it to 1.15 did solve the issue. I then thought I’d try the most recent upgrade in case it was sorted, but problem is back =/
As an avid Plex user, I must post my findings on this matter that hopefully, it may benefit another.
Short description of issue: Plex randomly pausing on certain devices, mainly web browsers. Occasionally others (chrome cast, Android app, Roku.) By “pausing”, I mean it would simply stop buffering, and would not recover. A page refresh or restart of the movie/show would fix the issue for a time. (20 - 30 minutes usually.)
After so much effort, I found my issue, and perhaps this may help another, or at least point you in the right direction.
My Solution: I was using a free software called “ImDisk Toolkit” for the purpose of creating a RAM disk for the temporary storage and playback of anything that is transcoded. I verified that the drivers for this tool are unstable, and the RAM disk that it created caused ALL issues I was having with playback and server instability. I moved my transcoding directory to one of my SSD drives and just like that, it is fixed.
TL:DR --> Random passes may be caused by where you are saving your transcoded footage. Try a new directory/drive/remove any RAM disk tool you may be using.
For those interested in further information, my setup is as follows:
Current Plex version is up to date - Version 1.19.1.2645
R710 - Windows Server 2016 x64 (Used for plex alongside many other services)
112 GB RAM
2x Intel X5680 @ 3.33GHz
Quadro K2200 - For hardware transcoding
PLEX and transcoding cache running on Enterprise SSD
All media running off USB C external WD Hard drives.
I appear to still be having this issue. I was quick to post out of my excitement from the success I had been having.
I was unable to complete anything from start to finish on a browser without it pausing. Made the changes I described above, and suddenly I was able to finish 5 movies remotely on a browser without fault. Something I have not been able to do for some time. But today… today it’s back. Multiple unrecoverable pauses/hangs trying to just complete one stream. I have read multiple reports that downgrading resolves this issue, so this is my next course of action. Please look into this PLEX, if you are not already.
