Server Version#: 1.43.0.10492-121068a07
Player Version#: Multiple (iOS, Android, Samsung Tizen 2017)
Summary
During active hardware transcoding on 1.43.0, transcoded segments are not pruned behind the playback position during playback. Segments accumulate continuously consuming tmpfs far beyond what the throttle buffer and prune buffer settings should allow. Cleanup on stop works correctly — this is a during-playback pruning failure only. This is a confirmed continuation of the bug reported in 1.42 here: Plex Media Server 1.42 – Buffer growth not trimmed during audio transcode
Environment
OS: Debian 13, Docker linuxserver/plex
Hardware: Intel Arc A380, VA-API HW decode + encode
Transcoder temp directory: /transcode on dedicated tmpfs size=42G
Throttle buffer: 60 seconds
Prune buffer: 300 seconds (default)
Test scenario
Source: 4K DoVi/HDR10 HEVC Main 10
Output: 720p HEVC HW transcode
Audio: EAC3 5.1 → OPUS transcode
Client: Plex for Android, remote stream at 3 Mbps
Runtime when observed: ~2 hours into Avatar: Fire and Ash (3h 17m)
Observed behavior
Monitored per-session tmpfs usage with:
docker exec plex find /transcode/Transcode/Sessions/ -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d -exec du -sh {} ;
Result with 3 simultaneous streams active:
108M — stream 1 (1080p HW transcode)
2.7G — stream 2 (4K Avatar — active, confirmed still playing)
291M — stream 3 (1080p HW transcode)
Confirmed segment range on the 2.7G session:
Oldest segment on disk: media-00338.ts
Newest segment: media-02140.ts
Total segments: 1712
Covered duration: ~57 minutes of content not pruned
With a 300s prune buffer (~150 segments at 2s each), only ~150 segments should be retained behind playback position. 1712 segments remaining indicates zero pruning has occurred during the session.
Session grew to 3.1G before playback was manually stopped.
Cleanup on stop
Immediately after stopping playback the session directory was deleted correctly. Usage dropped from 3.1G to zero for that session instantly. Confirms bug is isolated to pruning during playback only.
Versions confirmed affected
1.42.x, 1.43.0.10346, 1.43.0.10389, 1.43.0.10492 — no fix confirmed in any public 1.43.0 changelog.
