Plex auto-play isn't working properly

Plex Players Mobile Devices
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1

I’m on Plex Version 1.41.5.9522.

I thought I had found the solution but yet again my one and only movie playing, nothing else in queue, and auto-start disabled, played repeatedly until my iPad ran out of battery. This has only been recent behavior and I can’t for the life of me, figure it out.

Does anyone have a solution? I wonder about updating to the latest version but this happened since my last update a few weeks ago, meaning I updated it and then maybe 10-14 days later it started behaving like this.

I should be able to start a movie or TV series and use auto-play disabling to prevent these from repeating. I’d sure appreciate the feedback.

(Below in italics is saved by me to keep track of what I’ve done)

*The solution to my post below that I discovered (I believe) is that, somehow, my settings on my desktop of Plex had changed. I tracked down something as I continued to work on this and it talked about Play Queue so I googled where to find that. I noticed also that when I clicked settings for a movie or TV episode, the Auto-Play was checked on Playback settings. I unchecked that and then played several movies from various folders as well as TV series and the Up Next did show what might be up next for a TV series but it would not automatically start playing whereas before it would countdown about 10 seconds or so and start playing it. Movies behaved the same way. I then tested on my iPad and iPhone and got similar results where it didn’t start playing the next item (even though I didn’t create a queue for movies or TV series outside playing an episode). *

There are no settings I can find on the Plex app on my iPhone or iPad device that allows me to do anything other than disabling/enabling auto-play (which I had off - and which is what was driving me crazy because it only started continuing to play through the night and left me with a dead iPad battery). So with the google searches and just examining the various things, I stumbled onto the solution. If someone can point me to find Up Next and Play Queue on the iphone and ipad for Plex app, please let me know.

I’ll try this tonight but I’m pretty sure I solved the dilemma.

Here is my original post.

I like movies or TV series to not play the next item after completion. I have auto-play disabled on my iPad and iPhone. Up until the past couple of weeks or so, when I started a movie and it ends, no further playback happens. That is how I want the behavior to be. Instead it will continue playing the next selection. This morning my iPad battery was dead because it had played all night even though this is disabled.
This seems to be isolated to those devices but I can’t say for certain because when I’m watching something in my media room for example on either Roku or Apple, I’ll pick something else to play so auto-play is not really engaged.
I’ve tried enabling auto-play just to see but it won’t make any difference. I’ve disabled it again but still the same behavior. I’ve turned off my iPad for example and then restarted with auto-play being disabled but it still will start the next video after the one I started with ends.
I have not updated Plex but could obviously. I first want to determine if this is a known issue and wondering why the behavior is happening. The last Plex update was about 3 weeks ago so perhaps that’s when this started.
Thank you.

2

What version is the iOS app you are using? I also don’t care for auto-play and understand the frustration that could cause. I recall seeing that behavior with downloads in a testflight but thought it was fixed before release. I cannot reproduce currently but I may be missing some aspect of it.

3

For iOS I’m still on 17.6.1 for both iPhone and iPad. Is that the information you’re asking about?

4

I mean the version of the Plex app on your iPad/iPhone. In settings in the app it should be in the About menu.

On your iOS devices when it does repeat does it even get to the post play screen? or just immediately start the same file from the beginning as soon as it ends?

5

I thought you might have meant the Plex app itself. Sorry about that.

Client version is 2025.15.0 (105.3)
Platform 17.6.1
Device model - iPad12,1

Is that all you need?

During testing as I described, on the iPad when I scroll to near the end of the movie and it completes playback, it shows “Just Played”, with the name of the movie I tested. I can click X to go back to the library of my movies but for some unexplained reason, when I drift off to a movie and wake up in the morning, my battery is dead.

I tested on my desktop and it just goes back to the main library screen after it finishes.

I’m just perplexed as to why this started happening in the past 10-14 days at the most. I’ve always used my iPad in this manner. As I type, the Just Played movie is still sitting there for me to take whatever action I want. It is NOT repeating playback so why does this happen at night? Is there some other setting that could be causing this with a movie or perhaps certain movies? Could it be from my Watchlist of movies which is generally where I grab a movie to drift off to? I don’t think so as I just tested a movie from there and the same thing happens where Just Played shows the name of the movie and doesn’t play anything else.

I have noticed when playing back a movie and going to settings/playback options, there’s the Sleep Timer which is set to off. I’ve never adjusted this before but I did test that as well. I shouldn’t have to set that every time I watch a movie should I? I never did before as I said.

Perhaps unrelated, or maybe related, the screen size of movies seems to have changed. It depends on the movie but I have to sometimes go to settings and either choose Letterbox or something to get the screen to be normal as it was until very recently.

I’m a huge fan of Plex but am sure perplexed. I really appreciate the help.

6

Did I provide the info you needed?

I noticed last night, once again, that the video was still playing and woke me around 2am. I noticed the playback was about a third of the way through for the same movie I started playing at bedtime meaning it repeated playback. I closed the cover to my iPad and it kept playing (which it shouldn’t). I then opened it again and the movie started itself again, only this time it restarted from the beginning. Here’s a capture showing the play history. It doesn’t show that it started earlier at bedtime.

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image1000×109 23.5 KB

Something is very odd given I’ve started movies to play as I fall asleep and once they finish, Plex is done and I wake in the morning with a battery that’s still got a lot of power left. That behavior was fine for the whole time I’ve used Plex but only in the past nearly two weeks has it behaved like this.

I’d sure appreciate the reply to try and solve this. I could/would update Plex but I should first see what happened. I’m attaching the logs, hopefully that will help.
Plex Media Server Logs_2025-05-23_15-20-54.zip (4.1 MB)

Thank you.

7

Thanks you for the server logs. I can show those to the devs. Can you please grab the mobile app logs from the ipad itself as well.

You are a version behind on the iOS app. 2025.16 is the current. I would update and see if it still happens. I missed the bit where you said you were playing from watchlist which i had not tried before. I will try to reproduce that way.

8

Thank you for your reply. I think I got the right logs for you. I went to the Plex app on my iPad. Then settings / about and download logs.

I would like to see what you find after looking at the logs and testing on the watchlist before I update Plex.

I will try to use a movie that I don’t have on my Watchlist tonight and see if that changes the behavior.

Thank you!
log-2025-05-23T22_56_46.361Z.zip (1.3 MB)

9

Do you mean the iPhone iOS itself or the Plex software itself? Sorry. I just want to make sure.
My plan very soon is to finally update to version 18 xxx of the iOS but am trying to get all my photos and videos fine-tuned first as the blow-back from the Photos portion of this major update has been loud. I’d like to minimize the transition ahead of time.

Thanks.

10

I mean of the Plex app on your iPad not he ipad itself.

If you are already on version 2025.15 then you don’t have photos in the iOS app. That is what others are complaining about that the new app does not support photos which you already have.

I am also reviewing another bug report I just found that may be similar but it appears to that report seems to be about it randomly restarting before the video has finished.

I also wanted to confirm since i am a bit confused on this part. You have not actually seen playback repeat itself. it has only happened after you have fallen asleep or otherwise not looking at the iPad correct?

11

Sorry for confusion. I just updated my Plex app on my iPad. I went from 2025.15.0 (1053) to 2026.16.0 (1068). So I’m on the latest there. I then updated Plex app on my iPhone as well and have the same updated version. I was confused as to the iOS you were referring to.

Would you suggest I update the Plex desktop version which is installed on my Synology NAS or wait until you further investigate? That would be my preference.

As for the Photos blow-back I was referring to Apple iOS from 17xxx to the 18xxx version and not Photos in Plex.

On my iPhone I have Plex, PlexAmp and Plex Photos apps. I also have Plex Dash app. On my iPad, I have Plex, PlexAmp and Plex Dash. I also just added Plex Photos to my iPad.

You mentioned seeing a report about randomly restarting before the video has finished. That sounds quite similar to what I experienced for the first time last night. Keep in mind that this could have been happening all along and I never noticed because I was asleep until morning when the battery had drained. It was only upon being awakened by the movie a bit after 2 am that I noticed the things I mentioned earlier today. I had said the video had restarted (but maybe it did so before it ended?), and also that when I was trying to stop playback, it went back to the beginning of the same movie. Odd behavior. So the only playback repeat I saw was last night as I said - and that was just a random blur as I was deep asleep before being awakened.

What’s interesting is that in my testing on my desktop, if I started a movie and then zipped to the end, it would end playback and not restart. The same thing happened on my iPad. But perhaps there’s a difference behavior happening where the video isn’t playing “naturally” so to speak (from the start through the entire movie)?

I hope I provided more insight. I deeply appreciate the feedback and look forward to hearing back from you.

Thanks again!

12

I don’t think that would matter in this case. You can stay on the older version if that makes you comfortable.

OK. I don’t use Apple’s Photos app so wasn’t aware of that.

The reports in the bug report seem to all happen at various times but all happen randomly so it has been hard to pin down. One user mentioned it was happening when the network changed like from going from wifi to cellular or if they loose network connection for a moment. one person said it if they had partially watched a movie then later resumed it would randomly restart at the point they resumed. they may all be related to the same underlying issue but it is just a weird one.

13

I started a movie on my iPad 15 minutes ago and am letting it play through to see what happens. I picked a short movie so it will be done by 9:30. I’ll update you on that.

What I such a conundrum to me is why this just started happening in the past 10-14 days. It never has behaved like this before and I most always use movies from my watchlist. So why now? Hmmm. I may have updated Plex from the Apple Store as part of my usual app updating but can’t remember for certain. (My watchlist is basically my Snooze folder, movies that I can drift off to).

Could there be a setting I’m missing on Plex? Or even my iPad itself?

Unrelated but do you know why only a couple of the near 100 movies in my Watch List don’t have any movie poster showing? There’s a poster in the main library folder, and I even have a “poster.jpg” for the couple of movies in question just so Plex will leave it alone.

No big deal, I just thought I would ask.

14

not that I can think of

Watchlist is displayed from Plex.tv not your library directly. Things can be added from say our own streaming service or movies that are not even released yet. We might not have the poster ourselves to display because someone that owns the copyright to the artwork asked us to take it down. We do not display the poster from your server because if we saved the poster from your server to plex.tv we could glean what is on your server which is a privacy issue.

15

Here’s the update:

I let the music play until the very end on my iPad. It faded to black after all the credits ended and then it showed the Just Played screen for two seconds, then it refreshed the screen and the same exact movie started over.
I actually was screen recording the playback so I have it happening in real time.

I’m not sure this gets through but here is the video from my Dropbox. I tried converting it to MP4 and am pasting that below (as the .mov apparently didn’t work?)

There’s 100% proof and certainty that there must be a bug in Plex, or some Plex setting not uncovered yet or even perhaps within my Apple iOS settings. I did not touch my iPad screen in any way while this movie starting replaying a couple seconds after showing Just Played.

I don’t have repeat set up, not even sure where to do that.

Would another copy of the logs from Plex on my iPad help?

I’m anxious to hear back to see what you discover.

I tried uploading the video but it’s not allowed?

How can I provide this example to show, in real-time, what is happening?

And the movie from my watchlist as that’s my usual behavior so it seemed logical to do that.

I just played an episode from a TV series folder (not watchlist) and after it ended, the Just Played showed as well as Up Next but it didn’t start playing. So maybe it is related to the Watchlist as you mentioned.

Tomorrow I will try playing a movie from a folder other than Watchlist and see how it comes out. In fact, I’ll do it tonight as well.

Thanks

16

I had the movie keep repeating last night as I happened to wake again in the middle of the night with the same movie playing. I stopped it and fell back to sleep.

This morning I started a new, different movie from my main Movies folder (not the Watchlist) and had it play from the very start. I again recorded the screen at the end with the credits rolling. It completed playing and the Just Played posted for barely a second, maybe two, and then it started playing once again. I can provide that video as well if you’ll tell me how to send it or post it here.

So this issue isn’t just with the Watchlist.

I hope you can get it figured out because it is a very recent issue. Again, I’ve done the same behavior every night for a good couple of years it never used to do this.

Thanks!

17

I know we had the Memorial Day long weekend but I was hoping that maybe you had some further information for me? I was unable to upload videos or add a dropbox link showing how it’s behaving. If you have a way for me to send or upload, please advise.

In futher usage, it seems that TV series don’t repeat - likely because there are multiple episodes. In other words…

A Movie I play is the only video file, nothing in queue. When Just Played comes up at the end, a second or two at most passes and then the same movie repeats.
A TV episode I play ends and Just Played shows, and on the right of it, Up Next shows with the episode listed, but it doesn’t start playing unless I activate it.

So again, single video files appear to be what repeats - nothing in queue either obviously, while TV episodes behave as described above.

18

The report shows that the dev thinks they fixed the issue and it is in QA testing at the moment. I don’t want to promise an exact time frame because things happen but I would guess about a week or so for it to be released to public.

19

This one has me super frustrated as well - no matter what movie I play, I wake up at 3 or 4 am and it’s on the second or third iteration of the film… there’s no “repeat” settings present in the UI, and I have no auto-play or watch next list set up… I appreciate the hard work, but we can’t be the only two people complaining about this.

20

You aren’t. It was just described differently so it took me a bit to realize what was going on. It isn’t related to the autoplay feature at all. The bug report existed before this topic was started.