Plex buffering issues (not for all libraries) on Android app / Chromecast / web app, not Windows app

[mikeanthony80]

Server Version#: 1.32.4.7195
Player Version#:
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

This only just started, after everything working flawlessly for months.

In my TV library, a number of files are stuck buffering / with the circling icon at the beginning without ever starting to play. This applies to some newer files loaded into my TV library (some older ones seem to work fine, but even episodes I successfully watched a few weeks ago now do not play), and only on some devices (Android app / Chromecast / web app). The Android app occasionally pops up with “An error occurred while attempting to play this video. Please check your connection and try again” on a handful of episodes now too.

The Windows app appears to play everything perfectly. Everything (old and recently uploaded) in my Films library works perfectly on all apps.

The actual files for these libraries are all on the same Synology NAS.

I’ve tried restarting my Synology NAS, and restarted the Plex server. I also checked the files themselves, and they all play fine using VLC.

These are all set to ‘Direct Play’.

I’m not sure what else to try because it seems a bit random why some files play fine, and some don’t, and randomly across different devices.

Looking online, is the actual fix to just wait for the next server update? Or is there something else I can try in the meantime? Any ideas are welcome at this stage because this is driving me a bit crazy.

[ChuckPa]

It would really help if you can provide the server Debug Logs ZIP file which captures this happening

Would you do that please ?

Without the logs, there’s no way of knowing what’s really happening.
(it might just be the media files itself – VLC can’t be used as a metric here)

[mikeanthony80]

Thanks. I followed the instructions from here: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201611836-plex-web-app-logs/

For the same media file each time, I first successfully played it on the Windows app. Second, in my Chrome browser it was then stuck buffering in the web app. I then tried on my Android app, and this popped up (“An error occurred while attempting to play this video. Please check your connection and try again”). Finally I tried streaming to Chromecast from that same Android app.

Hopefully the txt file contains useful info, but please let me know if there is anything else I can provide. Thanks.

Windows app, Chrome web app, Android app, then Chromecast from Android app.txt (40.8 KB)

[ChuckPa]

I’m sorry, I should have been more explicit.

SERVER debug logs.

You gave me the Web logs

Would you recreate please ?

Server Logs – Settings - Server - Troubleshooting - Download Logs

It will give you a ZIP file.

Attach that ZIP please.

[mikeanthony80]

Sorry about that. Here you go.
Plex Media Server Logs_2023-07-01_21-38-25.zip (3.8 MB)

[ChuckPa]

Your logs are showing me PMS can’t send the data fast enough.

Was your upload maxed here?

Jul 01, 2023 21:16:46.475 [139877361228600] DEBUG - [HttpClient/HCl#38c] HTTP/1.1 (0.0s) 401 response from GET http://192.168.86.21:49153/description27.xml
Jul 01, 2023 21:16:54.155 [139877401975608] DEBUG - Sending data was too slow, timed out.
Jul 01, 2023 21:16:54.155 [139877401975608] DEBUG - Completed after connection close: [82.35.67.173:38692] 200   (13 live) #7797c TLS 16706ms 0 bytes (pipelined: 7)
Jul 01, 2023 21:16:56.635 [139877401975608] DEBUG - Sending data was too slow, timed out.
Jul 01, 2023 21:16:56.635 [139877401975608] DEBUG - Completed after connection close: [82.35.67.173:38888] 200   (12 live) #77961 TLS 19174ms 0 bytes (pipelined: 5)

[mikeanthony80]

I’m not sure why that might be the case, so I restarted the network. I also have ethernet hardwired from the router to the Synology NAS. I have 5 different ethernet cables as backups in case one goes bad, so I also swapped it to another one of the wires.

Playing a media file through the Windows app still works, but that same episode played through the Android app, attempting to stream through Chromecast, or the web player on Chrome (I also tried Firefox this time) results in the same issues (forever buffering, or “An error occurred while attempting…”).

I’m not sure why this only affects some media files and on some players.

Was restarting the internet a possible fix for the maxed upload you were seeing, or should I try something else too?

[ChuckPa]

@mikeanthony80

I run iperf3 (in server mode) on my server .

I then install the iperf3 client on each device I need to test.
I then run upstream and downstream testing.

What I get from this is a pure performance test of the LAN.

The console output looks like this:

[chuck@lizum ~.1999]$ iperf3 -c 192.168.0.20
Connecting to host 192.168.0.20, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.0.13 port 42118 connected to 192.168.0.20 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  1.10 GBytes  9.42 Gbits/sec    0   1.51 MBytes       
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  1.09 GBytes  9.40 Gbits/sec  587   1.38 MBytes       
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  1.09 GBytes  9.41 Gbits/sec    0   1.39 MBytes       
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  1.10 GBytes  9.42 Gbits/sec    0   1.41 MBytes       
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  1.10 GBytes  9.42 Gbits/sec    0   1.47 MBytes       
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  1.10 GBytes  9.41 Gbits/sec    0   1.52 MBytes       
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  1.09 GBytes  9.41 Gbits/sec    0   1.58 MBytes       
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  1.09 GBytes  9.41 Gbits/sec    0   1.59 MBytes       
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  1.07 GBytes  9.16 Gbits/sec  856   1.02 MBytes       
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  1.10 GBytes  9.42 Gbits/sec    0   1.37 MBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  10.9 GBytes  9.39 Gbits/sec  1443             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.04  sec  10.9 GBytes  9.34 Gbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.
[chuck@lizum ~.2000]$ iperf3 -c 192.168.0.20 -R
Connecting to host 192.168.0.20, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.0.20 is sending
[  5] local 192.168.0.13 port 51658 connected to 192.168.0.20 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  1.10 GBytes  9.41 Gbits/sec                  
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  1.10 GBytes  9.41 Gbits/sec                  
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  1.08 GBytes  9.27 Gbits/sec                  
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  1.10 GBytes  9.41 Gbits/sec                  
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  1.10 GBytes  9.42 Gbits/sec                  
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  1.10 GBytes  9.41 Gbits/sec                  
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  1.09 GBytes  9.34 Gbits/sec                  
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  1.06 GBytes  9.12 Gbits/sec                  
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  1.09 GBytes  9.36 Gbits/sec                  
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  1.10 GBytes  9.41 Gbits/sec                  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.04  sec  10.9 GBytes  9.32 Gbits/sec    1             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  10.9 GBytes  9.36 Gbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.
[chuck@lizum ~.2001]$

1. You see the app trying to send with the server momentarily getting a bit behind
   – This is expected on my CPU with all it’s currently doing (E5-2690v4 isn’t the fastest per-thread machine)

2. You next see it sending back to my i7-8809 NUC.

The end result is 9.3 Gbps out of 10 possible.

Iperf3 client apps exist for iOS/tvOS/Android.
You do the same test on them.

IF there is a base network problem, it will show here.

[mikeanthony80]

Thank you for looking into this for me. I looked into your tips here, but then found this (also from you by the looks of it!), which managed to fix it. Thanks.

SOLVED! - Plex gets stuck spinning at 33% with all videos with EAC3 EAC audio (Plex recently stopped playing EAC3)

Thanks for the info and help @ChuckPa! Can you answer a couple questions? #1 Setting the ‘inotify’ table to 65536 would be enough to cover my needs right now, but does setting the ‘inotify’ table to 98304, or 131072, or higher make any difference? (System speed, resources, etc.) My Synology came with 4 GB of memory which I have upgraded to 16 GB, so I’m not worried about memory. #2 Just to be clear, each time DSM updates, I will need to manually run the ‘inotify’ Scheduled Task to increase it…

[ChuckPa]

@mikeanthony80

Are you referring to the method to modify fs.inotify.max_user_watches ?

On Synology, they safeguard it.

Here’s how we do it.

Synology FAQ - Questions, Answers, and a few How-To's

FAQ 16: Increase the number of folders Plex can monitor Applicable to all supported versions of DSM. When the Linux ‘inotify’ table fills up, this will cause when Plex to stop automatically detecting new media you add to the server. It will also manifest when there are transcoder problems with Dolby audio codecs. Linux has a default table size which is static. We can increase this at will. On some versions it’s 8192. On newer kernels, the default is 65536 folders. This is easy to in…

[mikeanthony80]

I did the “Increase he number of folders Plex can monitor” process, which fixed things.

Synology FAQ - Questions, Answers, and a few How-To’s - Plex Media Server / NAS & Devices - Plex Forum

[JoshuaBridges]

Hello

Im looking for the 1.32.4.7195 update of the plex server for Synology dsm7. I wish to downgrade from 7349 to correct current problems with remote access and library access from friends.

Thank you in advance