Plex buffering Issues suddenly

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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1

Hello, I recently started having an issue with Plex over the entire household (3 Rokus). Plex is over the WAN at this point and all are wireless connected to a Ruckus R510 AP. Plex is the only app having issues with buffering at this point.

From a server standpoint I’m running the latest version of Plex 1.13.4.5271 on Ubuntu 16.04. The problem was also present on Plex 1.12. This is served out via a gigabit Internet connection in a datacenter. There are no saturation issues on client or server side. File transfers to and from this server have resulted in no issues. I don’t think it’s a network issue at this point, but I haven’t done a capture to find out definitively. Server side CPUs are barely doing anything with an occasional few spikes while transcoding.

The buffering issue happens quite often, about every 30 seconds to 2 minutes. From my other household, there is no issue. I’m using older Roku 2s in this case, but I can’t really understand why it would have happened in the last month so suddenly unless some software update killed them.

I’m really at a loss why it would start happening. Hopefully someone can help!

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-07-23_14-07-34.zip (1.8 MB)
Much thanks, Ian.

1 Like
2

Can you please do the following:

  1. Turn off VERBOSE logging
  2. Enable DEBUG logging
  3. Start Playback and let it run until it occurs twice
  4. Stop Playback
  5. Wait 30 seconds for everything to terminate, stabilize and get in the logs
  6. Settings - Server - Help - Download Logs
  7. Attach the ZIP file it gives you
  8. Hover over the item you played -> Get Info -> View XML
  9. Attach the media info portion (ignore the actor / genre / other issue)
3

I also have the same exact issue as OP, @ChuckPa

(1Gbps, hosted in DC, running Ubuntu 16.04.4, buffers every few minutes, sometimes buffers at 20 mins)

Friends and family from all over the US are having issues with random buffering with a myriad of different clients. Here is my debug log and the attached media info from the latest playback.

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionUUID="02b30504-9546-4823-829c-f98779157e1c" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1531970632">
<Video ratingKey="9762" key="/library/metadata/9762" parentRatingKey="9760" grandparentRatingKey="9759" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://70533/3/9?lang=en" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/2" type="episode" title="The Return, Part 9" titleSort="Return, Part 9" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/9759" parentKey="/library/metadata/9760" grandparentTitle="Twin Peaks" parentTitle="Season 3" contentRating="TV-MA" summary=""This is the chair."
 
 More about Dougie Jones comes to light after an attempt on his life. Meanwhile, Gordon Cole discovers connections to Cooper concerning a Blue Rose case and Major Garland Briggs." index="9" parentIndex="3" rating="8.1" viewOffset="1804382" lastViewedAt="1532461005" year="2017" thumb="/library/metadata/9762/thumb/1528149683" art="/library/metadata/9759/art/1528149638" parentThumb="/library/metadata/9760/thumb/1528149637" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/9759/thumb/1528149638" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/9759/art/1528149638" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/9759/theme/1528149638" duration="3498829" originallyAvailableAt="2017-07-09" addedAt="1528149061" updatedAt="1528149683">
<Media videoResolution="1080" id="226793" duration="3498829" bitrate="13051" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="eac3" videoCodec="h264" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="226890" key="/library/parts/226890/1528149460/file.mkv" duration="3498829" file="/home/gpunk/torrents/TV/Twin.Peaks/Twin.Peaks.S03.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-NTb/Twin.Peaks.S03E09.The.Return.Part.9.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-NTb.mkv" size="5708056918" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="2" requiredBandwidths="15340,15060,14786,14535,14308,14204,14204,14204" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="460098" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="12411" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="4" requiredBandwidths="14700,14420,14145,13895,13668,13566,13566,13566" scanType="progressive" width="1920" displayTitle="Unknown (H.264 High)"/>
<Stream id="460099" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="eac3" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="640" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" requiredBandwidths="640,640,640,640,640,640,640,640" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="English (EAC3 5.1(side))"/>
<Stream id="460100" streamType="3" selected="1" codec="srt" index="2" bitrate="0" language="English" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" displayTitle="English (SRT)"/>
</Part>
</Media>

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-07-24_21-26-49.zip (2.5 MB)

4

I’ve been chatting with the app guys.

Some of the player apps mandate subtitles be burned.

“Just for grins”, give it something without subtitles in it, even if you need a temporary remux which strips the SRT out of it.

If that doesn’t fail,

  1. Make 100% certain the PLAYER isn’t forcing burning in the settingi
  2. Make 100% certain your Server is Remote Access connected (so you aren’t being FORCED to transcode down to 2 Mbps).
  3. Make certain you don’t have an upload bandwidth limit imposed :smiley:
5

In my case, no subtitles whatsoever. It was the same whether the files are direct stream, transcoded, subtitles or no subtitles. I have the remote stream set at unlimited speed. Speedtests from the client standpoint are 65Mbps. Speedtest from the DC are 900/900 or so. Server shows remote access is available and I port forwarded through the firewall which is a Cisco ASA running 9.8.2.

I’ve been rebuilding the server just to make sure it’s not something weird going on with the server, and it downloaded at 98MBps. Less than a second to download the package.

6

99% of my content has subtitles. I did change the subtitles settings from forcing it to burn.

I’m 100% on remote access and playing everything at Original or Maximum quality.

No settings have changed other than me updating PMS on my server (which then has started to cause these buffering problems)

Here is the debug log from one of my clients (AppleTV) with subtitles turned on, but not being burnt.

Also included new server logs as well.

All videos are in Direct Stream

ATVlogging.zip (436.2 KB)
Plex Media (2.9 MB)

7

Also when one stream buffers, it makes the other streams buffer too. Exactly at the same time.

8

@guerillapunk
@sirianthe3rd

I know everyone thinks of their download speed. That’s not the constraint. UPLOAD is the constraint.

Because it’s a TCP connection, the packet latency from server to player is just as important.

Do either of you know of / can use iperf3 ?

It is the definitive performance test from point A <-> B

The program is combined client & server in one executable.

In server mode, it sits and waits.

In client mode: iperf3 -c ip.addr.of.server tests one direction. Add the -R to test the reverse direction.
Last piece of that puzzle is ‘tracert / traceroute’ (depends on OS) from endpoint to endpoint.

Somewhere, something is being sluggish and slow because the Server logs have PLENTY of CPU power. This is entirely a data-transmission problem somewhere. Question is: Where ?

9

Server is being hosted at a datacenter.

1  192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)  2.046 ms  1.383 ms  1.040 ms
 2  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (xxxxxxxxxxx)  5.964 ms  1.940 ms  1.746 ms
 3  172.22.128.145 (172.22.128.145)  3.665 ms  5.591 ms  4.440 ms
 4  172.21.1.1 (172.21.1.1)  3.438 ms  4.359 ms  4.758 ms
 5  204.154.217.8 (204.154.217.8)  3.651 ms  17.405 ms  12.744 ms
 6  204.154.217.245 (204.154.217.245)  14.059 ms  17.398 ms  14.700 ms
 7  204.154.217.196 (204.154.217.196)  12.824 ms  3.127 ms  2.869 ms
 8  sjo-b21-link.telia.net (80.239.192.72)  7.648 ms  13.127 ms  7.246 ms
 9  cloudflare-ic-328258-sjo-b21.c.telia.net (62.115.61.151)  7.601 ms  7.874 ms  7.461 ms
10  104.28.12.173 (104.28.12.173)  6.828 ms  6.907 ms  7.144 ms

iperf3 won’t really work for me since I’m using Cloudflare as a reverse proxy to get better peering from my server.

I don’t know how to use it, but looking at it, I have to somehow bind it to nginx that’s tunneling my Plex traffic through port 443 but iperf3 says permission denied

When I try to run it as sudo I get the error Address already in use

Again, never had any issues up until recently.

Here is a picture of two different clients, playing two different files, buffering at the same time. If I press Play on the AppleTV, it will start to play on both clients. And then buffer again, rinse and repeat.

10

I had my OS drive fail and had to reload my OS. Before the reload I had a notice of the new Plex version but hadn’t gotten around to updating it.
I cannot remember the last time I had buffering on my LAN but now I get it all the time. I assumed this was just an issue with my machine and needed to tweak in my settings.

11

@guerillapunk

Not to speak ill of proxies buy they are a bag of hurt looking for a place to happen.

Direct Remote Access isn’t possible because of that proxy. The proxy is a mandatory insulation layer (as bad as a layer of NAT)

I’m sorry to say this but, because there are so many ways to configure one with just as many ways to misconfigure one and no official way to configure a proxy for Plex, the best I can suggest is to go out to google and find a configuration which has done what you want.

If you want to use your proxy for everything except PMS, that’s fine. Just “punch a hole” to allow plex.tv Direct, Unfettered connection inbound and it will then avoid the Relay. Your server must pass the ‘reachability test’. That’s what a proxy blocks

12

@ChuckPa

Again, it worked perfectly with no changes to configurations (except for updates to PMS)

The proxy is solely for Plex. See this guide for more info on how it was configured.

The server is reachable via the Custom server access URLs under Network

13

Let’s take the other method:

What happens if you back down to the previous version of PMS? Everything ok then?

I think I understand what the proxy is doing. I admit I have minimal use and understanding of them because my upload here (rural) is 1.5 Mbps and streaming is not an option.

1 Like
14

Are there downloads for this? I found a file hosting site that has them… But, that is a little sketchy.

15

You don’t keep your previous version?

If you don’t, I’ll suggest you always keep the last version or two handy. It’s an unfortunate policy of not having previous versions available but I do understand why they can’t offer the previous ones.

Which one do you need?

16

@ChuckPa

[…] because my upload here (rural) is 1.5 Mbps and streaming is not an option.

RIP

That sucks man, but yeah, the proxy basically lowers the amount of hops from the client to server, to ensure maximum speed. With the Cloudflare reverse proxy, I’m only 10 hops away from my server vs 18.

Are there downloads for this? I found a file hosting site that has them… But, that is a little sketchy.

Same. Looking for previous versions too

If you don’t, I’ll suggest you always keep the last version or two handy. It’s an unfortunate policy of not having previous versions available but I do understand why they can’t offer the previous ones.

Never had an issue and thought previous versions were available on the site :frowning:

Which one do you need?

1.13.2.5154 is what I would like to revert back to

17

I did, but they were on my OS drive that died (whoops).
1.13.2.5154 is the last version correct?

18

@codenomics

1.13.4.5271

19

BTW I did iperf3

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec   436 KBytes  3.57 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  2.50 MBytes  21.0 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  3.13 MBytes  26.2 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  3.17 MBytes  26.6 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  3.29 MBytes  27.6 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  3.29 MBytes  27.6 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  3.52 MBytes  29.5 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  3.50 MBytes  29.4 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  3.50 MBytes  29.4 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  3.22 MBytes  27.0 Mbits/sec                  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  29.6 MBytes  24.8 Mbits/sec                  sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  29.1 MBytes  24.4 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.
xxxxxxxxx:~ xxxxxx$ iperf3 -c xxxxxxxxxxxx -R
Connecting to host xxxxxxxxx, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host xxxxxxxxis sending
[  5] local 192.168.1.112 port 61265 connected to xxxxxxxxx port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec   808 KBytes  6.60 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  4.29 MBytes  36.1 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  5.99 MBytes  50.2 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  5.51 MBytes  46.1 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  3.37 MBytes  28.3 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  3.01 MBytes  25.2 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  3.93 MBytes  33.0 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  2.79 MBytes  23.5 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  3.59 MBytes  30.1 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  3.57 MBytes  29.9 Mbits/sec                  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  45.0 MBytes  37.7 Mbits/sec  1095             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  36.8 MBytes  30.9 Mbits/sec                  receiver

This is the raw routing between my server and client. With Cloudflare, I get 100Mbit/s

20

I think I’m having the same issue here: Remote playback extreme buffering all of a sudden on Ubuntu

My current suspicion may be throttling by the ISP but that is because in the thread both the other guy and I have Comcast. Do you guys by any chance also have Comcast? Just wanna rule out any ISP throttling, because my issues seemed to arise overnight.