Plex Desktop App – Audio Playback Fails for Home Admin Account on Specific File

Plex Players Desktop Players
1

Server Version#:1.41.9.9961
Player Version#:1.110.0.351-4e48eb83
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

Environment:

  • Plex Desktop App version: 1.110.0.351-4e48eb83

  • OS: Windows 11 Pro (fully updated)

  • Audio Device: SteelSeries Sonar – Gaming (Virtual Audio Device), Tried switching to all attached audio devices, analog, usb headset, sound bar and monitor

  • Plex Accounts:

    • krazot (Home Admin – affected)

    • family (non-admin – unaffected)

  • Same Windows login, same Plex app instance, same file, same output device

Issue: When logged into the account (Home Admin), Plex Desktop App fails to play audio for Die Hard 3 Alien Earth Episode 4 and others. The same file plays with full audio when using the family account on the same system. Plex Web and Plex Android both play the file correctly under the krazot account. This confirms the issue is isolated to the Plex Desktop App and specific to the krazot account. These files only have the one audio track

Troubleshooting Already Performed:

  • Purged %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex\ completely

  • Rebooted system

  • Ran CCleaner to clear residuals

  • Reinstalled Plex Desktop App from official source

  • Verified output device functionality across other apps

  • Confirmed no alternate audio tracks exist in the file

  • Compared every playback and audio setting between krazot and family accounts—they are identical

  • Verified that both accounts use the same Windows login and Plex app instance

  • Confirmed that audio works on Plex Web and Plex Android for the krazot account

Log Evidence:

Code

ERROR - [MPVEngine/mpv] ffmpeg/audio: eac3_mf: could not set output type (MF_E_INVALIDMEDIATYPE)
ERROR - [MPVEngine/mpv] ad: Could not open codec.
ERROR - [MPVEngine/mpv] ffmpeg/audio: eac3_eae: EAE watchfolder is not writable
ERROR - [MPVEngine/mpv] ad: Failed to initialize a decoder for codec 'eac3'.
INFO - [MPVEngine/mpv] cplayer: Audio: no audio

Conclusion: This is a reproducible, account-specific playback failure in Plex Desktop App. The app fails to decode EAC3 audio for the krazot account, while succeeding for the family account under identical conditions. The fallback decoder fails due to a write access issue, but only for one account.

PlexPlayerLogs.zip (71.4 KB)

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-08-30_16-10-55.zip (5.4 MB)

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