Plex "downloads" are slowing and now very slow

Player Version#: 1.26.0.1531-92029e9e

When attempting to download shows from a Plex Server using the Window Plex Player, my downloads are now running about 1.5-2.0 Mbps. When I first started downloading shows it was running about 35.0 to 55.0 Mbps. The first few shows downloaded quickly but as I progressed through the downloads, they became slower (10.0-11.0 Mbps) and slower (5.0 Mbps) and now run at 1.5-2.0 Mbps.

I can still stream shows using the same Plex Player from the same Plex Server at “Original” quality at speeds of 10.0+ Mbps, while still seeing downloads of 1.5 Mbps.

I have tried to use a VPN to see if different routes might help, but they did not help.

Plex does not appear to be connecting through a relay either.

Any suggestions or insight? Thanks,

1 Like

The “downloads” are now running at 0.5 Mbps. However, I can still stream from the same server at 14.1 Mbps.

This is very strange.

Hi Kilgry,
I have the same problem too. My solution is to restart the Plex Media Server, and the speed is restored for a couple of hours (so far, between 3-5 hours). Then, it slows down to a crawl again.

I’ve never heard of this. It will slow other things down like transcoder jobs in order if a stream is going on at the same time and it needs the processor but don’t think that affects downloads.

Is this when you are on the same local network as the server computer?

The server I am downloading from is not on the same network, which is why I tried using a VPN to attempt to use different routes to the server. I want to make sure it wasn’t something else causing the problem. However, no matter the route, the result was the same: slow downloads all at the same speed.

The downloads have now become so slow I cannot download any media from the server. The Plex client is now reporting connection failures. BUT, I can still stream media at over 14 Mbps from the same server.

I don’t believe transcoding is impacting the downloads since the download speeds never fluctuate much regardless of the time of day. The downloads were so slow I was downloading for more than 24 hours at a time. The download speeds were very consistent but just became slower and slower over time.

Similar experience. I was able to download a high speeds for about 6-10 hours in total (over two days) and then started to see the slow down beginning.

I don’t have control of the specific server I am downloading from, so I cannot restart the Plex server.

I attached some screenshots of the last 24 hours. As we can see, I restarted the server yesterday night until around 11PM. From there, we can see the download speed decreasing slowly until it’s almost nothing. Then I restarted the server in the morning, which restored the download speed.
Then during the day I had to restart a couple of times because the speed would degrade over time.

Yes, that first set of graphs is very much what I experienced. It was very fast at 50+ Mbps during the first day and then slowed down greatly to about 10 Mbps. Then more gradually about halving everyday or so.

The other piece of data is that I noticed it was based on the individual downloads. If I download a single file/show, it might be getting 5 Mbps but if I started downloading a second file/show it would also download at the same 5 Mbps (for a total of 10 Mbps). This also held true that if I started downloading using multiple client PCs simultaneously from the same single Plex server. Each download would be at the same speed of 5 Mpbs…or whatever the current maximum download speed happened to be per file/show.

Here is the error message I now recieve when attempting to download a show. Again, I can still stream from the same server without issue at original blu ray quality. I can stream this same show that I am attempting to download without a problem too.

do you by chance have the app and server logs from when that happened

I private messaged you the logs.

Bobiolik,

Do you have the app and server logs that Big Wheel is requesting as well?

Hi Kilgry and BigWheel, just to let you know I just sent the logs in private message

Thanks bobiolik. I hope the Plex staff are able to find the cause of this problem.

Hi BigWheel,

Were the provided logs of any use?

Need both the server and player logs covering same event. He only provided server logs. (I mention in the PM) We are looking through them but have not seen anything telling yet.

I do not have access to the server logs from the server I have been downloading from, however I will attempt to recreate the issue with my own server. If so, I will provide the logs from both the client and the server.

Hopefully bobiolik can provide both logs from his setup as well.

Thank you.

I am reposting this private message publicly so others can follow. The private message also included my log files to Big Wheel.

Hi BigWheel,

I’m seeing some very interesting behavior. When connecting to the remote server (the server I do not control) I am seeing 1.7Mbps for one file download and 3.5Mbps for two files being downloaded. Why does the download speed double when another file is downloaded?

My internet connection is a 200Mbps(download)/10Mbps(upload).

I then connected to my local Plex server via the LAN and download a single file, and two files, at 400+ Mbps. I downloaded about 300GBs and saw no change in speed.

I then connected to my local Plex server through a VPN established on the client PC to force my connection to be “remote” to my local Plex server. Downloads dropped to 1.7Mbps for one file download and 3.5Mbps for two files.

I next ran a speedtest while connected to the VPN and saw 130Mbps download and 10Mbps upload speeds, so there was plenty of room for Plex to increase the “remote” download speed to 10Mbps. There was no reason for Plex to be only be sending at a rate of 3.5Mbps.

I then disconnected the VPN and reran the downloads to my local Plex server via the LAN. Speeds went back to 400+Mbps.

Please find the server and client logs attached which were gathered while making connections to my local Plex server.

I just experienced the same behavior. The server I download from must have been restarted to apply Plex server patches. I was able to download at 75+ Mbps and after about 4 hours of downloading, and seeing the downloads become slower and slower, I am now downloading at 13 Mbps and still slowing.

Sorry I don’t have graphs and logs. This is not a server I control.

Server was restarted again and the downloads were speedy again too.

However, this time the download speed slowed much faster. Started at 75+ Mbps and after two hours it was down to less than 10 Mbps.

One possible difference was that I was downloading several smaller episodes of a TV series instead of larger movie files.

Is it possible the download issue is tied to the number of downloads that are completed?